How to hand quilt feathers?

[Juliet W.]

I have my feathers all drawn out on my quilt top and asked my friend who is an expert how to actually stitch them, the only thing I can remember is that she said you DO go all along the spine first. My design has a central spine but then what happens? My friend has gone away for two weeks and I want to start now . Have looked for a stitching diagram on the Internet without success, it always seems to be about machine quilting. I was impressed by her method because she was going underneath and not always twisting around - herself, the feathers or the quilt! Perhaps I should just start and work it out for myself but am hoping someone out there might see this and send me a diagram so I can get on and SEW!

[Rita C.]

Here are a couple that might be of interest. The first is Alex from the classroom here on TQS and the second is Sharon Shambers. On the Sharon Shambers one you would be wise to spool forward to about 10 minutes in to see how she does a feather. Hope that helps.

learn/classrooms/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDcLMiR2SAo

[Juliet W.]

Great thanks very much. Before I posted my question I searched for Feathers on the forum but without success, so did you just know about those shows or is there a search place in the Shows as well?

[Rita C.]

I had watched Alex's classroom videos on hand quilting some time ago. The Sharon Shambers one I had also come across on youtube some time ago. I remembered them both so that was handy. I hope they help.

[Susan B.]

Sharon's link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDcLMiR2SAo

[Margo C.]

Margarita, the search function is minimally helpful when looking for stuff on the site, but it's sometimes worth a shot.

Start on the Daily Blog page and select the SEARCH function in the upper right of the screen.



From the next screen enter your topic in the text box and select SHOWS if that is what you are looking for.



There are other options for you to choose from.

Hope that helps.

[Juliet W.]

Hi Margo and Thanks, lovely clear instructions - too cool! It's always worth a shot, the Internet search was really disappointing. My friend just showed me how quickly without a diagram unfortunately so I am stop/starting Youtube to make my own and then I'll watch Alex. I have her Handquilting book but a quick look didn't turn up feathers. You can get them on machine quilting like crazy. I have been around my yellow rectangles on the machine, just stitching in the ditch but I find on a home machine this is very hard work and not at all relaxing. True, my machine is not level with the table but I raised the chair to the max. still I find myself hunching my shoulders, I have to remember to drop them. Is this common? I suspect it is or else I am weird, I just can't figure out why I do it.

[Margo C.]

LOL!! You are not weird! Hunched shoulders get better with the relaxation that comes from LOTS of practice.

[Juliet W.]

Aha! but I read somewhere that you are in fact the representative or demonstrator for a certain longarm machine - I'm not being discreet just tired, I can't remember which one (it's getting late here in Venezuela) I remember thinking if I lived near Margo that's the machine I would like because Margo would show me how to use it. Stuffing a queen size quilt into a 6 1/2 inch throat space is a nightmare. However my quilty friends here are so against machine quilting that I wanted to try it. I like it for laying down boring lines that would take forever by hand, and machining down applique seems pretty sensible to me too - I really like the idea of combining the two for speed and because I can SO see the difference between hand and machine quilting, not to mention of course that I could afford a long arm machine in my next life. Paying for one and getting it down here, I don't think so!! :lol:

[Rita C.]

When I first started to quilt on the sewing machine I thought that my ears were going to be permanently attached to my shoulders I hunched so much. A small harp space does make it harder to do but not impossible. Do you have an extension table for your machine Juliet? - usually they are made of plexiglass and about 18" x 22". I found that made a big difference too.

[Margo C.]

Here is a link to extension tables that Rita mentioned. They are not as good as setting the machine down in a cabinet, but are much better than working on a machine with no support around the needle.

http://www.allbrands.com/products/35...-portable-clea

[Juliet W.]

I do have an extension table, specially made for me by my carpenter/furniture designer friend who also made the wooden slats for the tunnels at the top and bottom of my design wall, plus he put it up for me with large hooks. The table is made of wood and not quite large enough, we designed it together without checking out the dimensions of one online - no excuse for me as I knew they existed. Giles made it very professionally with dovetail joints so that when it expanded recently with the humidity instead of splitting I just had to take it to him with my machine and get it shaved to fit again, pretty cool. Kick myself when I think about the size though. Thanking you again Margo, this time for the beautiful link. Going straight to the item is so wonderful, no digging around in websites, the next time I travel to the USA I may bring one of those puppies back with me! The price is nice too, I looked at one in a Pfaff shop years ago and it was over $100.
Margo, I took to heart someone's suggestion to not do a linear quilting design in my quilt blocks and am seriously considering clamshells but sticking with the feathers in the long yellow rectangles. I am now going to search for clamshell instructions but you may see me back on the forum with a new post!

[Margo C.]

Margarita, clamshells would probably be easy to do by hand! You can use a stencil or mark chalk guidelines.

http://quiltingstencils.com/search.a...nd=clam+shells

[Juliet W.]

Margo in your opinion and vast experience please freely tell me! I am crashing here with multiple choice syndrome. This is for the "How Would You Hand Quilt this?" post. I won't be able to get a clamshell stencil in time but am very willing to find the right size jam jar or even make a thin MDF stencil (I've done it before). Would it be better to have a curvy quilting design, I think it probably would but I really don't KNOW!! I also begin to think the work of the concentric squares and rectangles would be lost on my fabric, they might be lovely in contrasting thread on plain fabric though. I am though definitely sticking with the feathers. My other alternative would be cross-hatched wavy lines and I have a stencil for the wavy line which I used in another quilt. Here's the photo of the wavy lines for which I have a stencil, as you can see the lines are much wider than the serpentine thing on a machine.


So what do you vote for?
1. The decreasing squares and rectangles
2. Clamshells (as big as I can make them!)
3. Wavy line crosshatching

[Margo C.]

Wavy line cross hatching gets my vote!