Free Motion Feathers in Triangles

I've got another customer quilt to work on this week. It has a center medallion with setting triangles around it and I suggested filling the triangles with a feather design. She said yes, so I decided I better practice to see how I wanted to do it.


Pretty, isn't it? Wool applique on cotton. The blog addy above is where the feathers will go. I had a leftover practice piece from the Expo that I didn't use, so I pulled it out and drew a few new lines to approximate the size of the setting triangles.

free motion feather inside a triangle

Not entirely pleased with these two above, very hard to get into those corners. Repeat after me, "It looks much better when done in black on black fabric". Self-doubts go away!


Have you had trouble getting the dreaded blue marker out? I always rinse my quilts completely to get it out instead of just using a spray of water. I also just got this eraser-pen by Nancy's Notions,Clover Brush Type Eraser and while it's made to go with a specific line of fabric marking pens, It took care of a wayward line of Mark-B-Gone with no problems. It's been 3 days since I erased with it and it hasn't reappeared.


I try to not actually mark customer quilts with anything as I'm so careful with them. But this practice piece was fine.

free motion feather inside a triangle

On the next two triangles, I used my Fine Line continuous curve ruler to mark the spine, but I didn't extend it all the way into the corners. I liked that much better, not so crowded. I still need to work on that final plume on the outside. See all my marks?

free motion feather inside a triangle

I need more practice, but I broke down and took my poor overworked Jan for a spa treatment. Also know as a "Clean, Oil, and Adjust" service at my Janome dealer. I'm good about cleaning the bobbin area and use a drop of oil in the wick under the bobbin now and then. But I've had her for 3 years and still hadn't taken her in for a free annual service. My sweet local dealer gives 5 years free service on all the Janomes he sells.

free motion feather inside a triangle

So I will have to wait until tomorrow afternoon to practice some more. Then I need to get cracking on that quilt!

I'm linking this post up with Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday link party and Leah Day's Free Motion Friday link party too. Go and check out what some great folks have been up to!

6 comments:

  1. You have a good start! I heard a quilter once say divide and conquer (the space). Have you tried dividing the space in the corners equally? The curved spine would begin and end in the corner. The plumes would be proportionately smaller in each corner, but would become bigger as the the space increased. Kinda....small, bigger, bigger and then small and smaller. Just an idea :-)

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    1. I tried that at first, but it was hard to fit those little plumes into the corners and that also affects the quilting density. It is very important to keep quilt density somewhat even to avoid distortion. Especially in a customer quilt.

      When I do quilts with varying densities, like my fall pumpkins, you'll notice they are whole cloth, so I can square it up after quilting. Also blocking will help with distortion, but I would never block a customer quilt.

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    2. Thanks so much for your response!. Those are important considerations.

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  2. i have not used this type of marker yet... will have to give it a try. beautiful stitching.

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  3. WOW! Great job, and very clear explanations! Thanks! I dream of doing something like this one day!
    Have a beautiful day!

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