Re: Feather quilting
- From: Anne Rogers <user@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2008 19:15:24 -0700
Leslie & The Furbabies in MO. wrote:
I just received an email from AQS promoting a new book "Hooked On Feathers". I enlarged the photo of the book cover and discovered that rather than the traditional way of making feathers with backtracking or another way that has the feathers not touching each other, the author has reduced the work by making the feathers in a series of 'hooks' rather like a fish hook shape. This may be a book I need to buy.... feathers still intimidate me. More than a little bit!
This post really got me thinking, somehow, when I started machine quilting I must have missed the info that stencils and backtracking are the main way people do feathers, my first attempt at feathers came as a result of the book "Machine Quilting Solutions" by Christine Maraccini - which was at most marking the spine and meant I was thinking of feather variations right from the start. First of all I played with traditional shape feathers, that were just a little bit rounder which avoids the back tracking, I threw then into the mix when quilting a small quilt with lots of random filler shapes.
She doesn't have any examples which look exactly like the hook in this book, but hooks are in the reptoire and pop up within a larger design, along with fern looking ones and leafy looking ones that look a bit like a vine. The book "Freehand Filler Designs" by Sue Pattern takes a similar approach, though she doesn't really talk about how to do them, it's more a book of ideas.
About 6 months ago I picked up a DVD "Free motion Fun with Feathers", the approach in there doesn't include sewing a spine, you create the spine as you do each loop and again there is no back tracking and the final look is very whimisical, I don't so much like this method as it's hard to get the spine looking smooth, but the different look of the results inspired me to further practice.
More recently I picked up a book that was basically about creating your own feather designs that have the traditional shape, initially I applied some of the ideas but sticking with my own slight variation that didn't involve accurate back tracking, each new loop starts close and then gradually curves away, rather than the more traditional sharp corner. I've been working on a large quilt top that is from block of the month squares, so I've been playing with lots of different designs, after all that practice I've suddenly become comfortable with backtracking, so I'm mixing things up a bit more.
When I saw this book, I was so glad that my random feather journey has taken me this way, this method still looks quite rigid and it creates feathers of a distinct look, I love the fact that I can vary the looks I create, rather than saying I can't do it one way, but only having one alternative, changing the loop to the hook only avoids the back tracking, it doesn't allow you to fill a slightly different shaped space and the results look a very odd mix of traditional and modern. It was luck that meant I took the route I did, but having come through that, I'd have to say that if you are looking for alternative that both the DVD I mentioned and the book my Christine Maraccini look more helpful than this one.
Cheers
Anne
.
- Follow-Ups:
- Re: Feather quilting
- From: Carole-Retired and Loving It
- Re: Feather quilting
- References:
- Feather quilting
- From: Leslie & The Furbabies in MO.
- Feather quilting
- Prev by Date: Re: Stack-n-Whack quilt question
- Next by Date: Re: Solar system quilt
- Previous by thread: Re: Feather quilting
- Next by thread: Re: Feather quilting
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
