Day 23: Machine Quilting - Feathers

Feathers are traditional favorite quilting motif. You can find them in antique quilts, meticulously crafted by hand and very contemporary quilts, quilted on long arm machines. I don't have a long arm machine - where would I put it?- but I do quilt using my home machine (a Bernina with stitch regulator - I love it!). What better way to explore machine quilting than to work on feathers.

I happened to have an Irish Chain quilt top that needed quilting. A feather wreath in each 'blank' block is the perfect spot.



I transferred the wreath motifs using a stencil and blue water erasable pen. After basting the quilt, I stitched in the ditch to secure the quilt and stitched diagaonally across the nine patch blocks. After that, I quilted in the wreaths. The photo below is a closeup of the stitched wreath.


After adding the wreaths, the borders were filled with a line of feathers. This piece would have lent itself well to trapunto, causing the wreath to pop. I also plan to run some diagonal lines around the wreath and in the center to highlight the wreath.