Feathers

I've been going along practicing different free motion patterns and feeling pretty darn happy with them, until . . . along came feathers.  Just the thing that everyone, me included, wants to do.  And my feathers were really, really bad.

I tried doing them without a pattern, with marking parallel lines, with trying to draw them out.  I tried doing a little research - it seems that the people who are known for their free motion quilting have slightly different variations when it comes to how they quilt feathers.  Like many other things, I guess it's just a matter of making many, many feathers until I find a way that works for me.  I think that the most recent one, top right, shows a little promise, that I can work from that.  These feathers have been a very humbling process.  There's a whole Craftsy class on making feathers, I may consider that.

When my quilt sandwich is filled with feathers and some circular fill-in, I'll wash it, then cut it apart to make some little zipper bags.  Washing shrinks the cotton batting just a little and hides a variety of bobbles and other quilting sins.  I highly recommend it.