Thread Talk from my Sewing Machine #41

Rebecca had asked for a Thread Talk post on how I had quilted the feathers on these quilt sashings a couple of weeks ago…

And so, here goes!  The diagram below shows a quilt center.  Beyond the quilt center are two white and one red sashings.  The white sashings will be our quilting area.

So the way we way we will treat the quilting scheme is that the red sashing becomes our “feather spine”, and we will add feathers on both sides of the spine (i.e., the white sashings).  This is a free-hand exercise.  You will have to be pretty comfortable with the stitching path of feathers.  Click here to refresh your memory.  The way we are feathering the sashings all around is actually an extension of the feather wreath I had talked about here.  Instead of a circular feather wreath, we will have a square (also applies to rectangular) feather wreath.

So, we will start with a partial feather since we are free-handing the feathers in the outer sashing, and will be “winging” it when it comes time for the last feather to meet this first feather– click here to see visual illustrations.  The doubly-darkened stitching path denotes stitching over previous stitches to get from one feather lobe to the next.

So, we would just be filling the area with feathers, one after another.  There’s really nothing to watch for when feathering the outer sashing, unlike the inner sashing.  More about that later.

We have now come all the way around.  You see we are coming up against the first feather out with which we started.

Now we are ready to feather in the inner sashing.  I would start like I did in the outer sashing, and feather like normal.  Until….

… I come close to a corner.  You will need to miter your feathers – you will see what I mean.  For this, I could draw a line at the 45-degree, or just place a piece of paper at the 45-degree spot to avoid having to draw.  The 45-degree line shows the boundary of my feathers as I near and before I turn the corner.  So, the feathers will decrease in size, and will start small once the corner is turned before increasing in size again.  This is one crucial thing to be mindful of when feathering the inner sashing.

Here you see how the feathers look in another corner in the inner sashing.

And here we are, coming against that first feather…

And here you see the sashings all “feathered up”!

That’s all there is to it.  Sometimes it’s hard for me to know what to quilt on sashings.  I have found the feathers dress up the sashings rather nicely. :)

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope my Thread Talk post helped jumpstart some quilting ideas for you.

p.s.  Please know that I am not ignoring, or blowing you off – I have been extremely busy, and have had only about 7 hours of sleep in the last 48 hours.  I still have lots to cross out on my to-do list.  I do hope to visit or email you back soon.