19 August, 2013

Feather Fear

I'm fearful of  feathers. Not those flying friends of mine who visit the feeders, but of my ability when it comes to stitching feathers, ... and, yet, I love them! I shy away from the idea of quilting graceful, undulating, curved feathers on my borders and, yet, I can't stop thinking about how much they will add to the finished quilt. With this fear at the forefront of my mind I have adopted a new mantra: "you can't improve on the feathers you never stitch". How's that for deep? If I want to be fearless and tackle feathers without a second thought I need to work on them, conquer my fear! I don't think you can see the feather in the floral border on the right, it doesn't show up very well, but... it's done! One down and three to go!
 You can see the quilted feathered border here on the underside of the quilt. I loaded "Sturbridge Strawberries" on Sundance yesterday afternoon and have worked in the little bit of time that I've had since then, we have grandchildren here for the next two days (and nights); any further progress on this one will be during naps! I'm tickled with the way that this is turning out and will repeat my mantra over and over!
"All Are Precious..." came off Sundance yesterday morning, the quilting is done on this one at long last!

It feels extremely liberating to be moving these old tops off the hangers and out of the closet, seeing them actually "come to life" through the quilting is very satisfying.I am hoping to get this quilt piped, bound and hung by the weekend!
Life is Good!


8 comments:

Little Penpen said...

Your feathers are beautiful and I love "all are precious"... you do wonderful quilting on your machine.

Janet O. said...

I am cheering you on with those feathers, Mrs. G.! Good job!
"All are Precious" turned out beautiful--very nice!

lindsey said...

Your quilting is beautiful, I have never got the hang of machine quilting except in straight lines and so very much appreciate the work you have put into these.

Paula, the quilter said...

Why is it that we fear feathers? I've been practicing them in my sketch book and on my whiteboard. Once the auction flimsy is done, I'm back to quilting with Babe (my HQSS). I'll be quilting feathers instead of drawing them.

Unknown said...

Great job! I used to be afraid of feathers too, but they are so much fun once you get used to them:)

straythreads said...

your quilting and feathers look wonderful from here. Prints do hid a multitude of sins. I have thought about feathers on the dark log cabin blocks of my current projects I need to adopt your mantra but I'm doing it sitting down and moving the quilt rather than the machine. The P word will come into play before I do feathers on the quilt.
Ann

Quiltdivajulie said...

Miss Chris used to be afraid of feathers, too . . . just keep stitching!!!

LizA. said...

I have that same fear of feathers despite the classes I've taken. Right now I've got several quilts stacking up, awaiting quilting and at least one of the would be perfect for feathers....guess I just need to take a deep breath and plunge in...right after our big camping trip next week.....