Feathers

 Recently, I became aware of the SewCalGal blog--www.sewwcalgal.blogspot.com/.   It's a pretty interesting site and I was particularly interested to discover a tutorial there by Diane Gaudynski on quilting feathers.  I decided to follow it to learn her technique and see how her method differed from mine.  This picture shows a freehand method that I quilted in her style.  The differences are this:
1.  She quilts both sides of the center spine in one action.
2.  She leaves a small space between each feather.
3.  She quilts up one side of the spine and then comes back down the same side with echo quilting.
4.   She varies the size of the individual feathers and adds some decorative touches inside some of them. (I was already beginning to vary the size of the feathers.
She has a LOT of good tips in the tutorial--well worth a look-see.

So, I decided to make a whole-cloth wallhanging that will incorporate her techniques.  I'll be doing a demo at the Asheville Quilt Show at  the end of this month (on Friday 9/28 @ 10:00a.m.) and want to have this at least mostly finished by then.  As you can see, I have used both her method and mine.  This is a fairly intricate piece and I'm really looking forward to trying a new method.

 In this photo, I've transferred the design onto a pale blue batik.  It's not drawn as darkly in some areas because the blue pen was running out.  But I can see it well enough to work.  How to transfer to a design to fabric?  There are many ways, of course.  I haven't tried the paper method yet but I think it might get in my way in a piece like this one.
What I did was to lay the design on a white-top table and trace the center motif onto the fabric--with markings for where the four feather designs would go.  Since it was difficult to see through the blue fabric, I then transferred over to the light box and traced the design--moving it around as needed and using the markings to position it.  If I had a huge light box, I would have used it from the fbeginning  So, this is my project for the next week or so.  But FIRST, I have to decide on which thread to use--always somewhat of a challenge.
And, finally, I learned last night that my Summer Soiree
quilt won Best Machine Quilting at the Pennsylvania National Quilt Extraveganza!  I am thrilled.