Quilting the Quilt: Fabulous Feather Formation

May 1, 2013

Feather QuiltingOver the years, I have had the good fortune to meet hundreds of quilters across the globe as I travel and teach for APQS. When I ask students what technique they struggle with and would most like to master, nine out of ten will shout, “Feathers!”

“Feather envy” is commonplace among quilters. We are never satisfied with our own shapes and curves, and we pine after the style or gracefulness we’ve seen in other quilters’ feathers. We worry that our own feathers aren’t right, when in reality they are just different. Granted, as a quilting nation we’ve established some basic principles about feathers—they have a vein, grow the same way up each side of the vein, have a root, and are mirrored if the vein line is straight.

To read the rest of this article about feathers, download Dawn’s “Quilting the Quilt: Fabulous Feather Formation” article that appeared in the Nov/Dec 2012 issue of Love of Quilting.

Dawn Cavanaugh
Dawn Cavanaugh
Dawn Cavanaugh is the Education Director at APQS.
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