Feathers Galore!

I love quilting feathers - they are elegant and rich in a quilt, and add a touch of gracefulness. I was asked how I "make feathers" on a recent morning in a quilt shop, and so I gave a quick demonstration... followed by a request to repeat the information. The easiest way to do that is to put it here on my blog. Note that the drawings here are "quick and dirty" -- they have not been cleaned up and smoothed out, because I wanted to get them done. Take a look, and the next time you need to figure out what to put on a quilt.... think about feathers!

These are "formal feathers" which are a bit more elegant than "folk art feathers." You'll see the difference between formal and folk art feathers at the bottom of this entry. Formal feathers require you to back-track on a stitch line.

Step 1: Define the center line for the feathers (the "spine") and the edges that will contain the feathers.

Step 2: Start by making a gentle swoop out and back -- think "half of a heart" (sort of)... You want the feathers to be gracefully curved. This comes with practice. Don't use straight lines on your feathers!

Step 3: Make the second feather. Swoop back with a second "half of a heart" and meet at the top of the first feather.

Step 4: Your needle (hand or machine) is now blocked in and you can't draw another feather... until you back-track across the feather you just made. If you are making feathers by machine, stitch back across the top of the feather you just made, being ever so careful to keep your stitches on top of the first set. This takes some practice, but you will improve with every feather you make. If you are quilting feathers by hand, just slip your needle between the layers of fabric and make it pop out where feather 3 will start.






Step 5: Back-track across the top of 2 and swoop around to make feather 3. Again, think "half of a heart." Some people like to draw all the feather tops and then come back and draw the swooping lines -- they use a penny or a quarter or a quilt spool to draw half-circles, like a row of little hats, along the outer edge of the border line. If that works for you, great. I find it harder to do it that way because my "swoops" don't always want to fit under those little hats!

Step 6: Now that you've done feather 3, go back and draw feather 4 -- half a heart, swooping up to meet the top of feather 3... and then you'll backtrack across the top of the feather you just drew, and finally, draw feather 5.

Step 7: Keep on drawing those feathers... and when you get to the end of the spine, make a little teardrop.

Step 8: Start over at the bottom of the feather spine and draw the feathers on the other side of the spine. You should always draw or stitch your feathers in the direction they move -- don't try and draw them going backwards; they will end up misshapen (unless you can think in reverse better than I can!).

When I am finished, I like to add an "outline" about an eighth of an inch away from the edges of all of the feathers -- it helps define the plume, and it also helps hide any unevenness.

Part of the beauty of feathers is that they can be drawn in an inexhaustible set of shapes and sizes. You can have a straight spine, no spine, a wavy spine, or spines that look like trees, with branches on them. Your feathers can be big and chunky or thin and delicate. You can add little decorative twirls between the feathers. You can make the tops of the feathers rounded... or the shape of a heart... or square. You can do whatever you want!

Here is an example of how to put feathers into a triangle shape. Start by drawing a spine -- you don't have to quilt the spine, but you have to know where it is. In this case, I added a "branch" on the spine. Start at the bottom and begin to add feathers. When you get to the end of the spine, make a teardrop and then start again at the bottom of the spine, on the other side of it. Continue to add feathers and more feathers until the area is full of feathers. Voile!

Okay - but what about the "non-formal" feathers - the folk art feathers? Those are easy to make, and certain quilts will call for them instead of formal feathers. They are more "thready" on a quilt because both sides of every feather are drawn and quilted.

To the right is a quick drawing with the folk art feathers on both sides of a non-existent spine -- the feathers on the left side are fun and silly and imaginative -- perfect for some quilts!

Have fun trying out different feathers. Keep a pencil and paper handy for practicing feathers - you'll be an expert in no time at all!

Happy sewing -

Sue Garman

(c)2008 Susan H. Garman

It's Auction Time

So why haven't I finished more projects lately? Aahhhh... because I've been busy getting quilts ready for my guild's annual auction! Above is a photo of one of several quilts I've donated to the auction; it's a king-size quilt (you can see more items at www.lakeviewquiltersguild.org). I believe in supporting quilt guilds; they offer quiltmakers so many opportunities to learn, be inspired, and make friends. If you don't belong to a guild, consider joining one. If you don't have one near you, start one!

As I said in my previous post, quilting is therapeutic for me -- it's so relaxing! And so now that I'm all relaxed, I'd better get back to work. Projects are calling my name and each one wants to be first in line to be finished!

Happy stitching -
Sue

(c)2008 Susan H. Garman

It's Finished!

While spending a couple of weeks working on other projects, I contemplated how to quilt Night Before Christmas. My quandary was how to quilt the border, knowing that I planned to have a wandering feathered vine in all of the 4-inch wide sashings. I worried that more feathered vines in the border would overwhelm the face of the quilt.

As designers, we all have to consider combinations of options, our personal capabilities, and the tools at hand. I finally used a plastic overlay and "practiced" several different quilt designs on the quilt border -- from a wavy ribbons to straight lines, to evergreen trees. Despite my concerns, I decided that the best way to quilt the border was to stitch more feathered vines, and when a package arrived in the mail with the perfect color of olive-green thread, I loaded the quilt on my machine and started quilting away. Quilting -- whether by hand or machine -- is such wonderful therapy for me. It combines creativity, design, and productivity in one package, while allowing me to mull over schedules, issues, future plans, and whatever else is on my mind. Days spent quilting are totally relaxing for me!

So it's time for the "reveal." I don't have a full-size photo of Night Before Christmas to show you yet - but here are two semi-closeups so you can see how I quilted the sashings and borders. I had planned to hand-quilt the interior of the blocks because of the embellishments in them, but as it turns out, I was able to machine quilt the entire quilt. Woo hoo! It's finished! And here it is:

I'm elated that the quilt is done - except for that all-important label. That will be added in the morning....

Happy stitching, everyone!
Sue

(c)2008 Susan H. Garman

Christmas is Coming!

When I made my "Night Before Christmas" quilt, I used 4-inch blocks for the cornerstones. At the same time that I made the 4-inch blocks, I also made identical (but larger) 6-inch blocks and 12-inch blocks.

I finally set my 6-inch pieced blocks into a quilt. I used a dozen of the pieced blocks with thirteen 6-inch applique blocks. Each of the applique blocks has a little motif that is found in the larger "Night Before Christmas" quilt. The patterns for the applique are all in one of my new Night Before Christmas patterns, "Patterns for Twenty 6-Inch Applique Blocks." What I love most about those little applique blocks is that they are small and simple -- each one took less than 30 minutes to applique. How cool is that?! So here is my new quilt, "Christmas is Coming." It has big, wide sashings: three inches by six inches. That helps grow a quilt quickly, right?!

"Christmas is Coming!"
56 x 56"

Now I want to figure out how to set the 12-inch blocks in a quilt top. There are lots of options. Most sampler quilts end up being humdrum: add sashings and cornerstones, and then frame the quilt with one or more borders. Sometimes, that is actually the best way to set a dozen blocks, but this week I intend to spend time thinking about how to set sampler blocks into a unique quilt top. Hopefully, you'll see my 12-inch blocks here, soon.

Until then...
Happy stitching!

Sue

(c)2008 Susan H. Garman

Sizing Your Sashing and Borders

The question was asked of me, "How do you decide on the size of your sashings and borders?" It's a very good question. You can find all kinds of guidelines in books - from using "fibonacci" rules for sashings and borders (where each border grows, equivalent to the sum of the previous two, so a 1" border followed by a 3" border would be followed by a 4" border and then a 7" border...) to using multiples of the size of units within the blocks (e.g., 2" squares within a block would dictate using 2" borders or sashings). I don't consciously pay attention to rules, though.

I am morely likely to look at the set of blocks I intend to assemble into a quilt, and ask them what they need. Sometimes a set of blocks says, "don't crowd me!" and other times the blocks may whisper that they want to stay close together. I nearly always "audition" various widths of sashings -- I lay out the blocks and try out different sashing widths and fabrics until I think I have the right combination of both width and color. Often, there is more than one "right" answer, so I may also think about how I am going to quilt the quilt after it is put together.

With borders, I go through the same process: I lay out the same blocks, now assembled into a quilt top, and audition various widths and colors of fabrics. After a good amount of playing, one of the choices becomes the "winner" and the rotary cutter runs to do its job before I change my mind.

In The Night Before Christmas, I knew that the appliqued blocks were all very "busy." There is a lot to look at in each block, and so the blocks really needed to be separated, lest they become a jumble of competing images. The old adage of "No fighting!" works in quilts, too. I chose a 4" sashing because that was the smallest size of cornerstone I wanted to make, knowing that I wanted to use a pieced block in each cornerstone unit. I chose pale off-white as the color because it looked like a bed of fresh-fallen snow, which was appropriate to the story -- and it didn't fight with the images. It gave them some breathing room. I also know that I want to quilt the sashings with a feathered vine -- and that the vine will look better with that same "breathing room" around it.

When it was time to decide on the final borders of The Night Before Christmas, I had the blocks all sewn together with the sashings, and I started laying out fabrics in varying colors and widths. Reds were too domineering for the quilt. Multi-colored prints (e.g., a Christmas print) were distracting. A single border did not frame the quilt well. Inset pieced borders seemed to fight the cornerstones. The outer borders of any quilt are, for me, much like mats and a picture frame: you want them to showcase what they surround and add to it, not subtract from it.

So, in a rather large nutshell... that's how I decide the size of sashings and borders. I often lecture before guilds on "the design process" and describe the set of mental exercises that have gone into many of my quilts. Each time I give that lecture, I focus once again on how I actually make design decisions. Much of it is simply what appeals to me visually; wish as I might, I have yet to discover a magic formula!

By the way - if any of you are interested in making this quilt, I have started a Yahoo! Group called "Night Before Christmas." I hope will be a forum to support those of you who choose to make this quilt. You can find it by going to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NightBeforeChristmas/.

Happy sewing -
Sue

The Night Before Christmas...

Finally, finally, finally! I have finished the quilt top for Night Before Christmas. Below you will see all twelve blocks (and now you don't have to go and hunt the first six down from a previous blog post), as well as the setting option I have chosen. This quilt was truly a labor of love -- lots of hours went into it, but the results were worth the effort. Now, I'm chomping at the bit to start quilting the quilt. Quakertown Quilts (http://www.quakertownquilts.com/) is offering quilt patterns for this quilt, as well as fabric kits for those who want someone else to choose their fabrics. Below, I'll also describe some other options I've added to this block of the month.

"Twas the night before Christmas..."

"Not a creature was stirring..."

"The stockings were hung by the chimney with care..."

"The children were nestled all snug in their beds..."

"When out on the lawn, there arose such a clatter..."

"When, what to my wondering eyes should appear..."

"Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound..."

"His eyes how they twinkled! His dimples, how merry!'

"He spoke not a word but went straight to his work..."

"And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose..."

"But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight..."

"Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night!"

And here is the final quilt -- with large sashings that help each block define its own portion of the story. The applique blocks are each set with small cornerstone blocks -- there is a separate pattern available for all of the cornerstone blocks.

The Night Before Christmas
(c)2008 Susan H. Garman

There is also another separate pattern available with twenty different 6-inch applique motifs which are also appropriate for setting cornerstone blocks - or as small applique blocks for an entirely different quilt. Most of the applique motifs can be found in the larger Night Before Christmas quilt: stars, holly leaves and berries, assorted toys, Christmas trees, etc. They are simple and easy-to-applique blocks. I hope to post a quilt with these in the next few weeks!

Until then... I hope that life treats you well. Happy stitching!

Sue

All contents: (c)2008 Susan H. Garman

Life is Good!

If you're not careful, every once in a while life can get you down! In my life, there is always such a struggle to balance competing priorities and address unplanned tasks. I find that sitting down and sorting out what MUST get done, SHOULD get done, CAN get done... and what I would LIKE to get done... helps me find a good balance in my personal and work worlds. And then, suddenly, it is so obvious: life is good!

In the meantime, here is something to think about when you are making your own quilts. Too often, when we are figuring out what to use for a "background" fabric, we rely on a trusted white-on-white or neutral pallet. Take a look at the quilt below - it's an older one, but I like to use it to demonstrate a principle of color and fabric choices. Notice the flying geese border.

"Shine on Harvest Moon"

Okay, now that you've looked at the quilt, take a closer look at the border. What do you see?

My "background" fabrics aren't just from the neutral pallet -- they include tans and off-whites, but they also include yellow, black, gold, green, rust. Are you surprised? The next time that you are making a quilt, think about using a scrappy set of background fabrics; dip into something besides a neutral set of colors -- and you may find that life (with lots of colors) is good!

Sue
(c) 1997-2008 Susan H. Garman