I'm taking a break from walking foot quilting this week to play with free motion quilting on my new sewing machine! What better way to play than to play with quilting feathers? Learn how to quilt Windy Feathers in this new quilting tutorial:
I've been quilting designs like this is 4-inch squares since 2009 when I first launched my goal to create 365 free motion quilting designs. Windy Feathers is design #491 and I still love pulling out these small quilt sandwiches and playing with new designs and shapes in thread.
You can also see how I quilted Windy Feathers on a real hoop quilt:
In this video I'm quilting on the Grace Qnique SD, a sit down / table mounted longarm machine. You can find a whole series of videos I've shared on this machine right here.
Windy Feathers is actually a combination of two other designs: Flowing Lines and Feather Filler.
As I've created this collection of free motion quilting designs, I've also been paying attention to how they work, how designs can combine and connect together to create more designs. Flowing Lines is a design that has infinite variety because you can easily pop other designs into those flowing gap spaces to make more designs.
Does this feel like a rabbit hole of quilting design potential? It definitely is! Start with a simple design, give yourself permission to play, then try another design. Mix it up and keep quilting to see what you create.
There is no limit to the amazing textures and beautiful thread play you can create with free motion quilting!
Let's go quilt,
Leah Day
4 comments
Thank you Jude! Did you watch the second video to see how Windy Feathers worked in the border of the hoop quilt? That will give you a better idea of how this design will work when quilted in a larger space. You can also learn a lot more about quilting by taking one of my workshops – https://leahday.com/collections/workshops
Love your tutorials but you use little samples of cloth and I would love to see you quilt on a larger size so I can see how you manipulate the quilt when doing the Windy Feathers.
Thank you Autumn!
Love your windy feathers hoop!