This will be the last of the feather lessons.  If you have any questions, if anything I’ve written isn’t clear, please post a comment on this post and if there are enough questions, I’ll do a “Q&A” post and if not, I’ll respond to the comments here.

Before getting into the help with the feather wreath, if you’re fairly new to machine quilting, it may seem easier and more accurate to use stencils.  It will probably always be closer to perfect if using a stencil but if you can get to the point where you can freehand, things go so much more quickly and you don’t have to worry about getting marks out of  your quilts.  Keep practicing and before you know it, you’ll be happy with your freehand feathers.

Someone had asked about help with the feathers inside the circle on the feather wreath.   We probably have all struggled with those inside feathers.  I can’t tell you why it seems so hard to get the slant correct.

See the arrow?  That’s where I started and you can see that the angle was not right so that when I got back to that point, there was a gap.   Be aware of how you’re starting out.  If you know that your beginning feathers aren’t slanted enough or are slanted too much, make a note to either slant more or less.

Depending on the size needle you’re using and the fabric, stitching with your machine unthreaded may leave permanent holes.  If you know you can stitch and then make the holes disappear (scraping with a wet fingernail usually does it), then unthread your needle and stitch 4 or 5 feathers.  By the 3rd or 4th one, you should have your angle correct.  See the dotted line in the photo?  Pretend that was stitching without thread in the machine.  See how after a few feathers, my angle was better?  If that doesn’t  help, the draw 4 or 5 with a water soluble pen or whatever you know will come out of your fabric, and start stitching on the 3rd 4th feather.  Make sense?