How to stitch a not-too-crappy feathered wreath

I still can't quilt a decent feathered wreath. I can do the outside feathers but the inside always always always looks like they were sewn by a drunk. The last time I did feathered wreaths was on Kim's quilt and the inside feathers were bad on that one too. I needed feathered wreaths for one of the blocks in Mom's quilt. Here's what I did using the Quilt EZ spiral template. (I told her I did it this way because it highlighted the kaleidoscope better - it's really because I can't make a whole feathered wreath to save my life.)

I started by drawing a circle about 7" in diameter (a little more than half the diameter of the wreath) with a air erasable marker.

Position the needle in the center of the block and make a few locking stitches.

Go to the back of the machine and get the spiral template. Position the template under the stylus and then stitch a spiral until the stitching line meets the circle that you drew on the block.

Find a curve template that is the same diameter as the circle. I found this clear fat spiral template and taped the section that matched the curve of the circle.

Using the curved edge stitch around the drawn circle. The drawn circle is highlighted by the red arrow. This give you the base for the outside feathers. The inside of the wreath is done!

Stitch the outside feathers all around the circle.

Following the circle, stitch a vein inside each feather. The vein is really useful when you have a couple of straight feathers. The veins can help take the eye away from bad overall feather shapes.

That's it! This is one finished block with half of a feathered wreath! Some day I will learn to make the inside circles. Maybe I can practice doodling them in meetings at work. At least that would be productive! Of course all of the meetings that I run are highly productive.

Comments

[Deb Levy]

What a smart little cookie you are!

[Paula Hewitt]

you know, and I'm really just thinking out loud here, perhaps your inside feathers would look better if your diet comprised of more than Scotch, melba toast and lettuce...

[tracey petersen]

Not too crappy at all! Well done.

[Carie]

What a great idea! Thanks for sharing.

[Terri]

Did you have some scotch before you started?

[Mary]

I like the spiral as the inside of the wreath.

[Julia]

It looks wonderful! I love the shape of your feathers and the little vein is fantastic!

[sue b]

okay I looked and looked and I don't see anything crappy in your resutls.

[Judy Whitehead]

I love that idea of the spiral inside the wreath!

[Tany]

It looks great to me!

[Carole Meier]

Thanks for the tutorial! The quilting looks sweet!