Feather Boot Camp Week 3

Even though I have been busy with other projects, I have still been practicing drawing feathers as part of Feather Boot Camp (a free online class taught by Suzanne Earley.)  Tracing and drawing feathers a little nearly every day has helped a lot!!!  I have made so much progress in the shape of my feathers since I posted about Weeks 1-2.

For week 3, Suzanne covers deep curves and decorated feathers.  I really love the look of deep curves with the decorated feathers.  And after drawing them for a couple weeks, something finally clicked.  I was ready to try drawing them to the scale I want to quilt an upcoming quilt, so I pulled out my Ikea children's paper roll which comes eighteen inches wide.

I first divided the paper in half, then each half into quarters with my yellow marker.  I wanted to see how the zig zag feathers looked when the vine was contained in the center half (4.5 inches out of 9 inches.)  I even found out that my Ikea children's bowls were 4.5 inches wide.  I tried two different spacings with the bowls and drew my vine with a black marker.

Um, so pretty!  (Suzanne suggests using circles for spacing of vines during Week 5-Feathered Borders.)

Then I took another sheet of the paper, divided it in half, then divided the halves into thirds with the yellow marker.  Still using the 4.5 inch bowls I off set them to contain the vine in the center third of my stripe.  I drew the vine with a black marker.

Proportionately, I like it better with the vine only taking up one third of the stripe.

Here you can compare the different proportions side by side.

I am still working on my feathers in the deep part of the U, but when I step back and look at the whole appearance of the feathers I totally love it!  My favorite look is the green feather which had the circles half the distance of the stripe and the vine drawn only in the center third.  So that is what I tried out on my practice muslin sandwich.

So. Much. Fun!  I am now ready to try this zig zag feather on a real quilt.  I am starting with the one you see behind my sample above.  It is one of the eight baby quilts from my mindless sewing break.  

I highly recommend Suzanne's Feather Boot Camp.  It has helped me so much.  I also recommend drawing your FMQ designs the size you will actually quilt them.  I think I use this extra wide roll of paper more than my children.  ;)

Amy of 13 Spools, also has a great tutorial for zig zag feathers you can check out.

XX,
Jasmine