065 - Smaller Curved Feather-Inspired Leaf Shape

Inspiration

The last in the series of leaf appliqué shapes inspired by feathers.

Details

This one is a smaller, mirror-image of the previous leaf shape.

Each of the five feather-inspired leaf shapes are repeated in the four corners of the quilt design. My goal was to reinforce the idea of the red 8-pointed star-shapes as flowers without obscuring the light cream areas in the setting triangles around the center star. I may wake up tomorrow, walk into the studio and decide it needs something more, but, at the moment, I am thinking it's "done" and ready to be layered and basted for quilting.

Again, these rainy day photos in the studio are far less than desirable ... I really wanted to share, anyway :-)

064 - Small Curved Feather-Inspired Leaf Shape

Inspiration

More of the same, sized to fill the space and suggest leaves on a flowering vine.

Details

Curiously, this was the most challenging leaf to appliqué to the quilt top because it was farthest from the edge which meant I was manipulating more fabric in my hands.

It's a dark rainy day here ... and that's reflected in the quality of the photo.  Sorry.

063 - A Smaller Feather-inspired Leaf Shape

Inspiration

More of the same, altered to fit in the spaces of the quilt.

Details

Needle-turned appliqué as before.  As I add these quirky feather/leaf quilts, I realize that quality somehow makes this quilt design mine.

062 - Another Feather-Inspired Leaf Shape

Inspiration

Another of the long, thin, feather-ish shaped leaves I'm adding to the vine with flowers on a quilt-in-progress.

Details

Proportions were slightly altered to fit the space.  You can see the differences on this section of the vine, showing the two feather-inspired leaf-shaped appliquéd pieces.

061 - Feather-Inspired Leaf Shape

Inspiration 

In the world around me, I keep seeing feather shapes everywhere. So why not design a leaf, inspired by the shape of a feather?

Details

The feather-inspired leaf was hand-appliquéd by hand using the needle-turn technique.  This and more leaves like these will be used on this quilt project.

My original plan was to add rounder, more traditionally shaped leaves to the blue vine with the red star-flowers, but it didn't feel right.  (I blogged about it here.) I put it on the shelf until inspiration presented a new idea.  Still not sure it will work,  but this project gave me a reason to pursue it  ... even if I ultimately decide against it and take them all off again. 

060 - Long 2-color Abstract Feather

Inspiration

More of the same.

Details

This block measures 6 by 18 inches. It is a variation of the original long abstract feather, made in two colors, with triangle square along the feather's edge. 

This is the 6th in the series of abstract feather quilt blocks. Here's how the set of blocks look all together on my design wall. 

059 - Two-Color Abstracted Feather Quilt Block

Inspiration

A continuation in the series of traditional pieced quilt blocks based on an abstracted feather shape.

Details

This block measures 6 by 12 inches.

058 - Abstracted Fat Feather Redux

Inspiration

I continue to move through the variations in this series of abstracted feather quilt blocks.

Details

This quilt block measures 6 by 12 inches (finished size).

As I was making the small triangles squares, I thought how I might not have as easily followed this idea (and made all those 1 inch half-square triangle units) had I not been making the feathered star blocks with 56 of them in each block.

057 - Abstracted Feather Quilt Block

Inspiration 

Third time's a charm?  My traditionally pieced efforts seem to be morphing into something like a Princess Feather, a traditional appliqué design.  Hmmm.

Details 

Like my first effort, this block measures 6 by 12 inches. Here they are side-by-side.

056 - Abstracted Feather Quilt Block Redux

Inspiration

I wanted to play with the proportions of yesterday's effort.

Details

This block measures 6 by 18 inches.  It's still not quite feather-ish enough for me ...

Here are the two abstract feathers on my design wall (along with one of the curved-pieced bird blocks.

055 - Fat Feather Quilt Block

Inspiration

I wanted to create an abstracted feather quilt block design which could be traditionally pieced.

Details

The block measures 6 by 12 inches (finished size). I'm not crazy about the proportions of this "fat feather," but I think the idea has possibilities and will likely play with it a bit more.

054 - Yet Another Feathered Star Quilt Block

Inspiration

The fabrics for this, the fifth of the traditionally pieced feathered star blocks in this series, have been cut and ready to go for weeks. Today, I was inspired to finish up the last of the cut fabrics.

Details

This is yet another Feathered Star I block from Marsha McCloskey's book.

Whenever I get to this point in putting together the block, I always think how it's just a 9-patch.

As I make more of these blocks, I naturally start thinking about settings and borders.  I started thinking about the idea of an outer border of those tiny 1-inch triangle squares.  It felt a little overwhelming until I realized that there's 56 inches of those half-square triangle units in each block.

Since I now I have five of these blocks, I had to see how they'd look arranged on point.  I doubt they'll end up this way in the quilt (because of the fussy cut centers in some of the blocks), but it was fun to play with the idea.

053 - Another Feathered Star Quilt Block

Inspiration

Once restarted, I was on a roll ...

Details

This is the forth of the large, traditional feathered star quilt block.

 Practice is making me get closer to perfect with each block.   I am really happy with the intersection of seams at the tip of the diamonds in this block.

Here's how the four blocks made so far look together.

052 - Feathered Star Quilt Block

Inspiration

I just haven't been inspired to do anything creatively for the past few weeks, but have returned from my un-feathered funk by "just doing it" and making another of the large traditional feathered stars ... the fabrics for which have been cut and sitting on the work table in my studio for weeks.

Details

This is the third in the series of stars made from Marsha McCloskey's pattern for the 18 1/2-inch Feathered Star I from her book, Feathered Star Quilt Blocks I: Really Hard Blocks That Take a Long Time to Make.