2012 Free Motion Quilting Challenge - February

For the February FMQ Challenge, Diane Gaudynski gave a wonderfully long and detailed tutorial on free-motion feather plumes. I love quilted feathers, but they can be a bit challenging. The only feathers I've attempted so far have been from a marked design. Free-motion feathers? Yikes! How could we be given something so challenging in just the second month?

Well, it was a really good tutorial and I practiced drawing feathers on a white board for quite some time. At first, they didn't even resemble feathers, but a few minutes here and half an hour there and by the end of the month my drawn feathers didn't look half bad. But drawing on a white board and doing them on the machine are different. I couldn't put it off any longer. Here are my first attempts:

free-motion feathered plume

 Oh boy, was I surprised! I never would have dreamed that I could quilt a free-motion feather plume. Okay, they're not perfect and I definitely need more practice. But you know? I am really happy with my first attempts. I would not have tried this if it hadn't been for the FMQ Challenge. Thanks SewCalGal!