The Joy of Quilting with Your Long-Arm Machine
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KathyQuilts.com
FEATHERS:
This is always an old fashioned favorite. Practice
feathers over and over and over - both on paper and on
fabric. Dream about feathers. This can be a fast border after
you know it backward and forward. I always sew a center
vine before I do the feather and then I quilt a few feathers on
one side of the vine, then sew back on top of that center vine
to do a few feathers on the other side of the vine.
FEATHER
VARIATIONS:
Change the feather design to leaves
on each side of the vine. You can make fat leaves with a
center spine in each or skinny leaves without a center. Use
the center vine as the starting point. Make skinny pine needle
type designs on each side of the center vine or put a flower
on one side and the leaves on the other, alternating back and
forth along the vine. These center vine designs are fast and a
fun border idea.
SWAGS:
Always keep an odd number of swags so that you
can sew to the next swag without stopping and cutting your
threads, saving time. Mark your quilt at even intervals across
and down the borders - or use the blocks in your quilt as
markers. Say you have a 4-patch, then an empty block of the
same size, then a 4-patch, etc. Using the seams where these
designs match up, make a very shallow ‘swag’ design to the
next intersection. Then quilt a larger ‘swag’ back to the first,
then another larger ‘swag’ back. If you keep your swags an
odd number (3 swags or 5) then you can always quilt the next
swag. Great for the border on a baby quilt with small blocks.
LEAVES
&
LOOPS:
These make a fantastic quilt design. Quilt a
maple leaf then a few loops then another maple leaf then a
few loops. Go around the entire border with leaves and loops.
