Modern Machine Quilting DVD: Free Motion. Day Nine

I’m glad you came back to find out about someone I am delighted to call a friend and I who am convinced is one of Chicago’s best kept secrets, Kathy Matthews!DSC08259 Kathy is a member of our Naperville Modern Quilters Guild and looks after our social media and communications. By day she is a wonderful wife, grandma (she excels at that position) and a blogger with Chicago Now. Life hasn’t always been kind to Kathy and she blogs with heartfelt honesty which inspires me to try harder myself.

Read how she describes herself.

“My passions are quilting and sewing. Add to that French, Spanish, books, swimming, travels, new restaurants, yoga and chocolate and you have me. All of these are best shared with family and friends. Except for chocolate, don’t touch my chocolate.”

Don’t you want to know more?

Kathy blogs very regularly and I am sew happy (her phrase) that she agreed to watch and review my DVD.

We are on Day Nine of our hop and today I want to show you some feathers.

IMG_4894On the DVD I demo unmarked feathers, both with and without a spine. I add a little embellishment, just because I can, and then I show a more ferny sort of feather.

I sometimes add a feather to the outer border of a quilt. Here’s a close-up of that piece with the hour glass quilting on it with the feather under construction.IMG_2512 (1)I put the spine in first using my walking foot. Notice I had narrowed the border just a little with the echo quilting. Then I stitched one side of the spine all the way around the quilt before doing another pass around for the other side. Another two circuits added the embellishment!
IMG_2516Because it’s unmarked I don’t worry too much about keeping the corners symmetrical. What will be, will be (!) and I will be happy with it.

Here’s an older quilt of mine from 2010. It’s a thousand pyramids quilt inspired by Jan Krentz‘s design and put together after she stayed with me that year. Can you believe I had all those flower fabrics in my stash? I used a fern style feather for a quick and fairly easy all over quilting motif. I made it as a sample to teach at Pieceful Hearts. Apparently we called it Indian Summer.DSC04946.JPGA few hours of summer would be very nice right now…

Here’s a close up to show the quilting a little better.DSC04944.JPGFeathers aren’t always considered Modern but I like them and everyone loves to learn how to stitch them.

The featured image at the top of today’s post shows a spineless feather underway on the machine. They make a great filler in an irregular space and feature on the front of the DVD cover.

Just one more day to go. Here’s the complete list of blogs again if you want to catch up.

Thursday January 7th Me!
Friday January 8th  Faith Jones
Saturday January 9th Bonnie Hunter
Sunday January 10th Svetlana Sotak
Monday January 11th Kim Niedzwiecki (Aurifil)
Tuesday January 12th Julia Wood
Wednesday January 13th Susan Brubaker Knapp
Thursday January 14th Jenny Lyon
Friday January 15th  Kathy Matthews 
Saturday January 16th Me again!

I have been updating the list each day so you can find the specific post more easily. Some of our bloggers have already moved on and written lots more entries since they did ours.

I’m guessing you probably didn’t win the PowerBall this week or you would be too busy to be reading this. Remember a comment could win a prize. In addition to a DVD our grand prize winner will be receiving a Stella task lamp from Stella Lighting.

Stella-6-1

If you don’t like black you can choose a white or a pink one instead! I have two lights from Stella, one upstairs that clamps on to my machine table and one that stands on the floor next to my preferred hand stitching seat. They really are my favorite task lighting and the people from Stella are the nicest, friendliest people you can imagine. They are the funnest crowd to hand out with on a quilt show floor!

So, don’t miss out. Check out all the blogs, subscribe to bloglovin’, like me on Facebook, leave a comment, and then go stitch!

It’s our last day talking about the DVD tomorrow. Thanks for sticking around.

 

103 Comments

  1. Rita S. said:

    Love the squares with the tiny stippling!! Thanks for the chance to win!!

    January 15, 2016
  2. Joan said:

    You have some feather variations that I have never seen before. Tha task light looks great but I really would like the DVD! Here’s hoping!

    January 15, 2016
  3. Donna Koenig said:

    I’m not too good with feathers yet. Love your little extras inside the feathers!

    January 15, 2016
  4. Lynne Stucke said:

    oh. my. goodness! A PINK Stella lamp?? Wouldn’t that be lovely???

    January 15, 2016
  5. Chrissy said:

    It’s just beautiful! I’m glad I found you, thanks to Bonnie Hunter!

    January 15, 2016
  6. Toni said:

    Beautiful feathers and beautiful quilt; such talent. I think the ‘walking foot spine and two pass method’ sounds brilliant and maybe even I could manage that…. Thank you for sharing

    January 15, 2016
  7. Jill B said:

    I love, love, love feathers and am always looking for new variations to stitch!

    January 15, 2016
  8. Sue Vallera said:

    I am off today and planning to use the two pass feather shown on a wall quilt border. Having trouble getting over the fear of starting but today is the day! Have stitched a lot on this quilt with the walking foot but need to move on…could really use the DVD to learn more!

    January 15, 2016
  9. Karen Carpenter said:

    Thanks for the chance.Would love to win. I am planning on working on my machine quilting this year.

    January 15, 2016
  10. Leslie Hassmann said:

    I am a big gardener so needless to say I want to make a floral quilt now that I have seen “Indian Summer”. Absolutely gorgeous! I want to learn how to machine quilt, right now just using a walking foot. I would love to win your DVD!

    January 15, 2016
  11. Renee said:

    Love your style of quilting.

    January 15, 2016
  12. Ashley said:

    Feathers are so intimidating! Would love to learn!

    January 15, 2016
  13. Carol Koehn said:

    The stitching is gorgeous! And that lamp is a dandy!

    January 15, 2016
  14. Tresha Cottrill said:

    I love feathers and I would love to learn tips on how to make them better.

    January 15, 2016
  15. Liz Huntoon said:

    I have the first DVD and found it very helpful. Catherine’s pacing of the info and her lovely English accent add to the experience.l

    January 15, 2016
  16. tootsie661 said:

    Kathy and I have the most important quilting vice-chocolate. Just started free motion feathers on my home machine and I can’t quilt enough. Each new finished product is better than the last. And the lights are a must to chase away all the shadows. Thanks for putting the blogs in a series and the introduction to other wonderful quilters with such extraordinary talents.

    January 15, 2016
  17. LoAnn Trowbridge said:

    I have done quilting with the walking foot, but only once did I do free motion. Eager to learn more. Oh, a pink Stella. That would be nice.

    January 15, 2016
  18. Beverly said:

    Thank you Catherine, I am ready to win!!! Thank you for all the scrumptious ideas to make my UPF’s look radiant!

    January 15, 2016
  19. Beverly said:

    Kathy said to check in here – your are an Illusionary in the quilt business and funny!!!

    January 15, 2016
  20. Beth Strand said:

    I love your feathers and mine could use some help! Especially love the detail work.

    January 15, 2016
  21. Kim said:

    I’m really enjoying seeing all the different machine quilting on the placemats…I’m going to start something similar this weekend! Thanks for the opportunity to win a copy of your DVD.

    January 15, 2016
  22. Elizabeth S said:

    I need that DVD to get out of my squigglies and into feathers! Thanks for the giveaway.

    January 15, 2016
  23. Susan Earl said:

    Love your stitching. Regulating the stitch length has been a problem. Hoping your DVDs will cover that topic.

    January 15, 2016
  24. Tecla Shaffer said:

    I like the idea of doing the spine first. I will try that way next.

    January 15, 2016
  25. KimBehm said:

    Thanks for the chance to win your fabulous sounding dvd!

    January 15, 2016
  26. Jayne Willis said:

    Feathers are a design I haven’t tried yet! I will, one of these days! Love those lights, it would help so much for my nightly sewing!

    January 15, 2016
  27. Jessica T said:

    Oh boy, feathers! I have a love/hate relationship with them. 😀

    January 15, 2016
  28. Sandi said:

    Just hoping to win that DVD so I can use some of your techniques to get over my fear of feathers. M

    January 15, 2016
  29. Carol Sc said:

    I’ve never thought about doing one side of the feather and then come back to do the other side — sounds like a great idea to me. That’s what I love about these blogs — new ideas!

    January 15, 2016
  30. MoeWest said:

    I would like to master feathers quilting.

    January 15, 2016
  31. Suzanna Criss said:

    I need all the help I can get to get over my fear of free motion quilting.

    January 15, 2016
  32. I love quilting feathers and it never occurred to me to use my walking foot to make the spine first. Who knew, what a great idea. I’m really looking forward to getting this DVD and I’m going to recommend that we get it for our local modern quilt guild’s library.

    January 15, 2016
  33. churcae said:

    Beautiful feathers – love the little curl inside them!!

    January 15, 2016
  34. Bertha Goggin said:

    Your quilting is beautiful!

    January 15, 2016
  35. Dian said:

    I am in awe of the wonderful quilting you have shown here. Not sure I will ever achieve the success you have reached but I would love to learn the process from the very beginning. Thanks for sharing and look forward to the DVD to get started.

    January 15, 2016
  36. Sharon Coleman said:

    I am eager to give your techniques a try. Thank so much for sharing your gift.

    January 15, 2016
  37. Laura said:

    Love the idea of making the spine for feathers with the walking foot! That might be motivation enough to finally get me to try making feathers!! Thanks for yet another chance to win your DVD!

    January 15, 2016
  38. Kathy Cummings said:

    You are so amazing ! Feathers look so intimidating but it won’t hurt to try!
    Thank you for all this.

    January 15, 2016
  39. Lori Morton said:

    Wow!! Your Feather’s are soooo cool! Knoooow I absolutely need this DVD! 🙂 Thanks for chance to win too! Love your Summer quilt….Awesome quilting…on all you have shared with us thru this Hop too!

    January 15, 2016
  40. Sandy F said:

    Oh, I so want to learn feathers! Need to win that DVD!

    January 15, 2016
  41. Chris said:

    Kathy Matthews has a way of making whatever she’s writing about sound so compelling! I have to confess that I’m one of her fans but I still really enjoyed her post. Sounds as if you two have a mutual admiration thing going on!!

    January 15, 2016
  42. hydrangia said:

    Feathers, feathers, if only I could master them! I know that your DVD will help me get there! Thanks once again for allowing me to have the chance of winning one. Betsy (sent by Bonnie Hunter).

    January 15, 2016
  43. Ann D said:

    I tried my hand at some FMQ yesterday and was happy that I did not devolve into a meander stitch. I’m not perfect by a long shot but am happy enough not to rip out the stitches. Thanks for the chance to win your DVD.

    January 15, 2016
  44. Edwina parsons said:

    Love the feathers with what I call teardrops in the middle are great, this makes me want to go play at the machine, thanks for the giveaways and I hope to win a chance.

    January 15, 2016
  45. Deborah said:

    Thank you, again, for sharing so much about free motion quilting. I am really excited about the DVD because I am sure it it packed with a lot more inspiration. I am also intrigued by the Stella lamp that you use.

    January 15, 2016
  46. Jean Hope said:

    I love feathers on quilts. Someday I hope to be able to quilt them in my quilts.

    January 15, 2016
  47. Joanne Donovan said:

    I tend to do the “traditional” feather, but I love the ones you’ve shown us today (especially the one with the echo on the inside, with a loop)!! Thanks for the chance to win!!

    January 15, 2016
  48. Wow, I love that Indian Summer quilt!! Gorgeous! Thanks again for doing the blog hop and giveaway. I would love to have your DVD to help me get started with free motion quilting, which I find so intimidating. Also like the Stella lamp. 🙂

    January 15, 2016
  49. Jo N. said:

    You inspire me! I like the spineless feathers.

    Jo N.

    January 15, 2016
  50. teeter965 said:

    When I grow up, I want to be just like you. Beautiful work

    January 15, 2016
  51. Valerie Boode said:

    Great blog network. Appreciate the quilting tips.

    January 15, 2016
  52. Carolyn Armstrong said:

    I love your pyramid quilt – and the feathers quilting is great. I appreciate your info. and feel inspired to give them a try.

    January 15, 2016
  53. Jane said:

    Your feathers are de-light-ful! Nicely done.

    January 15, 2016
  54. Donna W said:

    Love your quilting. Following along each day has made me see that I need a copy of your DVD. Thanks

    January 15, 2016
  55. Cindy said:

    Where has the time gone? One day to go, really. I have been enjoying coming to your bloig each morning and checking out what your guests have to say. Don’t know why, but feathers are my nemisis. Look forward to seeing what advice you share for conquering them.

    January 15, 2016
  56. Priyanka said:

    I love feathers n a quilt with Feathers would be a dream come true.. I like the feathers with spine more 🙂

    January 15, 2016
  57. Dorothy Mayeda said:

    I love your feathers on modern–it mixes it up a bit. I love Kathy’s blog, too!

    January 15, 2016
  58. Love your feathers. I really need to practice.

    January 15, 2016
  59. Jeannette said:

    I am interested in learning more about free motion quilting. A friend of mine is an avid fan of yours. Would love to learn more.

    January 15, 2016
  60. Laurie said:

    No, no lottery winnings, but sure am enjoying your beautiful placemat quilting!

    January 15, 2016
  61. Helen said:

    I love your work. Bonnie Hunter recommended you, and I can see why. I’d love to win either prize, Helen

    January 15, 2016
  62. Karen Miller said:

    Your feathers are beautiful. I have tried making them on practice pieces but definitely need much more practice. Would love to be the winner of the DVD.

    January 15, 2016
  63. Barbara said:

    Thanks for the chance to win.

    January 15, 2016
  64. Jen Beatty said:

    I think you described Kathy and Kathy described you perfectly! It’s inspiring to see both of your works up close. I better get back to my drunkard’s path now.

    January 15, 2016
  65. Joanne B said:

    I think I need to work on my feathers, thanks for the inspiration!

    January 15, 2016
  66. gayleburton said:

    This looks like it would be SO helpful! I’d love to win

    January 15, 2016
  67. Judy Kraft said:

    feathers…. always such a variety….. need to get my placemats made so I can practice… and so I can have samples to put on the wall… I struggle to remember what I’ve already learned 🙂 these senior moments …..

    January 15, 2016
  68. Pauline Sawatsky said:

    I love stitching feathers and the variety looks interesting.

    January 15, 2016
  69. I love quilting feathers too. I’ve enjoyed learning about your new book.

    January 15, 2016
  70. Love the feathers…especially like the part about not having to mark them! Thanks for a chance to win your DVD!

    January 15, 2016
  71. Robby said:

    I’ve learned a lot this week, and got some inspiring ideas. Now to find time to make things happen!

    January 15, 2016
  72. Marianne said:

    I’m great at quilting small pieces but have no luck transferring that to a large quilt. I need to make some lap sized quilt for kids to hone my skills. Between Thanksgiving and today I’ve made 12 quilts for kids to donate and now am a pro at stitching the binding down by machine. Practice truly makes perfect.

    January 15, 2016
  73. Donna said:

    Thanks for sharing your way of doing feathers. I am so excited because I plan to buy a new sewing machine by the end of the month. Then I am going to start FMQ and straight line quilting. I think I likely have lots of mistakes to learn from in my future, I am still excited. Sure hope to win so I have someone to teach me.

    January 15, 2016
  74. quilterpt said:

    Your feathers are great. I love all the variation. Thanks for sharing!

    January 15, 2016
  75. eily62 said:

    I really like your way of doing feathers. I always have lopsided outcomes.

    January 15, 2016
  76. LJ said:

    Feathers are timeless so I’m sure glad you included them in the DVD. I read Kathy’s great blog review of you and your DVD and found her style such fun. I so wanted to leave her a comment but it seemed I could only do it with a Facebook account. Since I don’t do Facebook, I was left out. Please tell her that her sentence that read “Learning new techniques from a stellar quilter” was spot on!

    January 15, 2016
  77. Sandy A in St. Louis said:

    Love the loops in the feathers! Feathers are the one thing I want to learn the most in free motion quilting!

    January 15, 2016
  78. Cathy said:

    I love feathers! Thanks for sharing and the giveaway. The DVD sounds great! I’ll be buying one in the near future.

    January 15, 2016
  79. Kris Friederick said:

    Modern feathers, how fun!

    January 15, 2016
  80. Denise said:

    I would love to win the DV – in the meantime I will be following you and all the others on the hop!

    January 15, 2016
  81. Candy said:

    I haven’t been brave enough to try feathers yet. I need your help! Hopefully I’ll win this ‘lottery’! Thanks again.

    January 15, 2016
  82. Fran said:

    You make it look so easy! And beautiful! After watching the DVD and TONS of practice hopefully my machine quilting will look half as nice as yours.

    January 15, 2016
  83. Sherry Moran said:

    I’m really wanting to do this!

    January 15, 2016
  84. Debra Rowan said:

    I so enjoyed Kathy’s blog and had to sign up. Would love to win. Bonnie Hunter sent me here.

    January 15, 2016
  85. Lynne said:

    Love your feathers in the border.

    January 16, 2016
  86. Dianne said:

    I need all the help I can get when it comes to using my machine for fmq. Would love to win. Found my way here through Bonnie Hunter.

    January 16, 2016
  87. Angela said:

    So many ideas. Would love to try some.

    January 16, 2016
  88. Christine said:

    Bonnie Hunter said that I NEED this video. Thank you for the opportunity to make that possible.

    January 16, 2016
  89. Julie Kaiser said:

    Thanks for all the great information

    January 16, 2016
  90. Peggy Blanton said:

    I am so excited! Looks like a great addition to my video library!

    January 16, 2016
  91. Debbie P said:

    I have always had difficulty doing ‘feathers’ – thanks for the great info!!

    January 16, 2016
  92. Julie Robbins said:

    I love your feathers, beautiful!

    January 16, 2016
  93. Renata said:

    Love the feathers and the use of the walking foot. A very nice DVD!

    January 16, 2016
  94. Lisa Boles said:

    I loved “meeting” new to me bloggers as I heard more about you and your DVD.

    January 17, 2016
  95. Jen B said:

    came over from Bonnie Hunter’s. Glad I did.

    January 17, 2016
  96. Isabel said:

    Love your quilts and the quilting. i need all the help I can get with my quilting, but still trying hard and enjoying it.

    January 17, 2016
  97. sobuzy said:

    The blog is awesome! Too bad I’m just now taking time to venture through always late but still so awesome!

    January 17, 2016
  98. Linda Hiatt said:

    Really like your hint on using the walking foot to straight stitch first (before) FM. THAT is something I need to remember and DO! 😉

    January 18, 2016
  99. shellie said:

    Love looking at the derail shots. Thank you.

    January 24, 2016

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