When machine quilting, I usually don't mark the quilt first. I enjoy coming up with designs that I can draw "free hand" at the machine. I thought this quilt called for something formal like a feathered vine seen on many traditional and Amish quilts. I tried to free hand a feathered vine on practice piece and it just didn't work at this scale. These strips are 9.5 inches wide, a pretty big space to fill evenly without marking. I, then, drew out a pattern, a "free hand" vine that is the same distance to each side of the strip. The length of the waves are not necessarily equal but the width is the same. I marked the sides and the center line as a guide on the fabric.
I stitched the center with a double line about an eight of an inch apart. After trying and failing at free handing the feathers on the machine on a sample, I marked each feather before sewing on the quilt.
The template for the vine can be placed four different ways by flipping it around. That will give a little bit of variation in the vines while still having them all almost the same.
I am pretty happy with the result. I still have three more strips to do but each one gets a little easier.
I plan to do some filler quilting in the areas around the vine. That should make the feathers visually "pop". The thread I am using is a really pretty brown that matches the fabric beautifully. It matches so well that it is almost impossible to see the lines I have sewn when I need to backtrack.
I hope you had a great weekend doing something fun.
