Making Feathered Stencils

Making Feather Stencils!

Feathered Wreath Stencil

Most of us trace feather designs out of a book or magazine and hope to incorporate them into quilting designs. Often the size of the motif is inappropriate for the space to be filled with quilting. We use a copier to enlarge or reduce designs until the motif is just the right size.

But now what? How to transfer the quilting design to the top is never easy to answer. If the quilt has not yet been layered it is possible to place the pattern over a light box and draw it onto the quilt top. The disadvantage to this is that the entire top must be marked before beginning quilting and some of the marks will wear away before you get a chance to quilt them. Also, most of the decisions about the quilting design must be made before starting to quilt. This is something I don't like to do.

Use of a stencil allows you to mark as you go. It can be used to mark just the top (before layering!), or, more frequently, I use a stencil to mark designs as I'm quilting!

This is the easiest way I've come up with to mark a feathered wreath :

Draw the design on template plastic with a permanent felt tip marker. Then cut around each feather down to the "vein". The vein becomes the connector, or bridge, to hold the stencil together. Never cut through the vein.

In order to get a channel through which to draw with my pencil or marking tool, I cut away the inside curve of the feather. In the following illustration the areas marked in red should be removed. This gives a channel for the marker.

Drawing of Feathered Wreath

After cutting the stencil out it should look like the scan at the top of the page. Then, simply place the template on the quilt and draw around the feathers.

Here is an example of what the design will look like after marking. Please note: After using the stencil draw in the vein lines, either free-hand or with an additional circle template.

Feathered Wreath Quilting Pattern

I hope you will try this technique. It works with most feathered designs because the vein is kept as the connector.

Feathers are fun!

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