FMQ Wednesday: Infinite Feather Template

The Infinite Feather Template has arrived (must say, the US postal system is just fantastic).

As I have talked about recently, I was exploring the net for some ready made feather shapes and then remembered this template. Was very curious about this as I have been drawing my feathers by hand most of the time, so have developed my own style of feathers, drawing them at a particular angle and usually at a particular size and shape. Wondered whether a template would be able to accommodate this.

I got this because I wanted to speed up the process of drawing but also to make my own motifs when I need them, in the size that I need them. While I could also use the computer (eg. EQ7 or a drawing program), I find it incredibly hard to end up with shapes that I am happy with...and usually it takes a really long time trying to draw with the mouse or adjusting shapes. Drawing by hand is easier for me, however sometimes, like in motifs, you want absolute consistency.

So I started playing...

Very easy to use and very handy. Also, need not have been concerned about the shape of the plumes. When trialling the meandering border design I chose several feather shapes that were closest to how I draw them and angled them in a way that comes closest to how I do them anyway, so looking at this I could have easily drawn this myself (however not quite as quickly and nicely rounded). You probably wonder why this is important to me...I have one feather border stencil that I bought some years ago,  however, somehow the plumes are angled and shaped in a way that is not how I would draw them, so when it comes to stitching it, it is almost like stitching against the grain...I never bought another feather stencil after that (except for a Full line stencil recently) and started to do my own feathers and have not looked back. This template will just speed up the process a bit. People often ask whether I draw my feathers first...sometimes I do and sometimes I don't, depending on what look I am after.  Usually, I draw portions of a border design and do some freehand...however the spine and corners are always marked! This template will be a very useful little helper in getting the general size and orientation happening and also will be handy if I wanted to do a very formalised and consistently shaped feather border.

Played some more

Practiced on the silk, this time using a white marker which I hardly could see because of the shine (what do people use to mark on silk, I wonder). Also measured the outside in inches and then divided the square in centimeters, hence the different size petals...could pretend it was meant to be that way, but it was actually supposed to look like the picture below.

Then drew up another motif...so handy! Started as a 5in motif but then added another plume making it bigger...endless possibilities really.

Karin