Advanced Feather Braiding
Creating braided, intertwined, overlapping, and cabled feather designs is among the most advanced techniques in freehand quilting. Creating the successful illusion of uninterrupted quilted feather cables can be a challenge, one that is broken down for you into manageable steps.
Designed for quilters who already understand basic feather construction, the class helps bridge the gap between quilting feathers and making them feel beautifully interconnected and intentional. This class will teach you how to create your own cable compositions, inspired by quilt history, contemporary design, Celtic and tile inspiration, as well as organic free form compositions, all while maintaining the illusion of beautiful connectivity.
What you will learn
I created this 4.75 hour course after seeing how many quilters adored the look of overlapping, intertwining freehand feathers, but just lacked the finessing tips to really sell the illusion of truly continuous feather braids.
While familiarity with feathers is helpful, class begins with a review of heirloom quality freehand feathers in three major styles:
- Heirloom Hump and Bump Feathers
- Heirloom Continuous Feathers
- Heirloom Leaf or Molar Feathers
Next, you'll be guided through the finessing tips that will make your feather braids look truly connected, like starts, stops, and overlapping techniques. You'll also explore several types of feather spine development, each with its own movement and distinctive character.
And then, the fun really begins with a deep dive into design! You'll learn to create original cabled borders, adapt pre-made stencils to fit your quilt and your imagination, and learn the critical skills of feather direction changes while exploring more organic, free form compositions.
Download and Adapt Nine Beautiful Border Designs
This class focuses on teaching you to design your own overlapping, cabled compositions, but there is nothing quite like a quick start! Download nine original design outlines to save and print at home.
Use your printer to scale the designs, then create paper stencils by sewing over the lines with an old needle through the paper.
Learn how to expand and contract both these designs and store bought stencils to fit your own projects beautifully.
Each design can become uniquely your own as you decide what feathers to braid, how they will move, and where to add your own flourishes and creativity.
Learn to Innovate Organic Intertwined Compositions
Braiding and cabling feather strands together can move beyond a planned, formal border and into the realm of flowing, fanciful organic compositions.
Learn to change feather direction seamlessly while smoothly intertwining multiple organic feather strands. This technique is perfect for less formal quilts, art quilts, or large open space feather motifs where working out the math for a formal design, just doesn't meet the needs of the quilt.
Create at your own Pace
Advanced Feather Braiding is designed to fit comfortably into your life and schedule. This is a fully recorded digital class with immediate access upon purchase, allowing you to learn whenever it works best for you.
Your enrollment includes forever access to the course, so you can revisit lessons, review techniques, and continue refining your skills over time. Whether you prefer to dive in all at once or practice gradually between projects, the class will always be available whenever you are ready to return to it.
Curriculum
Sewing Demonstrations on Three types of machines
All class units feature design lessons via drawing, and sewn demonstrations, featuring all three major types of sewing machines a student may be familiar with.
Standing Longarm
Advanced Feather Braiding:
Elegant, intertwined, and continuous
Domestic Sewing Machine
Advanced Feather Braiding:
Designing and planning your own cables
Table Mounted Longarm
Advanced Feather Braiding:
Mastering direction changes on organic compositions
Join me for Advanced Feather Braiding
You'll feel like you are in the studio with me as we design with drawing and have quilting demonstrations on all 3 of my major machines: a standing longarm, sitting longarm, and domestic sewing machine.
Hi, I'm Bethanne Nemesh
I’m a quilter who fell in love with the rhythm and precision of feather quilting, and I’ve spent years refining techniques and teaching them to others. Watching students tackle something that once felt intimidating, then discover they truly can succeed at it, is why I teach. I feel I bring a calm, practical approach to design and quilting that blends artistry with mechanics so advanced skills feel natural and repeatable.
In Advanced Feather Braiding, we go deep into design, heirloom techniques, high-end finishing touches, and organic design, all with the goal of helping you feel confident that you can successfully intertwine feather braids and cables seamlessly. Whether you prefer working from stencils or creating original designs of your own, you'll gain the skills to create braided feather compositions with clarity, flow, and professional level refinement.