Fancy Feathers

A couple of weeks ago when The Quilt Show had free episodes on their website, I came across Linda Taylor and her amazing Fancy Feathers. I admit I watched the show about 3 times, and paused umpteen times, trying to draw out her inspirational feathers.

I was left with several A4 pages of feathers, which are now taped to the wall by my sewing machine, and have continued to doodle more feathers in any spare moments, creating my own designs and practising hers.

While I was in Perth, I collected a quilt top from Adds. Having repaired it and re-prepped it for quilting, I'm now quilting fancy feathers all over it. It's probably not the ideal top for this, because too much of the detail gets lost in the prints, but Adds has given me free-reign, and it's wonderful practice. The advantage is that the prints also disguise my beginner efforts!

This technique is quite thread-intensive. I've emptied nearly 3 bobbins so far, and can see me getting through about 8 in what is really only a small lap quilt. I did warn that it would be heavily quilted, but hadn't realised just how heavily until I got into it. I'm guessing there won't be much left on the new 1300m spool of pale green Aurifill I started!

Click on each of the images to see more detail - it's hard to photograph!

It's a bit slow-going, partly because of the amount of quilting, but also due to the pauses while I decide on the pattern for each feather. This will take a few days to finish.