Friday, October 18, 2013

Comfy Cozy

Remember my Feather Bed Quilt?

I worked on it here and there over the summer, a feather at a time.  Last week I started looking at it again, thinking, "I really should get back to that."  And since the last few days were cold and rainy here, all I wanted to do was things that make me feel warm and cozy:  knitting and quilting.

I had half the feathers done, and decided that things would go faster if, rather than doing each feather individually, I did the remaining feathers assembly-line style:


So Wednesday evening, I attached all the B pieces to the A pieces.  Yesterday morning I was back at it.  It didn't take me long to sew the A/B units to the C piece (the stem), so I went ahead with D.


And once I had D on, I felt like I might as well go ahead and attach E.  And since that didn't take long either, I went ahead with piece F - which finishes out the block!

Well, of course, having all my feathers put together, there was no way I could resist arranging them on the floor to see what my finished top would look like:


And once they were down there in an arrangement I liked, I figured I might as well just go ahead and sew them together so I didn't have to worry about keeping them in that order.  So, although I didn't mean to do it, I spent ALL day yesterday working on it, and finished the top!  Here it is with the first few rays of sunshine this morning:


When I started this project, I planned to make the twin size from the pattern, which requires 38 feathers.  But each feather is surprisingly large, and I realized that 38 feathers would produce a much larger quilt than what I wanted.  So I scaled my pattern back to 22 feathers.  As it is, this top almost completely covers the top of my queen-sized guest bed, at 54" x 71":


My background fabric is Essex Linen, which I'd never used before this project.  It is a lot heavier than I realized, so for the back I'm going to use voile - another print from this line, Anna Maria Horner's Field Study Coordinates in Saffron.  I've been thinking about how best to quilt it so as not to interfere with the design, and I'm thinking it's going to be hand-quilted.


So while last week I was wondering if I would get this quilt done before the end of the year, now it's looking like I will.  I'm very excited about that, and am already planning out the next quilting project . . .

29 comments:

  1. It is so awesome! You are wonderfully talented.

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  2. Oh, that is beautiful. But stop with the quilts! I cannot get excited about any new crafts. I can barely sort out the ones I already do!

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    1. That makes me feel like an arbiter of style, craft-wise. Which may be an oxymoron :-)

      But no can do - quilts are so awesome for those times when I want to sew, but can't really manage more than a straight seam. So the quilts are here to stay!

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  3. That's a really cool design!! Almost makes me want to pick up quilitng, almost...

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    1. This is the design that inspired me to get back into quilting after about 10 years of not doing it. That Anna Maria is so creative!

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  4. Beautiful! I could only muster two squares. When you are on a roll best to keep going!

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  5. Super project! I love the feather design.

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  6. Awesome, love it! I love hand sewing so the thought of hand quilting is so cool. I did my first quilt by machine though. How are you going to do it? Around the feathers and along the seam lines or in a grid pattern?

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    1. I love hand sewing too, but I haven't hand quilted yet. However, a friend showed me her many hand-quilted quilts this spring, and she assured me it's not that tedious!

      I'm thinking to go around each feather with a saffron color to match the back, and then fill in with some cream where needed to keep it all together. But that bit I haven't figured out yet!

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  7. Oh it's absolutely beautiful, it's going to be a fabulous quilt :)

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  8. those feathers are so great! this will be lovely for sure.

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  9. How gorgeous! I'm so excited to see this progress!

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  10. I love this! It's beautiful!

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  11. Looking good Gail! I like the fact that you are thinking of hand quilting it. I may be a convert to hand quilting myself after yesterday's class - it is as soothing as knitting!

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    1. I'm hoping it will be! I enjoy hand stitching, but haven't done it with this mass of fabric before, so we'll see!

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  12. I am loving your exploration into textiles! This is darling!!

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    1. Hubby calls me "Fiber Freak!" He's not far wrong!

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  13. Wow, this is such a lovely quilt top! The colors and feathers are just awesome! I just finished a quilt made from butterfly blocks for my mum (I started in March and had to be done in October) and am now looking for another cute pattern. The one you are using tempts me a lot! I am looking forward to your quilting.

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    1. Thanks, Daniela! This is (incredibly) a free pattern! And the instructions are very thorough. Highly recommended!

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    2. Thanks for letting me know! Now I am even more tempted!

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  14. I NEED to make this quilt for myself. It looks so impressive and beautiful. It's going to make you so happy to cozy up in it.

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    1. I think you do! It is a little more challenging piecing that what I've done before, but the instructions are so clear that it wasn't difficult - just a little time consuming. I can't wait to have this be my blankie!

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  15. I've seen a few versions of this quilt and I have to say that yours is the only one that's gotten me thinking that maybe one day I'll give it a go, it's beautiful!

    I love Essex Linen, I am just about to use it for another quilt top, I really like the weight of it.

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    1. Wow, thank you, Anna! I like the Essex Linen too, I just wasn't prepared for how much heavier it is than quilting cotton!

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  16. I am absolutely in love with this! The colorful feathers are so fun. I like that the feathers are such an unexpected shape for a quilt (not your typical squares and triangles). It turned out so lovely. I've wanted to try quilting, but haven't taken the plunge yet. You have to be so exact with measurements!

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    1. You should give it a go, Erica! I wasn't super precise on this one, and there are plenty of quilt patterns where you don't have to be precise at all. Most of the time, once you've made the blocks, you trim them all to the same size, so that takes care of minor variations.

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