Loose Change is on the longarm now. When I first made it, the quilting plan was to quilt lots of feathers in the black spaces. Then I thought about putting free motion flowers and leaves. So I played around with drawing in the feathers and flowers.
Feathers won out:
Can you see the floral backing fabric rolled up at the top of the photo? Another perfect backing and I had a whole bolt of it. Four or five years ago, an online group was doing a challenge and using this fabric. I ordered a bolt and never did the challenge but it’s a good backing for this quilt.
Making feathers is so fun!
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
What a beautiful, cheerful quilt. The feathers are so well done and I really, really, love that backing!
Again, I have feather envy. You make the nicest feathers. Are you going to put anything in the pieced part?
Looks great, as usual.
I always like brights and black together.
I completely agree. I love quilting feathers. Your feathers look fabulous against the black fabric.
That’s the Jasmine fabric you used for the backing! It worked well with your quilt top! I like the feathers too
Wow! What thread are you using for the feathers on the black columns? Very striking; beautiful feathers.
(If/when I do feathers, I’ll probably do, oh, dark gray thread on black fabric or something equally camouflaged….)
It’s a Superior King Tut variegated. I’ll try to remember tomorrow when I’m back downstairs to give you the color number.
When you order a bolt of fabric in the USA, how much is on the bolt? Just wondering!!
Love, love, love the feathers and you just confirmed for the gazillionth time that I am a HUGE fan of black as a background fabric with almost any fabric but especially brights!! I think I will be ordering a bolt here in Oz (about 15m for a plain colour) so I can use up some stash fabrics!
I’ve seen the size of bolts vary from 10 to 15 yards – just depends on the manufacturer.
Judy, when I grow up I want to make feathers like you do. I love them but haven’t a clue on how to construct them.
Judy, This is my kind of fast quilt. I love making scrap quilts from stash. I too LOVE your style of feathers. Any hints on how you make them?? Spine first? Top down or bottom up? Do you have a favorite teacher that taught you to make this type or is this YOUR OWN creation. I’d love to learn how. They look big and fill up spaces faster than some I’ve seen. Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks Darlene S in MO.
The backing is gorgeous and so are your feathers! I can only dream about doing feathers. Thus far, my machine quilting comfort level hasn’t progressed much past my walking foot, but I have gotten pretty proficient and creative with coming up with quilting designs that I can quilt with the walking foot, including gentle curves, so that’s something I guess.
Perfect backing!
The feathers are fantastic!
Beautiful work – please show us how you quilted the pieced part of the quilt. I would love to see more details of your quilting on all your quilts, thanks for all the inspiration.
It is always fun to play around with ideas, but I find that usually my original idea wins out in the end – you designed this quilt with feathers in mind – and feathers look wonderful! Great job! Also – great use of that backing fabric. Cheers! Evelyn
That backing fabric is absolutely wonderful. I love fabrics like that.
I just love feathers. And yours look great. They make a quilt look spectacular.
Your use of many borders sure makes a big difference in the overall look of a quilt. They took it from almost overly simple to great.
Hey I recognize that backing! I’ve got a challenge project form it hanging in my bathroom.
It’s prefect for the quilt and it turned out stunning.