Quilting Design - Free Motion Pebbles and Feathers

Barbra and I have done quite a few successful projects together with one of them being hung at Qulit Canada in 2024.  I love her eye for colour and her modern style of quilting.  You can see this week's quilt project on YouTube here:

Blue Feather Quilt 

The quilt that hung at Quilt Canada can be found here:

Quilting a Mini Quilt

I love the look of ombre fabric, but in all reality, I'm not too sure I would be very successful in using it.  I'm not entirely sure what the intended use for this piece was but the feathers look so cool! 

For anyone wondering, I do get quite a few raw edge applique quilts that haven't been secured with thread into my studio.  I am not sure what the thought pattern is behind it but folks wouldn't ask me to do it if there wasn't a purpose.  When I do stitch a raw edge applique quilt I just make sure not to catch the edge of the fabric with my needle and cause fraying.  But can you imagine how cool this might look with some frayed edges? 

Now my original plan was to ghost quilt these feathers into the background but it really wasn't possible without having to spend a significant amount of time designing and marking and that just wasn't in the budget for this quilt.  So the compromise I came up with was to do some more traditional-style feathers.

By adding these feathers I was also able to fill in some of the negative space and save some time doing repetitive pebble work. 

I marked the spines for these feathers before I mounted the quilt so I could be confident with their spacing and placement. 

I love how organic floating feathers can be, I love quilting them, even as a self-proclaimed 'Modern Quilter'.  Speaking of modern quilting my Modern Quilting with Rulers Course is on sale until February 7th 2025.  Use code: MODERN2025 to take $50 off 

MODERN QUILTING WITH RULERS ONLINE COURSE

If you watch the video there is a whole chapter at the end of the video with some real-time stitching of this mixed pebble filler. 

Barbra also sent me a smaller version of this feather quilt and I quilted it much the same as I did the first one.  This ombre fabric is just a show stopper eh!

And here is a photo of the back, you can really see how much effort went into securing the appliques and creating texture.  I think some people might think I should have added more detail to the feathers, but I believe that by just outlining them I made them stand out more and really allowed the intended focus to shine. 

Thanks for watching and reading!  I hope everyone is solidifying their plans to attend QuiltCon later this month.  Every year I say I'm going to go, but I never seem to get my ducks in a row!  hahaha.  Maybe next year.