flying geese + feathers

This quilt has been a long time coming. Back when my husband and I got married, my dearest friend from my high school days gifted us with a beautiful, bed-size quilt. So when she got married in New York City last summer, I knew it was my chance to return the favor and make her and her new husband a quilt.

My friend loves purple (this wall quilt was for her), so I looked around on Design Seeds for purple inspiration. I wound up using this color palette to inspire my fabric pull. My friend had mentioned her love of Anna Maria Horner's feathers, so I knew I wanted to use those in the quilt. When I discovered how long it took to make each feather, and knew that I needed to wind up with a queen-size quilt, I decided to revise my plan a bit. I made stacks of feathers, flying geese, and half-square triangles, and then began piecing improvisationally, adding blocks of fabric as I went along to fill space.

The results were admittedly chaotic---so much randomness!---but completely different than anything I've done before.

Since it was so large, and I'd already done so much piecing, I decided to use a purple sheet for a seamless backing. I was pleasantly surprised with how soft it was! Lindsay of Eileen Quilts quilted it for me and I bound it with one of Carolyn Friedlander's cross-hatch prints. I added a hand-embroidered label with the couple's wedding date, along with a new leather Salty Oat tag.

I gifted it to my friend the weekend before last (over a year after her wedding---oops!), while visiting my parents in New Hampshire. The timing worked out well, since the changing fall foliage provided the perfect backdrop for photos.