The BIG Reveal!! Friends of a Feather!!

OMG you guys!! Early this morning I checked the tracking on both Renee's mine headed to her and my mini headed this way - and they were scheduled for delivery TODAY!! I was told Saturday, as was Renee for anticipated delivery. We have both received our quilts!! Renee has posted about my quilt, make sure you check it out! OMG, you guys!! It is fabulous!! We agreed to do a swap back in May. Due to both of our schedules, we agreed that at some point late in the year we would swap. I don't think either of us thought it would actually be 2016 before the quilts actually made it to their forever homes - BUT, it was definitely worth the 'wait'! Not that either of us was chomping at the bit or had the quilts finished any earlier LOL OK, here it is! I introduce to you, Friends of a Feather! :D

Friends Of A Feather :) I had a blast quilting this mini for Renee!

I knew this quilt would be filled with feathers. The question was, traditional quilting feathers (like the ones in the background or corners), bird feathers. . . peacock feathers??? WTH, why not all of them? So then I started doodling. And trolling the internet. And plotting. Have you seen Renee's mad quilting skills? If not, when you go check out my quilt on her blog, check out her other work. You will not regret it!! I wanted this quilt to be all thread and had to get over the desire for everything to be 'perfect.' Anywhoo, back to this quilt. I initially thought I would put Quilts of a Feather (Renee's blog name) on the quilt. And then I started second guessing it. I went back and forth. I changed my mind about a bajillion times. And then it was go time - I had to make a decision because I was ready to finish the background quilting. . . I did what any sneaky person would do ;) I emailed Yvonne and asked her what she thought about putting Renee's blog name on the quilt. I did send her a picture of what the quilt looked like at that point. What she came back with was nothing short of amazing!! What about putting 'Friends of a Feather' on the quilt? Holy best idea ever!! Friends of a Feather indeed! :) Thank you, Yvonne, for a spectacularly ingenious idea! And I named the quilt Friends of a Feather and put it on the label (which yes, on one end is actually hand sewn down! LOL). Here's a bit of the story. I planned to document this well but when those Christmas commissions came in, those grand ideas kind of fell to the wayside. I do have a couple of pictures that show a bit of the process.

I wanted the feathers to overlap so it would look kind of 3D. I started with the feathers on the sides. Then I added these two feathers trying not to worry about quilting over lines :)

Here are the threads that are in the bird feathers. All Aurifil - the cones are Aurifil Longarm Poly. LOVE!! Seriously LOVE!! :)

I had started quilting the background at this point. The darker blue feather in the bottom right corner was done through the bobbin with 8 wt thread!!! I had to restrain myself to not put it all over the quilt! LOL

OK, that's where the documentation ends LOL I think the overlapping idea really worked :) The lighter blue variegated thread in the peacock eye is a Wonderfil 12 wt thread, the 8 wt thread that I did the bobbin work with (first time I had ever done this and I highly recommend giving it a go!!) is also Wonderfil as is the very middle of the peacock eye. All of the rest of the thread on the front of the quilt is cotton or poly Aurifil in various different weights and colors.

More pictures anyone??? :D

And the back!

I used one thread, Isocord 50 wt poly for the back of the quilt.

The fabric is Cherrywood hand dyed in Silver. I can't say enough about this fabric! It's feels and looks like suede. It is lush and beautiful. No, not affiliated in any way, its just that good! :) The binding, hanging triangles and label came from a FQ bundle called Modern Muse from Massdrop. I don't know the color as none of the FQ were marked.

So the suspense is over!! And here's a couple of pictures of what Renee sent me. Go visit and see her pictures (much better than these, still raining here!) and her process of making the quilt!

I told you, totally mad quilting skills!! :)

It's PURPLE!! :) LOVE!! It will be hanging over my cutting table so I can look at it when I'm cutting, sewing AND ironing :D

So how was my first swap experience? Freakin' fantastic!! :D Thank you, Renee for this beautiful piece of you!!

Linking up with Finish it up Friday. 

Until next time, keep on quilting!!