October 22, 2011

Breaking Dawn Charity Quilt: Feathers

What had happened to me? I couldn't make sense of the fluffy white snow that clung to my skin. I shook my head, and a cascade of white drifted out of my hair.

I pinched one soft white bit between my fingers. It was a piece of down.

“Why am I covered in feathers?” I asked, confused.
–Bella Cullen, Breaking Dawn, page 89

Design and piecing by Cat
I wanted to create a block of feathers floating everywhere. I drafted the pattern from scratch. I have pet chickens so I had no problems trying to visualize the feathers. To create a sense of dimension and to have each feather slightly different, each of the feathers is done using a different shade of cream. I was stuck on what to use. I like to think that the resulting block feels like feathers have floated in the air before settling in place.

The background fabric was chosen from my scraps and I like to use purple to represent Bella in quilting. Afterwards I thought it almost looked like Bella's bruises under the feathers although that wasn't the original intention.

3 comments:

Elizabeth said...

Cat! Amazing as usual! You have a wonderful talent for paper piecing design. I love the variety in the feathers and how your background could be the bruises under the feathers. Brilliant!

xo -E

Jennifer Ofenstein said...

I have admired this block before. Cat always does wonderful work!

Joyce said...

This looks great, Cat! The feathers do look like they've been floating. I never thought about the background fabric looking like bruises, but now that you mention it . . .!