Lucky girl right here (I'm talking about me)!  I got a chance to review this book for Natalia.  But I am not the only lucky one because Natalia is too.  She wrote a fantastic book about feathers that every quilter should add to their library.  This is of course available at your local quilt shop ;)

I am going to highlight little points that I appreciated through out her book and give you a million reasons why you will too feel the same way.

To start, I have felt much like Natalia when it came to feathers.  I will give history about my start in quilting to give a little back story.  I bought my machine to build my career in quilting and provide for our little family.  Being younger with little kids money and time is in short supply.  I started quilting with only the few skills I encompassed and not a lot of resources.  The funny thing is that having a simple resource like this book can make all the difference and it is small investment to add a huge punch to build those skills.  Long story short I would have loved to educate myself with the finest teachers and practice all that I could on blank canvas' but the reality was that I had limited funds and customer quilts to work on.  Therefore trying new skills and messing up customer quilts isn't always the best option.  But as time went on I was able to sneak a couple of my own quilts and attempt feather's on them.  They were not the cutest!!!  I will tell you!!!  I wish I had this book to help me along the way.  If only to be encouraging but really to teach the basics of feather construction and to realize there are many options to try and absorb.

Fast forward to present day, I am comfortable in a few feather compilations and that is a good thing.  In addition I am SO EXCITED to try out some new styles that I have not attempted that Natalia included!!  I simply can not wait!!!  I just need to get quilt making :)

Natalia shared that she felt feather's are modern.  I completely agree.  I find myself being a traditionalist modern quilter.  I think that identifying as such means that I appreciate the traditional quilt block designs while at the same time feel that the rules are meant to be broken.  Natalia includes different block combinations using feathers twisting and turning in fun directions and split and mixed with other geometric designs that do just that - break past traditions to be modern.  They are so stunning!  It really peaked my interest to think of new ways I can fit half of a feather in a block.  I really enjoy quilting samplers and these examples brought up my feeling that samplers are the perfect place to practice quilting techniques in small spaces with less pressure to perhaps spoil an entire quilt with your inexperience.  This theory could be applied when using Natalia's feather block designs.  They can be used in a small amount to expand those skills and in fun combinations.  I have just the quilt that is almost finished to try just this (enter: FARM GIRL VINTAGE - we are making this quilt for our BOM in our guild this year and I have a huge head start so I am tickled that I got a chance to see this book before I get to quilting, it is going to be a treat to use some of Natalia's ingenious ideas - seriously)!  For instance I would take a simple churn dash block and add one of the block's Natalia designed with feather quilting and I am going to tell ya it is going to just pop!!!  Anyway, that will be a treat.

Often times I consider borders as a border potential and fillers and I forget that they can be secondary designs to the piecing.  The next to last thing I will highlight is that Natalia used the idea of feathers fitting in all kinds of ways working with piecing.  I have to say that my favorite works of Natalia even in her everyday quilting for her customer's is how she is able to incorporate straight line ruler work with feathers.  She has included variations to do just that in this book.  The most sunning I would say were the setting triangles and flying geese.  Visually for the eye to see a quilting design that pulls the eye into the center of the quilt or alternatively to the outside border it is just so exciting and daring and awesome!!  I love it!!  By adding the straight lines in contrast to a soft feather is fascinating.  I have always loved it when she quilts this way and to have a visual guide in my little hot hands when I am quilting is just the best.  I can't say how packed this book is for inspiration.

I bet you didn't know that no two feathers are alike and the type of feathers are endless.  The last thing that I will touch on is the variety of feather types that are included in this book.  Natalia used hook feathers and fern feathers and lateral feathers and feathered flowers and feather medallions and would you believe a lot more.  The thing that I have learned about long arm quilting (and the two years prior domestic quilting) in these past six years is that practice makes perfect.  Don't be scared to try something and just keep practicing.  You absolutely "WILL" get better!! You will!!  And while you will continue to critique yourself you will notice when you see your quilting as a whole that it actually looks pretty dang good and you can see that progress.  I am excited to keep stretching this with Natalia's book and I appreciate her work and dedication to this quilting world.  Because of her hard work we get to reap the crops that she grew.  Kudos to her!!

Five Stars for Visual Guide to Free-Motion Quilting Feathers by Natalia Bonner

Thank you Natalia, Michelle :)

I started and ended a decision to start graduate school this semester.  I can't exactly put my finger on why I didn't stay enrolled because it was more of an emotional decision.  All feelings more than reasons were pointing to me delaying that path for just a little longer.  I have to admit that life feels like climbing ladders.  It is almost as if I am checking things off the list and climbing up the ladder higher and higher.  I ask myself if this is what I am suppose to be doing.  It feels like a ladder to exhaustion at certain points.  I do have so many reasons to finish my degree (graduate school) and I essentially have time to do this now but for whatever reason I felt off?  I just didn't think it was right.  I couldn't put my finger on it like I shared.  I came up with excuses and rationalizations and even felt guilty about being a quitter or lazy.

Now that the decision has been made to delay it for a bit, I am left in a weird place wondering how I got here.  However, I do feel a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders because I am really savoring the time with the kids and Weston.  Before, I had a calendar with all these dates on them and I was thinking about how all of these things were going to fit in with each other.  I just kept coming back the question of what is the hurry?  I am not in a race and I am not here to prove anything to anyone including myself.  So I decided to jump off the ladder and take a detour.

Through my life I have identified that you really can not have everything.  With each decision you make, you in turn have to make sacrifices.  I live by that and I realized that the sacrifices were there and I wasn't sure I was willing to make them.  I believe that I have everything I dreamt of right now.  That makes me one lucky girl.  I am grateful for that.  I just felt the need to drink that in and take my time and not push myself so hard.  I'll get there again but in the future and perhaps in a way that will work even better for us.

From now on this quilt will represent this time in my life and the decision that I made.  It also will represent a few things that I have really wanted to do and I have put off.  It could represent a dream come true.
QUILTING - I feel so happy to finally quilt feathers on a quilt and to proudly show it off!  Feathers haven't come as easily to me over the years.  I have practiced and practiced.  I knew I was finally at the point that I could quilt them as a feature.  This quilt design for me didn't have any other thing in the open quilting space than feathers.  So I held my breath and hoped for the best.  Thankfully, it worked out this time.  It was easy enough and they looked so cute.  The fabrics that I picked to use in the ladder part of the quilt had little flamingos.  I was torn at first whether or not to use them.  The fabrics really needed just one little pop of something and in the end the flamingo did just the trick.  The overall feathers seemed a perfect fit for that fabric addition too.
DESIGN - Another thing that worked out while in the midst of the design is the pillow.  I cut more squares just to have the option of throwing in all the pieces in a random style.  It is difficult to do this when sewing all the pieces and you realize you have picked all the good ones and have only a majority of one fabric left.  I cut extra with this in mind but you should notice that in the end I have three blue ones all touching without even realizing that I did that?  So that is true random right, he, he, he.  I always planned to make a pillow with those extra pieces.  I came up with that design that would just compliment the quilt and not copy cat.  SO PRETTY MUCH it looks adorable in my front room.  I think that displaying these things is the best part of the process.  To think about the time and creative juices that went into making the items it just reminds me how lucky I am to be creative and how much I love making our home a safe pretty place for my family to come home to each day.  It sometimes feels strange to be in the "Entertainment/Hobby" business and one day my degree might take me into another industry though, I really enjoy working in this field here and now.

Quilting is no different than SPORTS, VACATIONING, PARTIES, HUNTING, BIKING, HIKING, DECORATING.  We have the luxury in our lives to enjoy hobbies that are just for fun and just for our enjoyment.  While there aren't as many quilters as say Sports fans, the idea behind both are investing in fun.  I wish that our All-star quilters were paid as much as the All-star baseball players because geez I think that would be pretty great!  It is a funny thing to admit that we live for fun and work for a living and occasionally we have fun working.
My machine is my friend now.  The more I learn about quilting on the machine the more I just love it!  For the flamingo quilt I used a ruler to outline the flamingo, marked the flamingo shape, and quilted an all-over feather design in the background.  I was so excited to see it as I was quilting!  The flamingos were going to pop!  You never know when you have a plan that it isn't going to overwhelm the quilt and it is a relief to see that you are in the clear.
Inside the flamingo I added a little free-motion quilting to enhance the shape of the flamingo.  I have discovered that when quilting a dense background it is still important to keep the quilting consistent.  Once you take the quilt off the machine the unquilted parts look awkward if you aren't consistent and it doesn't enhance the design like quilting should.  So this was the perfect amount.  While it looks a little busy in the pictures in person it doesn't stand out as much and appears much more subtle.
So these quilts are friends and the flamingos are friends too.  Cately called dibs on Ruby which is the lighter salmony higher flamingo and I renamed my flamingo Charlotte and she is the deep pink one.  Cately helped with the fabric pulls on this quilt.  It is so fun to hear her opinion and makes the process even more awesome for me to have her input.  In fact both of the kids often times help me with all of my quilts these days it seems at some point or another.  It is almost as if it has a little piece of them too.  That makes my heart happy without a doubt.
Lastly, the backing.  The backing has flamingo fabric!!  I thought I would include that in the front but when I got the fabric home and started thinking that it would actually be weird to have that print on the front.  However, it worked so romantically perfect for the back.  I love this QUILT!!!
The future is bright.
What a wonderful thought it is that some of the best days of our lives haven't happened yet.
The most reliable way to predict the future is to create it.
Don't be in such a rush to figure everything out, Embrace the unknown and let your life surprise you.

Well, enough of fancy talk... I made a pillow to match.  I was definitely challenged when sewing with this fur/minky combination.  I had to think through all the steps and plan out just how I wanted it all to work.  So I will share all my steps because who knows you might want to make your own little throw and throw pillow.

Fur and Minky is a fantastic combination might I just say.  There are challenges and if you just account for those it can be a simple project.

TIP 1: Start with Quality Materials, I used Shannon Fabrics Snow Leopard Fur (you can find Shannon's Furs here) with Cappuccino Minky.  If you are going to make a Luxe Throw it just simply has to be soft.  You know you are going to want to feel the fur and it just isn't worth it to buy a lesser quality fur that isn't soft.  The Minky was a must for complimenting the Fur.  It was fantastic for a couple reasons and I will touch on that later on.

90" x WOF Shannon Fabrics Snow Leopard Fur (throw)
3 Yards WIDE Shannon Fabrics Cuddle Minky Cappuccino (throw)
24" x WOF Shannon Fabrics Snow Leopard Fur (throw pillow)

TIP 2: The very first thing I did was consider the bulkiness of the Fur.  How am I going to get a nice flat laying throw when the fur is bulky and the minky is slippery?  Well, baste it first.  Baste it before you cut it!!  I used my Longarm to baste all the sides of the throw.  Simply place fabrics wrong sides together and stitch a loose stitch around the perimeter of Snow Leopard.  Alternatively, you could pin and then baste with a domestic sewing machine or... you could find your favorite longarmer too.
TIP 3: Okay, you have basted your throw.  Next step is to trim excess Minky away.  Trim Minky leaving 1 1/2" - 2" (depending on how tight you want your edge) from the edge of the Snow Leopard around the entire quilt.

TIP 4: You should have the fur in the center and all the way around 2" of Minky extending past the fur.  Fold the Minky once in towards edge of fur and then once again over the top of the fur and stitch 1/8" on inner folded edge of minky on top of fur (this way you encase the raw edge of the Minky and the raw edge of the fur.  When reaching a corner simply turn and continue to fold from new side.  Finish by pulling out the basting stitch (you can faintly see the basting stitch in picture above, simply spritz water and fabric will displace the stitch line).  The Minky finishes the throw just perfectly.  It gives this thick edge and appears as if an extra fabric was added for binding.  This is why Minky is the perfect match for the fur!!  It is stretchy to be forgiving on corners.
For the Pillow see this tutorial to help with finishing the pillow.  This pillow makes the BEST partner for the throw.  It looks just perfect with your favorite quilt and shams.  Adjust for the 24" x 24" size see below.

24" x 24" Pillow front
(2) 24" x 20ish Pillow backs
(2) 24" x 1 1/2" Pillow binding
And that is that!!  I've added this throw to the beautiful Christmas Challenge Log Cabin I finished a few years ago and I have FANCY bedding now!!  So fancy.  Love it!

A couple months ago a few girls and I were visiting a darling quilt shop.  They happened to have a double gauze quilt that had two layers of gauze with batting in the middle.  And then we lifted it up and we all were so impressed!  I knew that eventually I would have to make some.

When I saw Shannon Fabrics prints in the double gauze you didn't even have to twist my arm.  Not a bit.
I picked this amazing Batting to use!! Quilters Dream Batting's Quilter's Dream Puff.  It was LOVELY!!  and truly quilted like a dream.  It had such an amazing feel to it and the loft was so wonderful for the quilting.  It complimented the double gauze perfectly.  The wonderful thing about the batting is that it keeps that soft light feel that the double gauze quilt creates in the first place.  It just feel like this combination was meant to be.

Now when you get to quilt peacock plumes on peacock plumes it is a great day.
I spend a lot of solitary time these days.  I love my many jobs I have.  I don't love to explain to people what all of those are.  But I do get to share pictures from time to time that descript part of my life.  One part.  Not all of my life but the part that I never regret and love to share.
 Teal is without a doubt my favorite color.  If I were a color I would be teal and I would be quilted in a Swedish flower.
 And I would marry a herringbone and he wouldn't be quilted in straight simple lines.
 And we would have two kids a peacock plume and a straight arrow.
And we would be happy.  Not all the time but generally happy.

And she loved the boy very, very much - even more than she loved herself.

No great thing is created suddenly.

Once in awhile, in the middle of an ordinary life, love gives us a fairytale.