Pattern Focus : Feathered Goose

Feathered Goose is one of my favorite patterns, even though it was definitely not my best work. You see it all started about 10 years ago, and it is the reason that I am a Quiltworx Instructor today. You see, Feathered Goose was almost the end of my quilting career.  My Mom picked the Feathered Goose as her "retirement gift". I had never done paper piecing before, but I was sure that I could figure it out. I was also confident that the 6 week window before her retirement party was more than sufficient to finish it. That was 2007. And I was completely wrong. I didn't finish it until August 2010. I spent three years trying to figure it out and working on it off and on, so when Judy came to Camp Watch A Patcher in LA in late July 2010, I signed up for class, and in a mere 3 days I was hooked. I went to Montana a month later, and by the following August (2011), I had made 10 Judy quilts and applied to be an instructor. Needless to say, Feathered Goose was the beginning of my Quiltworx obsession. It was also the first QW pattern that I ever taught. Only later did I realize that was probably not the best intro, since it didn't have all of the short cut techniques that we have now.

Just to add insult to injury, this pattern is no longer available. That's right, it was discontinued about 3 year ago. Up until last year, I had a few copies available, and still taught it rather regularly. But I haven't taught it in 2 years. I know it will come back eventually, with some redesigns to take advantage of the new techniques that have been developed over the last 6 or 7 years. Eventually it will have floating points, and smart corners and all of those things that Quiltworx has developed in the last few years to make paper piecing easier. In the meantime, I just have to take a look back at some of the ones that have been done by students and remember how much I love this pattern.

My original, made with 24 batik Fat Quarters and 3 yards of a 1895-Honey by Hoffman. 

Vicki made her's very similar to my original color scheme.

Lorna made her's, but instead of using a dark navy/black ringer, she chose orange, and it is really striking.

This one was made as a gift for a favorite sister who has a love affair with purple. She used every shade of purple, from lilac to plum, and all types of fabric. Batiks, small prints, large prints, even solids. To ensure that the ropes would show she made sure to only use that fabric in the ropes themselves ensuring that they would not blend into the triangles. Love It!!!