Feathers for filling
 

I just read the post about 'flimsys' and someone posted a site about Wagga rugs. On that site, you can go to another Australian site that tells you so much about Australian quilts. I read where a woman made a quilt using 'feathers' as her middle instead of wadding. Just think about that for a minute. Wouldn't that be a nightmare to use feathers? What a mess it'd make in your sewing room. I bet she stuffed them in some kind of homemade large bag, the same size as the quilt and then put the flimsy on top and the backing on the back. Don't you think so? Or how do you think they'd use the feathers in a quilt?

My DGM used to do that with some of her quilts and pillows. She did use a bag of some sort to hold the feathers. She would lay it out and work with it to flatten it out and sandwich her quilt. She would tie the ones with feathers.

Goose down and eider down comforters are made exactly that way. The trick is to get a fabric tightly enough woven to slow the escape of those feathers.

The less expensive 'down' comforters on sale today have a higher percentage of feathers vs. down. As everyone else has stated, need something really tightly woven to keep the feathers from poking thru under the decorative cover.

My great Aunt Maude who was my mentor who started me to quilt raised geese on their farm in Kansas. Being a city gal, I always disappeared when they were going to "pluck" the geese but she made her own pillowcases with the feathers. YES, it was very messy !!