Leanwolf,
Quillwork is waaaaaaay beyond my level of aptitude and ability. It is not easy work! One of the reasons it fell out of vogue with the introduction of glass trade beads. It hung on a while. And you see a mixture of both arts on many items. But beads eventually took over.
My hat is off to those who still do quillwork. My lady friend has a quilled scissor pouch that is to be worn around the neck. Very nice work.
A good part of that was the lack of thread. They all had to sewn on with thin strips of buckskin. Cutting that was a major undertaking. Beads could be made with larger holes which greatly sped up the sewing process.
