Fall 2017 Bloggers Quilt Festival: Flocks of Geese

Okay, here we go! This is my second entry into Amy's Bloggers Quilt Festival! There are a lot of entries, so I am planning on catching up by this weekend. Flocks of Geese is a brand new finish so thought this was a good way to show it off.

Flocks of Geese

This quilt was another one started in 2014, but was finally put into the hoop in August of this year. It's a little different style than what you might expect from me, but I think you'll find parts and pieces of my quilting 'voice' regardless! I'm honestly not sure what propelled me to start in on this quilt, but for sure, I remember the taupe, linen-like background fabric {for the geese} was part of the initial motivation. What to do with this beautiful fabric? And then it sort of evolved as always.

Looking at the stitching!

I stole the bird pattern from another quilt I had finished up early in 2013. There's just something about that bird template that just makes me happy and it seemed like it could add a certain amount of necessary whimsy lacking in this quilt. Just a quick photo-copy and reduction in size and wallah!, the bird fit perfectly into these six inch blocks.

Love how sparky it looks....

Generally I'm not one to fuss too much about the backing fabric, getting by with clearance fabrics and random chunks of fabric I've fallen out of love with. If the colors blend and the pattern isn't too offensive, then it's a go for use as backing fabric. And you wondered why I rarely show the backs of my quilts?

This time I made sure the backing fabric was in a color and print that added to the overall look and feeling of the quilt. Having used that dull grey-brown fabric throughout the quilt, I knew a rich looking backing fabric was key to, well, loving the quilt. {It also has about a half yard of a blue/white plaid up in the corner.} It was a bit flat looking compared to most of my efforts and honestly, none of my family really likes it. They say things like 'That's nice' or 'I like other quilts of yours better'. Wah! Just kidding. I much prefer my family to be honest and not shower me with false platitudes.

Washed and crinkly straight of the dryer, but still a bit damp...

I did make sure to add several different light through medium colors of green for the binding in order add another level of interest. It needed that bit of spark on the outside edge. Between that and the hand quilting, it finally had enough texture and interest to make me happy. All the flying geese blocks have a straight line stitching through the middle of the geese {in various colors of blue and green thread} and the wide sashing has a overlapping circle design in a darker variegated blue and/or wine colored thread. Most of the thread in this quilt is Valdani #8 or 12, my absolute favorite threads to use. Beautiful thread. I think that's part of why this quilt feels more like 'me' now that it's done. I know this stitching! We have many secrets together....

For those of you that are interested, I have another entry in the festival as well... Scrappy Tulips. More my 'normal' style I suppose. And why not check out all of the other great quilts too? I've found some good blogging friends this way! As always, a big thank you to Amy for putting this festival togehter!