Geesey Geesey: Wayward Geese how to's
This post is part of the Geesey Geesey Sew-Along! See all posts.
Over the course of several weeks, I’ll be making a Geesey Geesey quilt alongside you. It’s time to be sewing flying geese blocks!
Are you sewing-along? Please share your progress pictures, wherever you are in the process, on Instagram with #GeeseyGeeseySAL. It really sustains momentum and spurs new ideas to see everyone else in the process. We can learn from each other, inspire each other and just generally have a good time!
Make sure you follow @StitchedinColor, and @CharmAboutYou in order to be eligible to win prizes. Plus, this week’s prize sponsor - @TheConfidentStitch. More on that at the end of this post!
Week 5: Sewing, Batch 3
I may have gotten a little ahead of myself! With the fabrics already cut, sewing these geese is quite relaxing. When I do find a block of time to sit down and sew, I don’t want to stop. Here is the passel of geese that I finished pressing this morning. I’m loving the fun, scrappy colors!
Are you using the sew-along to pace yourself? If so, this week the goal is to sew 55 flying geese blocks. That brings your grand tally to 175 blocks by next week. We’re almost there!
How to sew Wayward Geese
What are wayward geese? Those are geese that are made up of matching background fabrics from adjacent columns. You might have noticed these in my Maple Farm Geese quilt. For example, look for the medium gray geese flying south near the middle of this image:
I think wayward geese work best in Flight Pattern style Geesey quilts, where the emphasis is on the direction of the geese, even more than the fabrics. That’s why I used them in Maple Farm, but don’t plan to implement them in my current scrappy Geesey quilt. If you’d like to add some wayward geese to your quilt, here’s how.
Strategize
The first step is to decide where to place wayward geese. These geese are only possible between columns where the geese are flying in the same direction. In this diagram, I’ve highlighted all the possibilities for wayward geese in the Geesey quilt layout.
I think the easiest way to decide what will be effective for your quilt is to layout your blocks in the Geesey quilt formation, either on a design wall or the floor. Do this after sewing most of your blocks. After meeting this week’s sew-along goal, the timing will be right.
Look for an area in your quilt that seems a bit quiet. In a quiet area another layer of interest would be fun, rather than overwhelming. This will be different for every quilt, but if you’d like to see what I did with my Maple Farm Geesey quilt, here’s that post. You’ll find I only added 5 wayward geese total and they’re all simple, medium gray.
Prepare Fabrics
If you’re sewing a Flight Pattern quilt, your background fabric color is fairly consistent. For the wayward geese, use a contrasting background color. The contrasting “background” becomes the new geese!
Test your wayward geese fabric choices by placing them in the quilt layout, covering up any already-existing background fabrics. This also helps you to judge how many background triangles you cut for the best effect and how many blocks you’ll need to edit.
Sew
Don’t be shy about un-sewing a few blocks to make your wayward geese. It’s only a little step backward and the geese make a special impact.
I had to edit several blocks to make mine happen!
Here are my new blocks, with the contrast background fabrics sewn in. At this stage, don’t sew the columns together to complete wayward geese. Instead, leave the flying geese blocks as individuals or sew in paired columns as shown here. The wayward geese will not be complete until the final stage of the pattern, when the columns are sewn together.
This Week’s Prize
On Friday, November 13th I’ll select a random winner from among everyone who has posted to the Geesey Geesey hashtag this week.
Someone will win a $35 Gift Certificate to The Confident Stitch! You could indulge in the stunning Sky Ombre’s by Jennifer Sampou or whatever your heart desires.
Don’t be shy! Just add #GeeseyGeeseySAL to your Instagram photo caption and you’ll automatically be in the running. Here are two recent additions to our hashtag stream:
Don’t forget to follow @TheConfidentStitch to be eligible. They’re one of my sponsor shops and also a supporter of this sew-along. We’re thankful!
