going Geesey with Tilda's Maple Farm

Hello all + happy Monday to you! It’s the start of a new week and a new season, as fall officially begins tomorrow in the northern hemisphere. Quite nice that I’m also starting a new quilt this week - a flight pattern version of my Geesey quilt.

Not sure what I mean? Click over to this Feeling Geesey blog post to get the full scoop on my soon-to-release flying geese quilt pattern and autumnal sew-along. I’m super excited that so many of you are keen to join in! Next week I’ll post the sew-along details. For now, I’d like to share the beginnings of my latest Geesey quilt.

I came across this bundle of Maple Farm by Tilda Fabrics when browsing one of my sponsor shops, Sojo Fabric.

Well friends, it was love at first sight, and apparently not just for me, as the collection has been flying off the shelves.

The Maple Farm palette is soft and the prints more gentile than I often sew with; but, I aim to follow my heart when it comes to fabrics, wherever that may take me. The dusty colors feel autumnal to me - the reds, yellows and browns of the fall forest, with muted purple too.

My next Geesey quilt will focus on the directionality of the geese. I’ll use a consistent background fabric theme so that the geese themselves really stand out. I’ll also use some strong contrast geese fabric to draw the eye to errant flight patterns.

The Geesey Geesey quilt pattern will offer guidance to create a similar, Flight Pattern style quilt, should you choose, as well as the other styles described in that Feeling Geesey blog post.

Last week this pretty bundle arrived from Sojo Fabric. These are the particular Maple Farm fabrics I’ve chosen to use for my quilt, plus an array of solids and even a polka dot backing fabric. Although Sojo has mostly sold out of Maple Farm, they have more on the way arriving in October. Also, they’ll be offering a Maple Farm Geesey quilt kit, should you like to make a quilt just like mine!

Oh, and - super fun news - Sojo Fabric will also be offering an Indie Folk Geesey quilt kit with the same fabrics I used for my original Geesey quilt, shown at the beginning of that post. I know lots of you are particularly fond of that version. It’s so great that Sojo was able to get those fabrics for us!

Neither the Maple Farm Geesey quilt kit or the Indie Folk Geesey quilt kit are available for preorder at Sojo Fabric at this moment. We’ve been told they will be arriving in time for our sew-along though. If you want to reserve one, contact Sojo Fabric to let Mary know you’re interested.

So, here are my Maple Farm quilt top fabrics, organized by type. The main background fabric is a Tilda solid called Soft Teal. It’s quite a serene pale aqua.

I’ve started cutting fabrics and sewing flying geese blocks with the mid-tone fabrics.

Cutting triangles for geese. Stitched in Color.jpg

Notice I’m cutting with the Fons & Porter flying geese ruler. This little ruler is the way I prefer to cut and sew flying geese blocks. It improves sewing accuracy with a notching system. Thus, I don't have to square up blocks! There are several popular flying geese methods. Your favorite one will depend upon your sewing style. If you hate wasting fabric and sew a fairly accurate 1/4” seam, I think this approach is the most efficient.

My Geesey Geesey quilt pattern will include a printable template for cutting your geese a la the Fons & Porter method. You do not need to purchase a ruler, but I do think it’s a good investment and obviously makes the cutting phase nicer. My pattern is written with fabric requirements based on this efficient cutting approach. Some flying geese methods create a ton of triangle scraps and thus require much more fabric. So, keep that in mind if you prefer other methods.