Sunday, July 5, 2020

Fly High!

I am so pleased to have this long-awaited UFO done and checked off the FAL List. It's been on that list for over two years!


The block is one by Deb Tucker, called Migrating Geese. I followed this tutorial, making it as one of my RSC 2017 projects, but doing my own layout. Each month I made one row of the geese.
I used a rainbow of threads to quilt it, threads from three different companies. I just love how Avril my Avanté, takes them all in stride.


I put photos on Instagram of my progress over the week I spent quilting it. I got inspiration from Angela Walters' Shape By Shape books, Natalia Bonner's 365 Quilting Designs on YouTube, and a couple of feather designs I've used in quilts before from 60 Machine Quilting Patterns by Pat Holly and Sue Nickels. Some were free-motion quilted, while others used rulers. I got lots more use of my two straight-edge rulers and two of my Quilted Pineapple ones, the 12 and the 15.

Once it was done binding, I put it on my design wall and blocked it. I was really pleased with how straight and how little 'encouraging' I had to do to get it square. These blocks have a lot of bias edges and you join bias to bias to make a unit.

Once it was dry, I decided to take it to Seacliff Beach for a photo shoot. But then....

I spied the perfect angle of sunlight (7:30 am) in a patch of decent grass where MacGyver has seeded, and it's coming in not too badly...
So of course I knew this would work. I will still add an 'in the wild' lake glamour shot, rest assured. Here we have the white triangles pointing north, and the coloured ones, the geese, heading south. This, in my mind is the right way up.

I turned it around so the rainbow geese are heading north...
Two shots as before. I think the rainbow geese are more prominent this way.

Here is the back. I picked up the feathers flannel on sale at JoAnn's a couple of years ago, with this quilt in mind. Sadly, there was only 1.5 yards, but it was just so perfect a backing, I knew I could cobble together some other pieces of flannel.
There is a piece at the bottom (I was surprised at how big this quilt was!) from an H2H quilt, a green strip plenty long enough to use as a division between sections, and some chicken fabric I've had for (choke) maybe 10 years. Two fat quarters of lovely quality flannel from The Chicken Coop in Mundare, Alberta, a store I used to love, and these two fat quarters I was given by the owner for a guild bus trip I happened to organize! The hedgehogs and brown/yellow etc. feathers flannel are from Christa Quilts pre-Amazon-only shop. She gave a free fat quarter with an order. The piece beside her feathers flannel I am unsure of but it's old, er vintage, too. It all works well I think!

The label, hard to see with the angle of the sun, but Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2017 and other details are on it. I did the binding differently on this one: I nearly hand-sewed it to the back, but then thought I'd give this method a try. With flannel as well as wool batting, there is a little more poof at the binding edge. I sewed it the to the front, but I did not stitch in the ditch and catch (hopefully) the binding on the back, which makes for not the neatest edge on the back, even when I carefully glue it first.
So no, I did not glue it down, but slowly finished stitching it down from the back, easing the fold just over the stitching line I could see from sewing it down on the front. This way I had a nice top-stitched look on the back, and a line of stitching very close to the ditch on the front, and it isn't bothering me. I remembered to stitch in my initials, but as I type this sentence, GUESS WHAT I FORGOT? Yep, my damn satin label again! I even keep them in a little handmade fabric basket with a couple of other important tools by my sewing machine! Ugh! I will have to rip and insert, and re-sew. Sigh.
The binding is perfect, isn't it?! I bought it from Needle & Foot Fine Fabrics a year ago. 

A fun motif I did in just two triangles is below, the spirograph one between the turquoise and blue rows. It is called Twisted Triangle, on YouTube. You also get a nice look at the ghost geese one, as well as the triangle puff one, both my own designs.
Because I was keeping the triangles quilted with relatively more open designs, after I quilted one Twisted Triangle, I thought no, it's too much quilting. Well I certainly wasn't going to rip out that much quilting! So, as Angela Walters suggests, if you make a mistake, just repeat it and it becomes a design element! So I did one more, at the opposite end of that row.😇

So happy to get this done. Can't believe it took me so long, nor that it took me two days to get the binding on, ha. Guess that's maybe the one part of quilting I don't like as much as everything else... I did make a trio of masks on Friday.

Quilt Stats:
Pattern: Migrating Geese, layout is my own design
Size: 59" x 68"
Fabric: scraps and stash
Backing: flannels from stash and scraps
Batting: Quilters Dream 100% wool
Quilted: on Avril;  260 502 stitches
Threads: pieced with various cotton threads on my Bernina; quilted with white Superior So Fine 100% polyester, Essential 100% cotton 50 wt, Aurifil 50 wt and 28 wt; The Bottom Line in the bobbin

This is one of the items on my Q2FAL List, so it feels good to check off another! I only have two left. I am taking the next week off Quilting Blog Land. I may take two. I will post here and there on Instagram though as I have several items on the July list!

31 comments:

  1. Beautiful finish Sandra - congratulations! I really love how you quilted this quilt, too - a delightful array of designs which will be great to look back on for inspiration in later quilts. I love how even the backing has as many memories in it as the scrappy front must!

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  2. Well done!!! It is amazing. In the first photo, the coloured triangles stand out. But in the photo on the wall, the large white triangles stand out. Enjoy your blog break.

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  3. Bravo. It's become a work of art. Interesting how the colors, that seemed so prominent throughout the entire process, take a step back to let the quilting of the white areas become the star of the show.

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  4. I had fun watching your progress on Instagram. This turned out amazingly beautiful. I love all your detailed quilting and how it stands out with the wool batting. It makes me want to custom quilt something, but I don’t have time or patience for that now. ;)

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  5. Also, your binding is absolutely perfect! I love the rainbow around the edge.

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  6. Such beautiful quilting, Sandra! I really enjoyed watching the quilt top come together for you a few years ago and the quilting was definitely worth the wait. :)

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  7. Fabulous RSC finish, Sandra! Went a LITTLE crazy with the quilting, did you?! :o))

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  8. I enjoyed watching the quilting progress on IG! The quilting is stunning! Well done all around a gorgeous quilt.

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  9. This is just so beautiful. I saw the finish on IG, but this is the first time I've taken the time to look at it on you blog. I always love the fact that I can click on the image and get a really big one in order to appreciate all the detail that has gone into your work. I love, love, love this quilt.

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  10. You did a fabulous job with your quilting.

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  11. You definitely love geese blocks far more than I do (I like the blocks, just don't like sewing them). This is another beauty, Sandra. So many pretty fabrics, and your quilting is spot on.

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  12. I could look at this all day!! And maybe I will. Those lovely white triangles. I do still see them as the primary element, but I’m sure it depends on which geese are pointing up. I was thinking of your quilt as I was contemplating (no, it was more of a fleeting thought) my quilt plan for my next top. You would love doing something with all of the negative space, and I wish I could dredge up the energy to try something detailed. But, as I’m impatient, I’m going to enjoy your quilting (good thing I’m not near the quilt because it would get drool on it), and do my usual quick walking foot lines. Sigh. How do you block on a design wall? Do you wash it and put the quilt up damp/wet or spray it damp?

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  13. Such beautiful quilting!!! Love the backing and the binding, too!!!

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  14. Such a spectacular finish - it is a sight for sore eyes and was totally worth the wait. The quilting is like a love poem in each triangle.

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  15. You said on IG that this was now one of your favorite quilts so I wonder why it took you so long to finish it. Oh, no, wait! I know, it's those darn squirrels (and IB challenges and family requests, etc.). You have way more patience than I to do all that quilting in the triangles. I have a UFO from a Deb Tucker migrating geese pattern. The mg are in a pieced border and the 4 sections did not come out the same size. So it got put in time out.
    Pat

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  16. Such a beautiful quilt, both the piecing and the quilting. I remember watching you put together the strips and it inspired me to make my own. The top is still hanging in the closet waiting to be quilted. I will have to schedule a "coming out" party. Enjoy your blog free week(s).

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  17. Absolutely stunning. I do plan on following Jane's tutorial one day - it's on the list :-) The binding is perfect and the quilting is out of this world; something for me to aspire to!

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  18. So many thoughts and feelings about this! OMG, look at that quilting! Wonderful. Too much quilting in the twisted triangle? - promote it to design feature lol! Rainbow geese, loved them two years ago, still love them, but where did all that time go?! Thanks for linking up with the Chameleon's Colour & Inspiration Tuesday. :D

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  19. As usual, your quilting takes this from lovely to phenomenal! I love all the different motifs, making the stitching as full of scrappy rainbow wonderfulness as the piecing. And yes, the striped binding is perfection. Congratulations on this finish! I'm so glad to see it in it's final glory :)

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  20. Hi Sandra! I saved this post to really savor since I saw the pics on IG. Wow, this really doesn't disappoint and I can only imagine how great it looks and feels in person. Thanks for the Twisted Triangle video - labour intensive but OH SO WORTH it. I could watch videos like that for hours. Whatcha gonna do with this piece? I sure hope you are going to enjoy the heck out of it, and the next week or two off of blogland as well. {{Hugs}} my friend! Take care. You and Brady have been on my mind lately. ~smile~ Roseanne

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  21. WOW!! That is just an amazing quilt/ LOVE the way you quilted it!! that sun just shows it all off!!

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  22. Such an amazing quilt! I love your quilting and can't believe you did it in wool batting with flannel - yikes! Congratulations on a stunning quilt!

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  23. I love the quilting, specially how it shows in the negative/white blocks. So glad you finish this UFO, it is exquisite! The pieced back highlights your quilting so well and The gentle sunlight really was perfect for the photos.


    -Soma

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  24. A beautiful finish! The quilting is spectacular. I'd find it hard to give that one away.

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  25. that was a quilt that was worth the wait. I loved the photos on instagram, there is a real shimmer glow from it.The quilting as always is superb, and I love the binding. Perfect

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  26. Hi Sandra, what a great quilt. Perfect for playing with those triangle FMQ designs!

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  27. The quilting is so amazing, Sandra! I love the shots of it lying in the grass as the light really accentuates the quilting. I was amused to read that you think the correct orientation is with the geese pointing down; to me this sort of design always feels right when the geese are pointing up :)

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  28. What an absolutely stunning quilt! The blocks are beautiful, but the quilting steals the show. It's jaw droppingly gorgeous. Guess you and Avril are as one in your beautiful new sewing room. Congratulations!

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  29. oh my everlovin' heart, YES, all of the above!..jaw droppingly gorgeous, stunning, amazing. Not being a quilter but so in awe of the quilting world, I looked up FMQ, FAL, UFO.. :-). Sandra, I would say this is THE quilt of a lifetime, but for a virtuoso like you, that would be crazy. So I will say Wow, welcome to the world, Fly High, and thank you Sandra for its euphoric beauty! Linda Tucker

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