Goose on the Loose

I recently was commissioned by a long time friend to make a special quilt for one of her friends.  She really did not know what she wanted other than the fact that she wanted to include a Bible verse on the quilt and she wanted blues.  She did not want a bed size quilt either.  We discussed  a few designs and styles then this quit in Quiltmaker magazine sparked an interest for me.   I really loved the background fabric used in this pattern plus I thought the center block would be perfect for embroidery of the Bible verse.   Of course, 2 shopping trips and 3 stores later;  I did not find ANY fabric similar to the one used in the magazine example.  But in the end, I think my version worked out very nicely.   The client commented  how I often feel -  she wants to keep it for herself!

 

The client has a menagerie of animals so when these 2 came out for quality assurance inspections, I did not shoo them away.   They were so happy with the results, they kissed! Awwwww.

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Pieced backing

 Designs are fun on the backside tone on tone fabrics. I did not try to have the pieced rows line up with piecing on the front... it was just a happy accident!

 

 

I wanted to show  you the difference stitching in the ditch makes.  I had hoped that the background fill would hold the shapes down nicely but as soon as I had done my light background fill, I was not happy and felt it needed to be stitched in the ditch (SID) around the flying geese.   I also liked the look of the designers pattern that had the geese unquilted.  The above photo shows the goose on the left after it was SID, the others to the right do not have SID.  Can you see the difference?   The ones to the right just are not crisp, the lines seem to wave due to the dimension in the batting and where background stitching does compress.  The lines are straight but the dimension makes it appear wavy.

 

 This picture shows all 4 geese after SID.  Nice straight lines.  Much more pleasing to my eye. 

 

The magazine pattern and inspiration.