I finished this quilt a while back. By a while back I mean that I gave this quilt it’s first wash 12 weeks ago and I have no good reason for not sharing it till now but here is my original design: Goose Lane.
Goose Lane is the exit on the highway I take to get to my family’s cottage in Connecticut. I started playing with designs on graph paper, drawing inspiration from the name and the sensory memories of being at the cottage: the salt air, the waves falling against the rocks, the way the sun warms your skin while lounging on the patio.
I knew I wanted flying geese, lots of them! I noticed this neat chevron shape appeared when the blocks were planned right, that’s when I knew I had a winner. I added in the idea of passageways between the rows by using the background fabric randomly placed among the goosey-chevrons which gave this quilt even more interesting movement.
The proportions were a bit askew when designing this size; at 54 x 60″ it’s a perfect couch decoration size, where it can lay over the back of my couch without being folded width-wise but I think I’d like to make it a bit longer next time so it’s more couch snuggle friendly.
This quilt was made from a Blogger’s Choice Fat Quarter Bundle from the Fat Quarter Shop that I’d gotten a bit over a year ago. I used those 16 fat quarters plus additional yardage of this yummy Kona Dimensions Honeycomb fabric. Actually let’s look a little closer and talk about how cool this fabric is!
Kona Dimensions Fabric – Honeycomb Texture
This is one of those fabrics that I never would have picked if it hadn’t been part of this stash building bundle. It doesn’t translate as well in the listing on Fabric.com as it does in person. There’s a raised hexagon or honeycomb outline that catches the light similar to how a the raised surface of heavy weight quilting thread does.
It was no trouble at all to work with, just like a regular Kona fabric. But…there is certainly a right and a wrong side of this fabric but I didn’t realize that till the quilt was pieced at which point I decided to live with it. No one but I would ever notice that there’s vague variations in the background fabric. You can kinda see it in the photo above, the strip is right side but the goose has the wrong side, oh well.
I had a local long arm quilter do the quilting for me but now looking at it I wish I’d done the quilting myself. She did a lovely job but now I can see exactly how I would have done it with straight lines but you know what they say, hindsight is 20/20!
I got totally lucky with this backing fabric, I brought the top to Jo-Ann’s (coupon time, I don’t hate on their fabric) and this amazing chevron almost literally fell off the wall at me, I couldn’t get over how flawlessly it matched both the design and the color palette. Perfect!
Future project: Expand this pattern to a twin size quilt. It’s such a fun design and while it was tedious trimming the million (ok, only 90 flying geese) it was worth it. I really like designs that dance on the line between modern and traditional and this one totally does that for me.
PS. We don’t look too closely or talk about the tips of some geese getting cut off…it’s a sore subject.
Linking up with:
I feel the same way about bundles — you end up owning fabric that you wouldn’t have otherwise bought, and that often proves to be a good thing!
I feel your pain both here and with your recent foray in apparel sewing. Shouldn’t we sewists get to the point in our sewing careers when every project comes out 100% as we want them to?! If only!
Well, I think this flock is lovely. Now that the quilt is completed, the other half of the fun arrives: using this beauty. : )
I know Michelle, we’ve been sewing long enough to know not to make mistakes LOL. Thanks for your kind words about this finish, feels good to finally have wrapped up with it 🙂
What a great design! Thanks for showing the up-close of the Kona honeycomb fabric, I’ve never seen that before.
I love the bits of background that meander through the flying geese breaking them up a bit. And I think the texture of the Kona dimensions is really fabulous! Knowing the inspiration point behind the quilt is awesome and really makes the design pop so much more for me, too.
Thanks Yvonne, the adding the blank spaces was one of those decisions that I didn’t second guess which felt really good. I knew from sketching how it would look and was thrilled to bits when it came together in fabric the same way it looked on paper!
I’ve just finished a flying geese quilt too and lots of clipped wings on that one. I’ve stopped noticing now after 3 days so hopefully will have forgotten all about it after its quited washed and wrinkly! Straight line would be nice with this design and I love that honeycomb fabric!
Hi Terri Ann, Looks great! Don’t second guess yourself… You’ll just have to use that stitching on your next quilt! 🙂
That Kona Honeycomb fabric is fun! I’ll definitely be checking that out! Love the design and the finish. 🙂
That is a really neat quilt – I like all the little details and the movement in it!
I kind of like that some of the background fabric is the wrong way…it adds an extra element to it. The design is beautiful, and really fits the name.
Pretty quilt, and I like how the name fits with the design. I hadn’t heard of the honeycomb fabric before. It’s a great way to add texture–and the fact that you used some of it backside up just increased the texture-i-ness (new word). It’s amazing that you found that matching backing fabric.
Love your made up word Janine! It’s totally a texture rich fabric to work with which (aside from minky) isn’t something I play with in my quilts very much. That backing fabric was an absolute “you’ve got to be kidding me,” but in a GOOD way for once, moment.
Love the beautiful quilt and color combo! One of my favorite color combos.
It looks so good on the back of the couch :))
I absolutely love it! That FQ bundle was a good buy – such gorgeous fabrics! Great work, am pinning this for future inspiration!
So glad you enjoyed this design enough to share it Jen. I subscribed to those monthly bundles for almost a year then realized I wasn’t doing much with them so I stopped the subscription but now I’m always so happy when I have these bundles to reach for when the inspiration strikes. There are projects where I’d rather focus on the design of the quilt (the shapes and playing with positive and negative space) and I don’t always want to spend forever picking the perfect fabrics and these are so great to reach for just that purpose!
I love your quilt, and the inspiration behind it, flying geese are one of my favs, but they do take time Thanks for sharing the honeycomb fabric close-up, it’s a nice alternative to a solid.
Thanks Louisa! Often times I’m inspired by colors or fabric so drawing inspiration from something a bit less visual was a really wonderful exercise. I’m glad everyone has enjoyed the honeycomb fabric review – I don’t understand how I haven’t ever seen it in the quilting blog-o-sphere before!
What a great design! Love that honeycomb fabric too — never saw that before and will have to try it out. Thanks for linking up with TGIFF!
What a unique quilt pattern! It looks great on your sofa!
I love the chevron geese…but I really like those rectangles that you placed in between the chevrons. They add a different kind of energy to the quilt. I agree it looks great on the couch. I’ve never seen the honeycombs either.
Lisa they’re actually little squares of scraps from the fat quarters I used for the geese. I stacked them in 5’s to create those fun pops of positive space among the lanes of negative space in the quilt. I’m so excited to have brought the honeycomb texture to everyone’s attention too 🙂
Love this quilt! Color to design! I always passed over the honeycomb fabric, but after seeing it in your quilt and close up, it makes me want to get some. Sometimes I think the harder we try and make something perfect (geese!), the worse it gets!
My big mistake wasn’t even cause of the geese, it was a math mistake and I really should have tried to correct it but since this was a quilt for me and my home I decided that time I could spend stressing over fixing it was better spent snuggling with my hunny on the couch. It’s all about balance
Great quilt design, I really like the triangles combined with the flying geese braid. The background sets off these colors very well.
This is such a great quilt! And I love hearing the story behind it — it makes the flying geese even more poignant! I had no idea that the “dimensions” fabrics existed! I’m going to keep them in mind the next time I make something that needs some texture. I was wondering. . .when you received the quilt back from your long-armer, did you feel that the raised texture detracted from/conflicted with the quilting? It looks Perfect from here, but I was just wondering if the texture is so noticeable in person, that quilting needs to account for the fabric? Thanks so much for sharing! Great finish!!
That’s an excellent question Kim! In person I don’t think the quilting either added or detracted from the texture, they both existed very differently. When I might have done with straight lines would probably have detracted from the texture, there’s a lot of elements going on in this quilt. I wonder if maybe a stitch in the ditch would have been best to compliment the design and the quilting, maybe with some added quilting in the chevron goose “lanes”. I hope to pick up more of the dimensional fabric to give it a shot with smaller crafty items now that I’ve given it a go in a quilt.
Wow wow wow, love that Kona honeycomb fabric! I will definitely be checking some of that deliciousness out. “designs that dance on the line between modern and traditional”—-you are playing my song, girlfriend. And you nailed it on this one. I particularly love the slim strips of coordinating squares that form the passageways between the geese, so unique. Lovely colours too. Isn’t it fun to doodle a design on graph paper, make it, and then make it again a bit different? 🙂
I love that you picked up on the squares in the negative space lanes Sandra! It was one of those design elements that I knew I was taking a chance on but once I pieced them together I was in love with how they added to the design, like a little extra sparkle 🙂
I like it! The design has good balance without being symmetrical. And I love it when the perfect fabric falls into your lap.
Also, cottages are so awesome. It’s funny to read “salt air,” as I’m in Ontario and far from the ocean but close to many lakes. A bit of a different cottage experience, I guess.
Thanks for mentioning that Brianna; sometimes it’s easy to forget that my common experiences (like smelling salt air) are sometimes a rare occurrence for other people but it’s part of the different stories we all have to tell.
Beautiful quilt and I love the colors and the movement that it creates. It also seems like gray is quickly becoming my favorite background fabric to use. I love it with this!
I agree Diana! Gray is such a great neutral to use cause it’s not too heavy but it’s also not the stark white that you’re afraid to get dirty. Thanks for the kind words about this finish 🙂 I’m just so pleased with it!
This is just gorgeous!
So glad you got around to showing off your quilt – it’s lovely! I really like the quilting pattern in it. Can you give me the contact info of the quilter so I can ask what panto she used for it? I’m looking for more large pantos for my collection – thanks!
BOTH sides of this quilt are amazing! Love the design great job on this original.
I am very new to quilting but LOVE this! Did you follow a pattern or create a pattern we could follow?