I love this quilt! I started with a pattern called, “Geese in the Fields,” by Carolyn Griffin. The first sample I saw was very neutral, almost like grain fields in the fall, which makes sense but isn’t at all me.
First I picked the focus fabric—a fabulous, very feminine, spirited print from a line called “Aboriginal,” out of Australia. I’d fallen in love with it on sight so had several yards at home.
Then I decided to turn the geese into Gwen Marston-style liberated geese. Wild geese, in this case, as they are sometimes used as symbols for the Holy Spirit in Scottish spirituality traditions.
It was really coming together!
Then, I actually needed geese. Batiks in this case. Mostly jewel tones. It just makes me happy! Sewn flying a bit out of formation, as liberated geese surely would. The solid black is a linen and cotton blend, which I pre-washed as suggested by my Intown expert buddies. I don’t normally prewash and didn’t except for this linen blend, which was used for background, borders, and binding. There’s a dark spiral batik on the back, cut from a piece 108” wide. Hobbs 80/20 black batting. The finished quilt was washed with a gentle Seventh Generation liquid laundry soap and 4 – 5 “Shout Color Catcher” sheets*, then damp dried on low in the dryer and hung to finish drying outside. I like wrinkly quilts and this worked out just fine.
The quilt came out to be about 50×64 inches which is great for my chair quilt. Regina Carter did the long arm quilting and it’s gorgeous. Especially with the black linen blend, the texture is fantastic! I feel like a wizard! Both of my books were written curled under this quilt.
* I’m sure there are things in the Color Catcher sheets I don’t want to know about, including the fragrance. Everybody needs an exception to the rules and this is mine. It’s how I get my quilts to look like I want them to and it gets rinsed out, unlike dryer sheets. When I give quilts as gifts, especially dark or brightly colored ones, I include a box of these with a suggestion that they be used the first couple of times the new quilt gets washed.