Sometimes choosing the next quilt is as simple as noticing what’s missing.
Looking through my gallery, I realized I had very few examples of traditional quilts. I made most of mine before I ventured into art quilting, and I don’t have photographs documenting them. They are part of my quilting history, but you wouldn’t know it from visiting my website.
I wanted to give that part of my work a little more room. I also thought I needed a quick quilt to finish and post while my longer projects continued.
Enter Fly Away Home, with pattern and instructions by Annette Plog in her book Time-Honored Traditions. Flying geese are one of my favorite traditional patchwork motifs, and this quilt is nothing but flying geese. It seemed like an excellent choice.
But quick it is not.
At only 32 x 36 inches, it’s a modest, quilted wall hanging. Inside those dimensions, however, are close to 500 flying geese motifs, each just one inch square. Apparently, I considered the size of the quilt more carefully than the number of pieces.
I’m approaching the end of making the motifs. So far, that has taken two six-hour days, one eight-hour day, and three four-hour evenings. That’s 32 hours, and the geese aren’t all finished yet—much less assembled into a quilt.
After the long days, I was so sore from the repetitive movements that I took a day off and slept for 14 hours. My sitting bones also registered their objections. I found a three-inch cushion to pad my posterior, which has become an essential quilting accessory.
While I was recovering, my calico cat Arbie found a cushion of her own.
I had all my flying geese squares neatly stacked in piles. Had, as in past tense. Arbie first decided to make a bed out of them. Maybe the little stacks had a waffle-foam feel. Then, apparently rested and refreshed, she decided to play with some of the piles, knocking them across the table and onto the floor.
Four hundred-plus flying geese squares make quite a mess when the flock scatters.
After at least an hour I think I’ve got all the colors back in their proper piles now, although they are nowhere near as neat as they were before Arbie scattered flying geese. My recovery day came with a little extra work attached.
at the scene of the rearranging.
I still love flying geese. I’m just getting to know them much more intimately than I anticipated.
Fly Away Home will eventually bring a welcome example of traditional patchwork to my gallery. For now, it’s a work in progress involving 32 hours of piecing, a three-inch cushion, and a cat who took the title as an invitation.