Come Fly With Me

Patience is a virtue, or so they say, and one that I've spent a lot of time practicing since January. Just after Christmas my Flying Geese ruler arrived and I've been dying to try it out but I knew that if I did that off I'd go on a tangent that wouldn't do much for the current works in progress, so I sat on it (not literally!). Now that I've got a big project finished I decided that I deserved a treat and dusted it off to try.













On this - Fly Away Home. It's from the December 2008 edition of American Patchwork and Quilting and is the only time that I've ever sent away for a kit that I liked in a magazine. The deal maker was the fact that the fabric selection was from Fig Tree (did I mention that I LOVE her fabrics?).





So last week I prewashed all the fabrics that have been patiently waiting in my basket, along with a bundle of red & green fat quarters that I got for Christmas, and dug in.







I'm not really a gadget girl, I prefer the traditional quilting methods, but what I liked about this ruler was the fact that the thinking on the dimensions is all done for a variety of sizes of geese and there is no waste. There are lot of rulers out there but there always seemed to be lots of trimmings to get to the final block. Call me cheap but I liked the fact that everything that is cut is used. And the fact that you have 4 geese after each unit is sewn and cut is great. If you take a look at the instructions that are in the first photo you can see how they come together.

Here's the results after a couple of hours of playing...

When I bought the kit the fabric quantity was for a lap quilt and I want to make it larger, which is why I added the extra fat quarters, but I think I still need to source extra for the border. This is the first, and larger of two pieces that I have...

and this is the second. I really like this one but since these patterns have been out for a few years now I'm not sure how much luck I will have. And I don't know the name of them so my work is just beginning on that front. Anyway, lots of fun and I'm now considering making the border on my Spring Garden blue and white flying geese. More doodling to do before that decision is made though....M