mastering geese for a swoon

so, i started something new a little while ago. no surprise there! when i get the urge or the itch, i just dive into something. this time i decided to join the IG #swoonalong. in celebration of her 10th year anniversary in the quilting business, camille rosskelly started a quilt along of her most popular pattern, swoon. i've had the pattern as part of her craftsy.com class i purchased a few years back, and it's been on my "to do" list for ages. it's on everyone's "to do" list because it's so awesome. when the swoonalong came up, i resisted for a little while before being sucked in.

i'm eyeball deep in projects, so i wanted a quick version of swoon. i decided to make a swoon variation of my stella grande quilt pattern: one giant swoon block with a top and bottom border. i'm using heather bailey's floral picnic bouquet in gold as my main fabric, sandi henderson's meadowdot in mint as the secondary fabric, and essex linen from robert kauffman as my background.

i decided if i'm going to make the ultimate quilt, one of the fabrics better be my ultimate favorite: meadowdot, of course. i picked the floral to compiliment it. and i've always wanted to try linen. it seemed a good time to do that, too.

i started cutting away on the floral. and did it wrong. the swoon pattern i have is for a 24"block, but i wanted a 60" block. so i had to do some math. and i did some wrong. then i decided after reading up on quilting with linen that i should use a 1/2" seam allowance rather than the standard 1/4". so i did some more math and re-cut my floral center square.

at this point i realized i was not going to have enough of the floral for the quilt, even before i made my cutting error. so i had to visit etsy and ebay to hunt down that out-of-print fabric i was committed to using in my quilt. lucky me, i found 3 yards of it, so i'm safely stocked again.

and then i ran out of essex linen in flax. i went to my new local shop and go more, but thought it seemed to look a little different than the piece i had picked up earlier in the week. after washing it was still a different color! i talked to the shop owener and found out it was the wrong one. stalled again. whew!

while i was waiting on fabrics, i was also following the #swoonalong progress on instagram. i noticed some of the pieces in the pattern that were originally composed of hsts (like the pattern i have) were being made with flying geese instead. that makes for less seams and a more composed look, so i decided to just figure that out, too.

basically, i've rewritten the entire pattern myself.

i'd love to share all of it here, but that would be giving away a copyrighted pattern. sorry. can't do it.

i had to experiment with the geese to figure out the technique and math for those, too. with some trial and error, i got it down. i had some extra squares of linen not yet used that i paired with some solid scraps,

  the upper left-hand corner of linen is a failed attempt at getting the corner the right size. i tried just cutting a triangle and sewing it on. it came out wrong. i don't even remember what size it was. i think i probably used the leftover piece cut off some of the other bits i'd already done.

i read up on making geese a little and decided to go with stitch-and-flip rather than trying to just sew a corner on.

the geese i need are 12.5" x 6.5" unfinished. i think what i used was a 7" square for the corners.

after stitching both a 1/2" and a 1/4" seam allowance (for reinforcement), i clipped the corners off, per the flip-and-stitch method.

 the linen doesn't behave exactly the same as cotton, so i found i needed to sew a scanter seam so it would reach where it needed to be to line up with the block.

in the end, i completely nailed my tip for my flying goose (singular). it's exactly perfect. which is what i'm going for with this quilt. i've found that when working with large scale patterns, all the little flaws are much more noticeable. since there aren't that many pieces for this quilt top, i think it's worth the time and effort to get them right.

i now have most of the geese units completed, so it's on to the corner units. only i've turned back to the other projects i had going. my grande swoon is in the wip pile for the moment. when i do get back to it, i'm ready for a fast finish and i've got the tricks to getting it right down pat.

if only i remember them . . .

box of joy

 it's no secret in this space that i'm a bit mad about sandi henderson's designs. that portabello pixie lady is just my absolute favorite. i've searched out and hoarded meadowdot in robins egg/mint/whatever for a while now. and i have also been looking for it in blush lately, to no avail. but that's okay because i'm well stocked on my favorite.

when sandi had a sale on instagram last month, i initially resisted on the grounds of my fabric fast. but the reason she was having the sale was to clear up space and raise money for her family's sudden trip to another state because of her unborn baby's heart condition. this really pulled at my heartstrings. she was offering a fully-stuffed box of various samples, patterns, and bits and pieces from around her studio. i thought for sure the boxes would all be gone in a heartbeat anyway.

however, the next day she indicated there were a few additional boxes available even though some of the items originally meant to be included were gone. well, i just couldn't resist the chance to show her support in her time of need and to get a handpicked box of her things. i emailed sandi that it was ok about the soak being all gone and mentioned my obsession love for meadowdot, particularly in the two colorways. she emailed me back saying she'd put every bit of meadowdot she still had, including some sample pieces from colorways that were never printed, in my box.

i've been giddy to see what she sent me for a few weeks now. finally, it's arrived and i couldn't be happier! as soon as i opened the top of the box and saw that wad of my favorite meadowdot, a huge grin broke out on my face.

 and then the next layer looked like this. more meadowdot in blush!

 by the time i got everything out, i'd found pieces of meadowdot in 8 colors! i'm pretty sure the small pieces are the strike-offs she was talking about. i especially love the pink one. the green pieces have less contrast in them and hence a less meadowdot feel to me, but i'm over the moon about the warm colored bits and wondering why they never got printed. i'm on the lookout for a project that can feature all these different colors together.

 here's the rest of the fabric included. all but the three pieces on the left are sandi designs. the gingerblossom print of the large scale pink flowers is a laminate. i've never tried laminate before and it's fairly begging to be an apron. the two meadowsweet prints on the far right are corduroys. i didn't know any of the meadowsweet was made in corduroy! that'll be a new sewing experience for me, too. looking at these pieces just reminded me what a great vintage vibe her designs have. this is something i came to appreciate so much as i worked more and more with her prints. they just make me so happy!

 other treasures: the lovely nail polish colors that coordinate with her fabrics, a darling owl pincushion made in her famous henna print (i was needing another pincushion - how did she know?), and three patterns.

 i think i can adjust the ruffle pants pattern to make some cute bloomers for under skirts for my girls since i don't think they'd go for the pants. but the cupcake pincushion is perfect for me and that berry picker skirt really is pretty cute. i might just do some garment sewing some day soon.

and then there was this bag of scraps, which i haven't even opened yet because i'm so busy taking in all the rest of the package. goodness, it felt like an early birthday getting all these lovelies in one box at one time. this is sewing bliss.

now what will i make?!

happy, happy

did you know sandi henderson finally has her new site and blog up & running? this is happy, happy news for her biggest fan. and oh, so strange that i just found it. ever since she announced last january that she was switching blog platforms, i have been faithfully checking in monthly to see if it was up. i must have skipped december because although she's had her site running since last may, it wasn't posted to her old site until last month. i'd missed all those months of pretty posts! well, tonight, when i couldn't sleep, i was browsing and found the new portabellopixie and two fantastic announcements: she's got a new fabric line in the works (with some feedsack-inspired designs!) and she's pregnant. the strangest part was that a few months ago i googled every which way to see if her site was up but she just hadn't announced it. i think i even tried the web address she's actually using, to no avail. whatever. i'm just glad to have some fresh sandi back in my life.

so, if you're another sandi fan who's been wondering where she's been the last year, go see.

this makes me want to go stroke my meadowsweet collection and dream up something new. if only it weren't the middle of the night, i would!

meadowdot, anyone?

(yes, i'm a huge fabric geek and sleep deprived to boot. my apologies.)