Wild Geese Quilt ~ Autumn into Winter

pattern photo / J Patek

Hi Everyone! Today's sunset is the earliest  of the year! It will get lighter for my evening walk with each day now. Yes, the shortest day is around December 21st, but for some reason--Earth's tilt? the sunsets are the earliest at the beginning of December.

Today I dug out some my red and white and other holiday quilts.

Last week I put the Christmas quilts on my bed, along with red pillow cases and bright white flannel sheets, cozy periwinkle blue flannel pillow cases too. On a dark rainy night like tonight they are so comforting.

I was quite reluctant to put away my Wild Geese quilt. I think it's my all time favorite quilt I have ever made.

I just love everything about it---the colors, the fun, the mixed media of fabrics [cotton, wool, silk, velvet] and the carefree way I made it on my own, no sewalong or BOM. I used whatever method struck my fancy for each block. Some are straight stitched, some zigzagged by machine. Some needle turn, by hand. But the result is, to me, successful, even delightful. I also loved looking for the paid shirts for an entire year.
My only regret is using plaid flannel on its back, instead of the flannel print I first chose, navy with lightning bugs in Mason jars. [I was afraid the navy would run and spoil the quilt, as the black flannel color ran on my Pokeberry Quilt.]

Here at the beach  I still see giant Vs of wild geese all winter, so as I folded my quilt away I thought about reusing it in January when I will be oh so tired of red. But the pumpkins and turkey kind of place it firmly as an autumn quilt.

What could I do instead?, I pondered. Could I make a winter version that is as much fun? I got out this pattern, also by Jan Patek.

It actually doesn't have any Wild Geese blocks, but maybe has too many stars anyway? And all those spacer strips could be Flying Geese too.

The quilt references a beautiful  old-ish Christian hymn, but I always think of this quilt as the Beatles song Blackbird:

Blackbird singing in the dead of night

Take these broken wings and learn to fly

All your life

You were only waiting for this moment to arise

or even Here Comes the Sun, both of which I sang [badly] to my kids as infants. And not that I see many sunrises, I'm not a morning person,lol.

Here comes the sun 

Here comes the sun, and I say

It's all right

Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter

Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here

Here comes the sun 

Here comes the sun, and I say

It's all right

A friend on one of my FB groups very kindly shared her version of this quilt. I love how she added more blackbirds or crows, instead of embroidering the  lyrics of the hymn. Her color palette is quieter too, good inspiration for a winter-y quilt.

If I make this quilt, I'd sub more birds, as LH did, and some Geese in Flight blocks instead of so many stars. I'll use my blue shirts stash, some yellows and golds, but tone it down a bit, to evoke winter sunsets over the marshes instead of a summer morning.
I do have a gorgeous piece of blue velvet from my friend B. It may need to be overdyed but would definitely be featured.

A project to pick up now and then, as Wild Geese was so successfully [from my maker's point of view].

....

Did I tell you the t shirt quilt went off to Lori C/ Quilters Imagination HERE to be quilted? Whew! That took some attention and time.Dear Lori saved a slot in her busy longarm schedule so we hope to have it done for Christmas.  I hope she loves it.

And I have prepped the last two blocks of Year in the Country. I'm a bit procrastinating on them because I hate to have it done! It was so  much fun, another casual pick up when I can, do as I please year long quilt. [seeing a theme here?]

The Snowman block has been given a pink crescent moon, just like the late November moon Mo and I enjoyed seeing on one of our dinnertime walks.

I even spent an hour or so the other night on eBay looking for Sporrer's other BOM Day in the Country. I found one that is nursery rhymes, about 8 of 12 patterns are for sale; but there's another that is very prim and simple, just called same A Day in the Country, but different motifs from mine from Penny.

When I get the tree up and the house looking festive, I hope to start Temecula Quilt Company's sewalong, Little Tree. Blocks are 2 3/4", yikes! But fun. HERE

After Christmas I plan to get back to piecing Stars for Silent Night, and must also finish Blue Baskets. Lots to look forward to, in 2020.[Oh and the two baby quilts! @@].

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On this rainy Monday I was kept company, unexpectedly, by a briskly singing Mr. Mockingbird in the ugly locust tree.

He lives/ nests in the dunes in the summer but returns to my tree each winter and spring. I hope he hasn't been fooled by the day's warmer temps.

 He has been coming here longer than I have been blogging, more than ten years! It must be the same bird, on his exact branch and twig. He must be quite an older gentleman by now, wonder how long songbirds live? I'll put out dried cranberries for him tomorrow if the rain lets up.

Hope your holiday weeks are fun, enjoy each moment.

At the end of this post will be the Lori of Humble Quilts' Blog Hop links, one each day starting Monday Dec 9. I hope you visit the other blogs and enjoy them.

love 

lizzy 

gone to the beach...

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Dec 9- Humble Quilts, Lori, https://humblequilts.blogspot.com/

Dec 10 KatyQuilts , https://katyquilts.net/Dec 11 Beth https://lovelaughquilt.blogspot.com/Dec 12 Diane- ButterflyThreadsQuilting

Dec 13 -Timeless Reflections. Kyle. https://kyleredente.blogspot.com

Dec 14 Pinkadotquilts Kelly http://pinkadotquilts.blogspot.com/

 Dec 15  Juliann - https://chasingstories.wordpress.com/

Dec 16  sue  Knitty Quilter -https://suehoover.blogspot.com

Dec 17 Lizzy  https://gone2thebeach.blogspot.com/

Dec 18 Barb, https://funwithbarbandmary.blogspot.com/

Dec 19 Judy Hansen  https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

Dec 20- Kevin, http://kevinthequilter.blogspot.com/