Surprised By My Next Project

I’ve been thinking about making a quilt out of Kaffe Fasset Collective fabrics in the contrast color way for some time. I recently purchased a piece of the contrast striped heraldic fabric for a backing, so I figured it was time to get moving.

I’ve considered a number of quilt patterns for these fabrics, but was never really happy with how they looked in my head. But I’ve landed on the perfect pattern for these fabrics — and I’m a little surprised by this decision.

I decided to make the Ruffled Feathers Quilt that I saw on this Instagram account a month or so ago and purchased the pattern at that time. The pattern is for sale here, but it’s currently out of stock. Here’s the photo that caught my eye. UPDATE: I emailed the pattern designer and she said that anyone interested in the pattern can email her and she’ll send an invoice: modernfolkstudio@gmail.com

This was the first photo I saw of this quilt and it grabbed me instantly. I thought it would be gorgeous out of KFC fabrics, but wasn’t initially thinking about using it with the contrast color way fabrics.

I’ve wanted to make a flying geese quilt for some time. I’ve done some flying geese pieces that have been sewn into pouches. You can see a bunch of them here.

Here’s the fabrics I’ll be using for this quilt. All of the fabrics in this photo are from my stash.  I have a few additional contrast pieces on order to fill out the collection.

The heraldic fabric on the left will be the backing. The whites with black in the center will be the backgrounds for the flying geese units. The fabrics on the right will be the geese.

I’ve been collecting these low volume fabrics for a while now, thinking I’d probably combine them with Aboriginal fabrics at some point in time. I have a bunch of these in a drawer, just sitting there for years, so I might as well use some of them now. I’m not a big fan of stark white or off white backgrounds in a quilt. Maybe because I have dogs with dirty feet who shed. I think these will add some dimension and interest to this quilt. Here’s a little better look at them. I may not use all of them, but then I just might.

Here’s a closer look at the contrast fabrics.

The black and pink fabric in the upper right and the three jumble pieces at the bottom are actually not contrast color way. But I think they work nicely with these fabrics.

The pattern has you make your flying geese in the no-waste method, but I prefer to make my flying geese with paper piecing. I have better luck getting the points precise and it helps me avoid the wonkiness I get with other methods.

The problem with this idea: the pattern doesn’t come with a paper piecing template for the geese. So I took some time this evening, did a little math and cypherin’, and made my own template. I will probably dummy up one block out of scraps first to make sure my measurements are correct.

So now I just need to photo copy 40 of these templates, wait for my additional fabric to arrive, cut some fabric, and I’ll be ready to go. The paper I need for these templates is supposed to arrive on Sunday. The template is long enough that it won’t fit on a letter size sheet, so I’ve ordered some legal size paper piecing paper.

I’m anxious to get started. I’ll probably start cutting fabric tomorrow afternoon to be ready!