Quilt Finish & Tutorial: Blue Goose Quilt

It was time for another big stash-busting quilt, and this time I went for my light and dark-tone blues (and had to throw in a few dark grays when I didn't have enough dark blues).  I knew that I wanted bigger scale traditional blocks in repeat, and landed on the flying geese block, finishing at 4x8".  I toyed with making the layout completely random, but settled on rows of blocks in alternating directions with clumps of blocks in the same background color.   I have included a quick tutorial on how to make this quilt at the bottom of this post.

Before I began sewing my blocks, I laid out piles of my lighter fabric rectangles, and paired them up with darker squares. That way, I would have sets of flying geese blocks that had the same triangle and background.  Sometimes I had more rectangles than squares, so in that case, I would make another pile of that rectangle with a new background squares.  When I laid out the quilt, I kept the matching blocks together. Blocks that didn't have the same triangle and background would be put in their own group.

Once I had cut & sewn all my squares & rectangles (and trimmed them), they were all way easier to layout on my design wall than it would have been if I was trying to randomize the entire quilt.

I wanted to back this one with minky because on a chilly CO day, nothing is cozier. I had my long-arm quilter quilt it using the "River Run" pattern from Urban Elementz. I wanted a pattern that wasn't too angular, so it wouldn't compete with all of the triangles, and this one  was nice and linear, with just enough curves to make it interesting.

I bound the quilt with one of the prints that was left over from the quilt. I don't love when my binding fabric matches one of the fabrics in the quilt in a scrappy quilt (like below), but my options were limited, so I went with it. I'll probably be the one person that notices it - or is bugged by it. As my friend always says: Is it something you would notice if you were riding by on the back of a galloping horse? The answer here: No.

Tutorial for Making a Blue Goose Quilt:
This quilt finishes at 72" square - a nice throw size.
There are 162 blocks, arranged 9 across, and 18 down.
You will need 3 yards of light blue fabrics, and 3 yards of darker blue fabrics. I used  a total of 40 fabrics (20 light & 20 dark). 
Cut your lighter fabrics in 162 rectangles 4.75" x 8.75", and your darker fabrics in 324 squares 4.75" x 4.75".  After your blocks are assembled, trim to 4.5" x 8.5".
I alternated the directions of my columns of flying geese so that seams would be less bulky during assembly.
Note: my design at the top of this post doesn't show actual block placement. In reality, sometimes I had groups of 6 matching blocks, sometimes there were only 2 matching blocks.  Whatever I had that matched got put together in the end.
You can see more pictures of my Blue Goose quilt at #bluegoosequilt