flying geese

I haven't seen any geese overhead flying south this year, but I am collecting a pile of "flying geese" in my sewing room. This is the new block design I'm learning how to piece, and it will be used with the squares of Creekside fabric I recently cut.

I fumbled a LOT while making the first block even though it's a simple straight seam. I kept practicing and soon I had five little patches stitched and pressed. Only 182 more blocks to go. I'm now chain-piecing in batches of 20 or 30 blocks at a time and honing my mass production skills. It's not a quick process but helps me reflect about taking one step at a time on any journey.

One of the extra steps in this piecing journey is marking the blocks before I sew. A practiced quilter might not need marks to sew a straight line across the diagonal of a small square but I do. So before stitching I take a straight-edge to every white block and draw a line with a blue fabric marker. Before I press the seam open I have to remove the mark so it doesn't become permanent. A cotton swab dipped in water usually does the trick. I run the damp swab lightly across the line and the blue mark disappears. I do the marking and erasing en masse and I sometimes miss a bit at one end as you can see in the above photo. That bit won't be seen once the seams are sewn.

Back to the ironing board....