Geese in Ring Swap Quilt – part 1

As I have previously blogged about, I am the swap host of the Geese in a Ring Swap, which ended up with 6 Rounds (of 8 participants). I am so very happy and proud that so many liked my idea and this block!! I had only anticipated 1, perhaps 2 rounds. Several of these talented ladies joined 1 or 2 addtional rounds, would you believe it?

And I am very happy, that Krista decided to become my partner-in-swap-crime. She is an immense help, sorting and sending blocks to the US and Canada folks. Thanks chica, you are fantastic!!

Up till now Rounds 1 to 4 have passed the deadline, and I think it was right about time for me to finish my top for Round 1 (the good example and so...). All the blocks I received are just soooo beautiful, I wish you could see them in person! And some of the participants even sent me bonus blocks, so I did not have to add any further blocks!

I had a fairly clear idea that I wanted the top to enhance the geese blocks, but I also wanted the blocks to be separated a little to show off each and every one of them and to create some areas for the eyes to rest after taking a swirl around the geese blocks.

I had quite an amount of the right coloured fabrics from an abandoned project, so I put them to good use and lo and behold: they had the exact right size!! Yippee!!

Here is the finished top, spread out on our couch. Trying to photograph in the afternoon at this time of year is just not the best combination. Oh well!

I love seeing these pictures of quilt tops hung in front of a window, giving the impression of stained glass. Here is my version, and I quite like it!

 

Detail

 

For the back I chose some oh-so-soft voile from Anna Maria Horner’s line Little Folks and in order to get it the right size, I simply added another road of squares and made a mini block of Geese in a ring. Such a cutie block (size 6 inches).

But how on earth am I going to quilt it?!?
I follow the very talented long arm quilter Angela Walters’ blog, and she has started a Monday series on how to find inspiration for quilting and asked of her readers to send in examples. Too good to be true!!! So I hurried, took a very crappy dark evening picture of the top with my iPhone and immediately sent it to her. Perhaps she would choose it?! 

And Angela sure did! And would you believe it: she had Lynne from Lily’s Quilts add her 10 cents on the toptoo – I almost fainted when I found out!!! Squeeeeeel!! Here is the direct link to the article. 

Angela is going to start a series on how to quilt on an ordinary household machine too, so consider putting her blog in your reader. 

If you have any suggestions how to quilt this top, please inspire me – I think I am beginning to form an idea, but inputs are most welcome!