Journal Notes

I found this pattern online and challenged myself to learn how to draft it with EQ8. I used my book and a couple tutorials on YouTube. It was challenging but I guess I CAN learn new things! I wanted a patriotic color scheme since this year is America’s semiquincentennial. I want this to be my summer cuddle quilt so the plan is to do it in linen with bamboo blend batting. Hopefully it won’t be very warm. I’ve been collecting thrifted linen clothing for a few years and been wanting to try making a linen quilt. I starched the crap out of my fabric and am using a paintbrush to starch each seam before I press it. The red is a linen cotton blend but all the other fabrics are 100% linen. There is not enough contrast between my colors but I am using what I have, which is 4 blue shirts, 1 red shirt, 3 white shirts and 2 tan shirts. If my math is right, there are 152 flying geese in this quilt. I realized that using my Deb Tucker Wing Clipper, I end up with extra bulk at the nose of the goose. Found a video by Quilters Headquarters called “Wing Clipper Flying Geese with less bulk Quilters Headquarters” where she shows how to prevent this and still use the ruler. Wish I’d known that a long time ago! 6/30/26: finished the top. I wanted this quilt to have an antique feel to it, like one made by a woman who did the best she could with limited resources. I bought a book on antique British frame quilts and I love that “make do” look they have but my inner perfectionist has a hard time actually MAKING ONE. I’m trying to let go of the need to have everything perfectly matching. 7/1/26: finished backing. Just watched a video of a longarmer doing a linen quilt. She recommended you press all seams open with linen because it’s thicker. I don’t think that would work with my Deb Tucker rulers for flying geese. Now I’m worried about quilting this. Some of my seams are very thick. 7/14/26: Rita’s needle is getting stuck occasionally, especially on the red fabric, which is thicker than the rest. Really hope this doesn’t mess up her timing. 7/18/26: I’m including a photo of my one inch circles. The ones on purple fabric are on the first quilt I made with Rita. The ones on the blue are on this quilt. There’s still room for improvement but I’ve gotten much better at them. 7/27/26: having issues with too much fullness on the right side of the quilt. I think the quilt was pretty darn square before I loaded it. I think it’s how I’m basting it. I float my quilt tops and baste each pass as I advance down the quilt. On this one I’m leaving the side borders unquilted because I plan to load it again sideways after the center is done. Maybe the unquilted sides are throwing things off? I’ve never had this much of an issue before. Just read that you should baste down the left side, across the bottom and then down the right side. I don’t think I was doing it in that order, not consistently anyway. Just did that for the last pass and I didn’t get the extra fullness. But I don’t know if it was that or if I just got all the fullness worked in on the last two passes. It’s hard to know what is best because I see YouTube quilters doing it all different ways. July 31, 2026: cut the binding from a couple cotton men’s shirts. Cut it at 2 3/8” because the bamboo batting is so thin. This was so wide that I ended up having to stitch it down by hand to the back or I would’ve had a big flap. August 7, 2026: sewed label on and washed. It is very crinkly and has the antique look I was hoping for.