New Wild Goose Chase Quilt EQ8 Tutorial

I recently gave my Tech Know Quilter Masters members a challenge -- to design an original Wild Goose Chase quilt.  They got to interpret "Wild Goose Chase" however they desired.

I also like to participate in the challenges -- and will be sharing a tutorial on my Wild Goose Challenge quilt.  I decided to make my Wild Goose Chase quilt very piecing friendly.  This would be a great lap quilt -- or even a baby quilt.

Scroll down for TKQ Masters members challenge quilt submissions.  I think you will agree they did an amazing job.

Wild Goose Chase EQ8 Tutorial 

My goals in designing my "goose" quilt.

• Use traditional flying geese units (where the width of each unit is double the height).
• Create a new arrangement for the flying geese.
• Use a limited color palette (under 6 fabrics).
• Create a quilt that would be easy to piece -- with rotary cutting friendly blocks.  I also wanted the flying geese to be able to pieced using Deb Tucker's Wing Clipper ruler (my latest favorite method for producing flying geese).

Flying Geese  Block

• The flying geese block is 6 x 9.
• Draft the block in EasyDraw with snap settings of 6 x 9.  Snapping options just Snap to Grid.
• Each flying geese unit will be 6 x 3.

6" x 9" Flying Geese Block Drawn in EasyDraw

Flying Geese Quilt

• Set up a New Quilt>Custom Set.  A custom set layout allows you to place your blocks without any constraints.  You can use blocks with a variety of sizes, and rotations.
• The default size of center is 48 x 48.
• Use this for the initial drafting of the quilt.

​

Custom Set Quilt Layout Tab

Create a flight pattern for the flying geese.

Select a block and select the Adjust tool.

In the Quilt Grid Set-Up, have on Show Grid, Snap Block Position to Grid and Snap Block Size to Grid.  Set the Grid Snap Increments at 3". 

I chose to create a plan where the geese fly in toward the center.  I also left 3" wide spacing between the spiraling in flying geese units.

Flying Geese Layout Option

• Under Block Tools>Set Block, add a plain block.
• Drag the plain block on the quilt.
• Resize the plain block to fill the spaces between the flight path.  
• After resizing each spacer make sure to double click on each block.  This will reposition the block to the closest 3" X and Y axis.  There should then be no gaps (i.e. white spaces) between the blocks.
• Place a 6" x 9" plain block in the center.

Adding Plain Blocks to the Custom Set Quilt

• Use the measurement tool to figure out the size of the quilt center.  For this design the designed quilt center measure a total of 42" width and  45" length.
• Select the Layout tab.
• Make sure Maintain the Existing block sizes when resizing the layout is turned on.
• ​Set the size at 42 x 45.

Adjusting the Layout Tab to Match the Size of the Designed Quilt

On the Borders tab, created two borders.

• Border #1 - 4.5" Long Horizontal.
• Border #2 - .5" Mitered.​

Adding Borders

Wild Goose Chase with Plain Block Spacers. Final size of 52" x 55".

Pieced Spacer Option

I then began thinking through an option to replace the spacers in my first quilt with a pieced option


Create two additional block in EasyDraw.

• 3" x 6" Pieced Spacer
• ​3" x 3" Corners

3" x 6" Pieced Spacer Block Drafted in EasyDraw

3" x 3" Corner Block Drafted in EasyDraw

With the Adjust tool, adjust the size of the spacers to leave space for the corners.  Then add 3" spacers to the corners.

Replace the spacers with the pieced spacer block.  (To replace select the pieced block under Block Tools>Set Block and click on the initial spacer on the worktable.)

Rotate the horizontal blocks.

Replace the corners with the designed 3 x 3 corner square.  Rotate the corner blocks to create a transition between the pieced spacer blocks.

Adjusting the Spacers to Add Corners

Wild Goose Chase with Pieced Spacers

Check out the full video tutorial.

Wild Goose Chase Option 3 - Additional Layout

Note:  This quilt is not included in the video tutorial.

Using the same method as presented in the video, I created a second layout for the flying geese and spacer blocks.

This quilt measures 39" x 48" for the center.  And 49" x 58" with borders.

Instructions for this are not included in the video.

But if you are up for a challenge, give this version a try.

Or create a new layout of your own using Custom Set.

Alternate Layout for Wild Goose Chase Blocks

Alternate Quilt 49" x 58"

Let me know what you decide to do with the 6 x 9 Flying Geese block.  Feel free to post your designs in the Learning EQ Facebook group.

Learning EQ8 Facebook Group Post for Wild Goose Chase Quilts

Wild Goose Chase Challenge Quilts

Tech Know Quilter Masters members were recently challenged to create a Wild Goose Chase quilt.

One of the idioms in the US is “wild goose chase”.  It refers to doing something that is pointless (or meaningless).  
 
I suggested Tech Know Quilter Masters members focus on one of the following as they design their quilt:

• Create a quilt focused on a flying geese type of block.
• Go with a design without “points” (keying in on pointless in the definition)
• Focus on the “meaningless” topic.

​Here are their submissions.

Curryanne Hostetler Geese Gone Wild

Dianna Carter

Fran Heisey Here's my Wild Goose Chase. This was a very difficult challenge. I didn't have a clue what to do until I saw a goose nesting in a parking lot.

Fran Heisey Inspiration Photo

Fran Heisey Strips and Strata is a great class. It reminded me of Marsha McCloskey's method of making HSTs from bias strips, I made a number of her feathered star blocks using bias strata (the 1st blocks I ever sewed on a machine; sadly they are still UFOs). The layout for this quilt was inspired by Joyce Himes question on Electric Quilt Users. In trying to solve her problem, I realized how rusty I am on resizing and positioning blocks in Custom Layouts. The theme and geese were designed for last month's master challenge, but I wanted to try them with a more complex background.

Julie Pedersen Here is my Wild Goose Chase. I used the line tool that creates flying geese plus some of my own creations. It is definitely mayhem and a wild goose chase.

Renae Frank Butler

Edith Craig I used 2 wild goose chase blocks, then used shrink and flip with each of them and selected the versions that I liked best. I used the auto borders for the wild goose blocks, reducing the size of the blocks until they were visually compatible with the patches in the main blocks. I then revised the colors until I had something that I liked.

Terry McCaskey After getting Kari's help in drafting a "Dizzy Goose" block some months ago it seemed right to use a variation for this challenge: "The Dizzy Geese Are Out"

Are you interested in learning move about Tech Know Quilters?  Send me a note.  I would love to provide your more information on the program.

Happy quilting.

​Kari

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