Continuing issue with uneven Wild Goose Chase strips

One time Mama said " I have had a belly full of ...." (whatever was irritating her at the time. She was many months 'with child' and quite impatient.) Daddy said, "You look like you have a belly full of something." He lived to regret it. And I will live to regret saying this. I have had a belly full of this thread. I am scalded by the ungrateful, rude and unappreciative responses to so many quilters. Several quilters with heaps of proven award-winning feathers (sorry) in their caps have gently tried to help. They have been insulted and ignored. I am offended and hurt because my dear friends have been. The goose chase project has been mildly amusing but I won't venture an opinion if she decides to back it with roofing shingles. Polly

Thank you. Maybe the shingles are a good idea!!!!!!!!!!! Gen

Howdy!

That's the chances you take when you try to sew a moving target. Flying geese... I'm just sayin'...

R/Sandy - glad to hear you avoid them, T; not going to ask how high you were ...

Well, there you go. LOL Funny though, I don't fly or get high. They have to fly low for me. ; ) Taria

Didja know that the collective noun for geese changes when they fly? You have a gaggle of geese on the ground and a skein of geese in the sky!

Lizzy

No. I didn't know that but what a beautiful use of the word skein. However. That's not exactly what happens here. The Canadian geese winter-over in the Swamp and do lots of formation drills waiting for the signal to return home. We wonder if they will ever get it right what with bad little kids and some trying to learn to turn to their 'other' right. Polly

EP: Right now I feel like Alice in Wonderland! I wonder if you have had the same problem with other Geese Quilts you have made with new quilting cotton. I am wondering if the problem may lie in the method you use to make each individual goose unit. (There are several ways to do that ... we each have a favorite that works best for us.) I wonder if you are using the same ruler throughout the cutting, and I wonder if you are using the same foot through the sewing. Wondering in Virginia, Pat

Jeanne: Don't be crushed! *I* also enjoy the Flying Geese units. To prove it, I'd love to mail you some, but you would need to send your snail address privately. Did I mention Lime? Grins, Pat in Virginia

That is a really helpful site, Inez. I also like your idea of cutting the pieces ahead of time for a scrappy quilt. Thanks.

After trying the other ways, I use that method now, too. No fuss, no waste, no problem! Pat

Hello IRIS! You have a lovely name and I am so sorry but I think I let spell check change your name to Inez! That is a nice name, too, but not your name, IRIS. Mea culpa. Pat in Virginia

Hi Pat, I think I've already answered some of your questions in this thread. The problem is not with my cutting and piecing. My cutting and piecing are just fine. I've never done a Wild Goose Chase before, but I've done a Tree Everlasting, which is similar, and I've posted a link to a picture of it. My triangles are dead level across the width of the quilt. I cut and piece triangles and squares quite accurately.

It seems obvious to me that the problem I'm asking about comes from dealing different weights of shirt and with shirt features such as button plaquettes up to an eight of an inch thick, which simply don't fold like other triangles.

What I asked is what to do with the result of this process, not how to change the process. I am now left with two questions (a little bit different from the two questions I started this thread with):

(1) To clarify what I've learned from these two quilts and during the course of my posting , my result is that the Goose Chase strips are actually all the same length (within 3/4 inch), as are the strips of sashing, but the the quilt tops are not coming out square. (Or, more accurately, rectangular.) As best as I can describe it (a photo would not show it), the tops pull up and to the right as I piece the strips left to right. I thus have two quilt tops that are out of square (and the different shirt weights and features probably have something to do this), and I'm trying to figure out what to do about that. Will simply sewing the top and bottom borders on help square it? Should I block (with water, on the floor) the tops before I sew the borders on? After?

If you or anybody else has any experience with or ideas about how to square quilt tops that come out cockeyed, I'd be glad to hear them.

(2) As for trying to prevent this problem on the next four quilts, I think my best bet may be to pin each strip to the adjacent strip (as Louse mentioned) before sewing the strips together, then alternating the direction of my sewing (sew one seam from top to bottom, the next seam from bottom two top). I'm a bit hesitant to try this because I'm afraid that pinning will not ensure that the top edge of the quilt top is level -- I already have a bottom that's looks hinky when I square the quilt on the floor; I don't want a top edge that's kittywompus as well. I continue to ponder the next step. Any thoughts on this are welcome.

I hope I don't come across as snarky, here. Apparently I've offended people here by pointing out that some people aren't asking my question and are assuming my problems are my fault because I'm sloppy. I didn't mean to step on toes; I thought I was engaging in a dialogue. I am not at a place in my life where I take hostility well, so I hope I won't generate any more with this reply. I'm really posting against my better judgment, but I didn't want to ignore your question -- I don't want you to be mad at me too. I don't know what else to say . . . .

ep (re-lurking)

Ha! Actually I LOL-ed out loud when I saw that! This is nothing new, believe me. In my lifetime I have been, among others, Alice, Lois, Phyllis, Rose (they knew it was a flower of some kind) and my personal favorite - Irish! My DH's uncle could not say Iris - it always came out with an "H" on the end.

Inez is a new one, however - I will add it to the list!

(I think Inez is a form of Agnes - which is my mom's name!)

Iris

And how I wonder about the young folks naming their babies for mountains and functions. Iris, Inez, Irene ... such lovely names. Our next great-grand is to be named Hayden. Waaaay too close to hoyden to suit this old aunt. Polly Esther is fun here but I wouldn't want to have to answer to it in the Rose Garden. Polly (pour me another tequila, Sheila)

"IEZ" Ha! Actually I LOL-ed out loud when I saw that! This is nothing new,

I met a 2 year old Iris in the supermarket the other day and congratulated her mother on her choice of name. Such a pretty one, and, as you say, unusual for that generation.

Odd how names come and go - apparently marketing people use first name surveys to gauge the age of people. We thought we had chosen a little used name for our daughter (Rachel) only to find that when she started kindergarten she was one of five, so a glut of Rachels = around 40 years old!

Sally at the Seaside ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~uk

Polly Esther wrote:

My great niece born on Thanksgiving last year is named Sophie Marie. She was a month premature and is a really tiny thing.

G> I met a 2 year old Iris in the supermarket the other day and

Olivia is in resurgence as a name, as well. My sister named her baby Olivia Charlotte when the girl was born six years ago, thinking it was unique and 'new'. The very next month I met a woman with a new baby named Olivia. Since then, it seems that every other girl child I meet is Olivia. Just one of those things. We named each of our sons good solid names that weren't much in demand and both of them landed in Kindergarten with at least four of the same name. Sigh. We all are thinking the same thing at the same time, I believe. At least some of us. And the rest are all thinking of the OTHER other thing. It's why we can't all agree. ;)

EP, sometimes the better part of valor is to pack up the quilt top and have a good glass of wine. My favorite is Shiraz, Jacob's Creek makes a fine one that will settle all problems and let you realize that using scissors to cut anything bigger than a piece of thread will result in many pains, including those of the hands and fingers and ..... other places.

Hugs to all and hopes that sore feelings will heal come another day, Sunny

i'll bet the problem you are having isn't so much with the geese, it's the difference in the assortment of fabric weights and weaves. I did 5 string quilt tops for my kids and each of them came out a little wonky, not much, but an inch or less here and there. my best suggestion would be to add a couple "coping strips" inbetween or at the ends of the geese. use a fabric that plays well with their neighbors and after the project is quilted, bound and blocked, you'll never see those "fudges". you may even like the effect when it's done. amy in CNY

When I was growing up, long ago, I was always the only Iris. I was named after a woman my mother had worked with before her marriage, in the 1940's. Mom suggested the name to Dad and he liked it. I went to a wedding of a high school friend when I was in my twenties and struck up a conversation with some people in the receiving line. One of them, a middle-aged lady at that time, was also named Iris and we were both surprised. (This worked out well for me because I didn't know a soul at the wedding besides the bride and there was no assigned seating, so I was glad to have somebody to sit with!) This lady didn't like her name, but I always did. I think one or two Hollywood folks have named babies Iris, so I was wondering if there was some kind of a popularity upswing for the name.

My son was born in 1984. I had thought about Rachel, had he been a girl. As it was he ended up Bret. The only problem that I had not considered is that most people spell the name Brett, so he is often correcting his name. I think he likes it though.

Iris

Well, it seems more clear to me now ... the problem is the type of fabric you have to use, along with the odd bits of shirt do-dads. I wonder if it would work out for you to do a sort of quilt as you go construction. I did that once with a Bargello Quilt. The method is explained very well in both of Marge Edie's books. Here is my take on it: spread the batting over the wrong side of backing .... use the entire pieces here! then, center the first goose strip down the center of the batting lay the first long sash over that, right side together, matching raw edges on right pin along those raw edges, through all layers. take to the SM and sew through all layers, using your normal .25" seam return to work surface, smooth the sash flat and lay the next goose strip over that. Repeat as above, working center to right. Completer the rest of the quilt from center to left. Square off and bind. Finished.

Hope this helps you for this quilt .... it can be used for any similar stripped quilt.

Mad? Offended? Nope .... what would 'offend' me (The Official Chocolate Taster of RCTQ) is to be offered fake chocolate ...

Pat in Virginia