Reproduction Sky
When I purchased a charm pack of Metropolitan Fair by Barbara Brackman this summer, I knew it needed to be paired with linen, but the proper pattern eluded me for months. Then, though I am not a trendy sort, I couldn’t help but being inspired by the recent flock of flying geese quilts showing up on Flickr, Pinterest, and in my RSS reader. Reproduction Sky was born.
![Reproduction Sky](http://raevenfea.com/media/reproduction-sky-front-468x351.jpg)
I turned 39 of the 42 charms into 168 flying geese (the remaining charms and a few unused geese are on the back), paired it with one light linen/rayon blend, a darker 100% linen, and just a bit of a FQ from Old Sturbridge Village that has been in my stash for a while.
![Reproduction Sky (detail)](http://raevenfea.com/media/reproduction-sky-detail-351x468.jpg)
I think it took longer to cut and trim those flying geese than it did to sew the entire quilt top together.
![reproduction-sky-cutting](http://raevenfea.com/media/reproduction-sky-cutting-468x294.jpg)
Among other imperfections, I didn’t baste the back on perfectly straight, so the piecing of it is a little skewed when compared to the vertical quilting from the front, but it’s not too bad. I had just shy of three yards of this Etchings print in stash, as well as the green vines, which made for quick piecing of the back.
![Reproduction Sky (back)](http://raevenfea.com/media/reproduction-sky-back-350x468.jpg)
Nature’s Touch batting gives it a nice drape. The quilting is a mix of 40wt Gütermann thread and a 28wt hand-dyed white to beige variegated thread I picked up at a local quilt show. The latter was used to echo the seam lines of the geese columns and continue that grid to the edges, while the lighter-weight thread was perfect for a few more lines in between the others and stitching in some ditches.
![Reproduction Sky (detail)](http://raevenfea.com/media/reproduction-sky-label-468x351.jpg)
This one isn’t staying around the house for long, as it’s intended as a Christmas present for some friends of ours. I do look forward to cuddling under it while I finish up the binding. I cheated in the photos by using Steam-a-Seam to fuse the binding to the back. Not only does it clean up the binding for photos, but it holds it in place perfectly when I hand sew it down. With 6″ of snow on the ground and more forecasted, sewing binding while sitting under a warm quilt sounds lovely!