After I made my first quilt, I was hooked. Piecing and quilting was not as difficult as I thought it would be. I then went on a quest for a pattern to make for my second quilt. That is when I ran across a book titled More Quick Rotary Cutter Quilts (For the Love of Quilting)
I bought it because so many of the fun quilts in this book appealed to me. I was still a newbie to quilting so I had no idea that many of the quilts in this book are for a more experienced quilter. When I bought the book, I figured they would be easy quilts because they are labeled as “Quick”… Well, you know what happens when you assume!
I picked the Flying Home quilt to make, with some help from my husband. He wanted me to make him a quilt and this was the one in the book that appealed to him the most. With that decision being made, I grabbed my book and headed to the quilt shop to buy the fabric.
After several weeks of attending class at my quilt shop, I knew all of the gals who worked there. I had high hopes that they would help me pick out fabric that would be perfect for my first bed-sized quilts. I wasn’t disappointed — I love the fabrics we found!
What I was a little disappointed in was the fact that these gals knew me and they knew I was a beginner when it comes to quilting. They also know quilting. I really wish one of them would have warned me about the complexity of this pattern and how challenging it could be for a beginner.
By looking at the picture, you might think constructing the geese would be the hard part, but that wasn’t what I found to be the most challenging part of this quilt, that was all of the flying geese blocks — more than 300 — that surround the geese.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not knocking this pattern nor the author of this book (Pam Bono Designs), the pattern was actually pretty easy to follow. After all, it was only my second quilt and I finished it. I am just suggesting that there might be better patterns for a beginner to tackle than one with so many tiny details and pieces sewn on the bias.
Once I finally got the quilt top pieced, I faced my next challenge – quilting it. I had no problem using my sewing machine to quilt my rail fence quilt, but it was only about 40-inches square and I quilted in straight lines. The Flying Home quilt is approximately 74” x 109”. I was so nervous about quilting this project that it took me almost 7 months to do it.
I finally decided to quilt it using a wavy line. I create a template for this using a piece of cardboard and drew the lines on the quilt top using a disappearing ink marking pen. When it came to the individual geese, I stitched around each one. Once the quilting was done, I actually scolded myself for waiting so long because it was a lot easier than I thought it would be.
The only thing I would change when it comes to the quilting process is the batting I used. I chose a high loft, polyester batting. Over time, I have experimented with different kinds of batting and the high-loft is always the most difficult to work with. This is just my personal preference…
While this book is no longer available, you may have luck finding it used somewhere (see my affiliate link above or perhaps do a search on Ebay).
Disclosure: As noted above, this post contains an affiliate link. See my disclosure policy for details.
Is this pattern available to buy?
Hi Dee,
Thanks for leaving this message. I checked the links on this page and noticed the author’s site wasn’t loading (that is where the pattern was posted) so I started searching around and discovered that the author, Pam Bono, passed away last month. I am willing to bet that is why her site is no longer available. I have edited this page to remove the links. I did notice, while checking out the link to the book on Amazon I provide in this post, that is might be available used by some sellers on Amazon. You might also want to try to search Ebay.
I went to ebay and did a search on Flying Home Quilt, with no results. Did you say it was also in a book? Do you have the title?
Hi Dee, At the very top of this post I talk about the book and even share a link to it on Amazon…
Is it possible to buy the pattern for flying home.
THe book seems to be available from a couple of private parties on Amazon if you follow the link I share. 🙂
Hello
I bought this book years ago and am attempting this Flying home quilt, only to discover the sizes for the goose blocks are all INcorrect! NONE fit as they should (and yes, I cut all the pieces according to the sizes and shapes required) They are such wrong sizes that I believe my only course of action is to draw the block out myself and correct the faulty lines. Did you have to do this?
I don’t remember having to do that….. However, I was so new to quilting I maybe didn’t know any better?
If anyone wishes to do this quilt my advice is buy WAY more fabric than it calls for because you WILL be going back to the store several times if you use the suggested amount. PLUS make a life sized copy of the goose block, trace it on paper and MAKE PATTERNS!!!!! It’s less nerve racking than to use the rather wasteful rotary method they write about.
(Plus I ended up so frustrated I ended up throwing the entire book in the trasdh can)