Leaving it to destiny

Do you ever have an idea that seems not to let go? Keeping fabric around as long as I do might explain that to some degree, but that is beside the point. This wonderful leaf print - about 2 yards of it - has been with me longer than I care to admit. In all those years, I've tried a couple of ideas with it, but never to my satisfaction. I knew, all along it seems, it should be part of a flying geese quilt. But flying geese were always so putsy, I never wanted to commit. Now that I've learned to make flying geese in a much more efficient (and much less wasteful) manner, it seemed time to finally get this wonderful fabric into a quilt.
Unfortunately, a few sample blocks set on the fabric in the manner I've envisioned for all this time, left me sorely disappointed.

Not be be deterred and convinced that the contrast between the blocks and leaf print was too stark, I made a few blocks substituting a dark background for the light. A step in the right direction maybe, but still not all that impressive.
And so I let the idea simmer while I made a pot of coffee and threw some clothes in the washer. With a fresh cup in hand, it occurred to me that dropping the long-held notion of having the leaves serve as dividing strips might be the answer. Covering that one row of leaves with flying geese provided my answer. The leaves weren't meant to be stripes -- they were meant to be a frame.


All the pieces are cut for a throw-size quilt. (I had a day of vacation on Friday and managed to get a ton of cutting and marking done.) In fact, all the light background geese units, as well as a good portion of the dark units, are completed. I'm not kidding you or myself: this won't be done in a week. But what's the rush? These leaves have been waiting a long, long time to meet their destiny.