Welcome to the first week of the (Spruce) Goose Goose Sew Along! This relaxed summer sew along will run for five weeks and keep you on track for creating a beautiful crib quilt, throw/twin quilt, or a pair of pillows or tote bag!
There’s no signup for this event. Simply purchase the Goose Goose PDF pattern from my website SHOP and follow along, sewing with me each week at your own pace. For the giveaways, instructions will appear each week explaining how to leave comments on the relevant blog posts to enter for that prize; names will be drawn from the comment pool on each specific post—see this week’s giveaway at the end of this post.
How the Sew Along Works
During the 5-week sew-along, we’ll break the pattern into manageable, bite-sized tasks so you still have plenty of time for summer activities and other commitments. You’re welcome to sew ahead at your own pace, or follow each week’s blog post prompt and complete just the steps needed for that week. I’ll be using this blog to post helpful tips and handy tricks for making this quilt, and the blog will also be the place where the weekly giveaways are hosted.
Above is the SAL schedule for what I’ll cover each week and the exciting giveaways! Be sure to read to the bottom of this post for how to enter into the Week 1 giveaway for a beautiful Modern American Vintage handcrafted Goose Goose Quilters Clapper.
WEEK 1 - FABRIC PULL & CUTTING
Let’s jump right into your assignment for this week. Remember, you’re encouraged to work at your own pace and feel free to sew ahead if you’d like.
Selecting Your Fabrics
For my quilt, and for all the kit options available from the quilt shops I'm collaborating with, we are using Art Gallery Fabrics. If you’ve never sewn with Art Gallery Fabrics before, you’re in for a real treat. The AGF quilting cotton feels like percale with a high thread count; it’s 100% cotton with a wonderfully soft hand. The beautifully screen-printed fabrics deliver incredible color and have minimal edge fraying and shrinkage. The combination of a high thread count and a relatively thin body makes sewing precise patchwork much easier and more accurate. Once you sew with AGF, it’s hard to go back to anything else.
I’m using prints from my new Spruce collection for Art Gallery Fabrics and have made myself a fun Christmas Spruce Goose Goose quilt! The photo above shows the five A prints for the Geese, AGF Pure Solids Blossomed for the B fabric, the green Delicate Balance print for the C background, and Timeless Ticking Evergreen as my backing. You’ll find the Materials List below and in the pattern shop listing so you can plan your fabric pull from your stash or when shopping. The Goose Goose pattern is sold separately from my Shop and includes the three project sizes you see listed: 2 Pillows, Crib, or a Throw/Twin size quilt.
I’m collaborating with several shops to bring you Goose Goose quilt kits in both crib and throw/twin sizes, so you’ll have options if you don’t want to source the fabrics on your own. All their Goose Goose kits are made with Art Gallery Fabrics. You can also see all the kits in one place on this Instagram post @sharonhollanddeisgns. There’s still plenty of time to order a kit and have it in time for next week when we start sewing!
GOOSE GOOSE KITS
Ash & Elm Quiltery (US) - Several Goose Goose version options plus the Spruce Goose Goose kit to match my SAL quilt
Bundled Fabric (CA) - Pattern cover quilt option and a Spruce version
Fieldstone Fabrics (US) - Size a version options
Olive and Elle Quilt Co (US) - Several Goose Goose version options and sizes
Cutting Your Fabrics
The Goose Goose pattern is labeled as an intermediate-level quilt mostly because of the cutting. Because each of the geese and the heart blocks are directional objects, if you’ve selected any directional or two-directional prints, you’ll want those prints to be oriented all the same way once the block is assembled. In any Sharon Holland pattern, I always list the cutting information for cutting the height (H) of the strips first and then subcutting the strips into the various width (W) sizes. That’s the same approach for this pattern, but sometimes you will be told to cut a strip (H) much larger than the subcut width to accommodate the way the print will be oriented (directional) once sewn into the block. Anytime that anomaly occurs, you will see the word directional in parentheses (directional), which signals you to pay extra attention to fabric orientation during cutting and piecing.
In the above photo, I am using an obviously directional A fabric to illustrate how the A piece cutting will guide you to cut some pieces in the conventional way, with the strip height smaller than the sub-cut width of the piece (see the bottom two strips), where the print appears to run horizontally across the strip. The top row pieces are taller than they are wide and were cut with directionality in mind; the print appears to run vertically on those pieces even though all pieces are oriented with the print facing the same way. They were cut differently so that the prints align correctly for the overall pattern. You will see this same cutting method with (directional) prompt used for the A, B, and C fabrics.
There will be some additional directional print controlling discussed in Week 2 of the sew-along when we sew the Half-Square Triangles and add Flippy Corner squares to form the Goose Blocks, but that’s not to worry about right now. Instead, take your time with the cutting — it’s admittedly my least favorite part of making this quilt, yet it’s well worth the extra care to ensure all those pretty prints run in the right direction. Your geese and hearts will thank you for it!
WEEK 1 GIVEAWAY!
Each of the five weeks of the sew-along I will share helpful tips or clever tricks for completing that week’s sewing assignment and also announce the new giveaway prize. Some weeks I’ll select just one winner from the comments on that blog post, and other weeks there may be multiple prizes so a few lucky readers will be chosen—each week brings a fresh opportunity to win something you’ll truly enjoy adding to your sewing studio!
Huge thank you to Modern American Vintage for this week’s generous giveaway prize!
MODERN AMERICAN VINTAGE
was built to revive the good ol’ days of being creative in Grandpa’s wood shop surrounded by the smell of milled wood, machine oil, coffee & pipe tobacco.
I’ve teamed up with the talented artist Chris Hanson of Modern American Vintage so he could turn my Goose Goose block into a handmade limited edition Quilters Clapper. Chris handcrafts each of the intricate wooden sewing notions featured in his shop, and his product line now includes the adorable Goose Goose Quilters Clappers. As Chris explains, “Each clapper has been weighted to create a wonderfully hefty tool that can be used for many different applications such as holding down templates for tracing, keeping piles of blocks in place, as well as its standard use to create perfectly flat seams.” This thoughtful, well-made tool is a must-have notion for any quilter’s studio.
Please note that the Goose Goose Quilters Clapper included in the giveaway may be crafted from different wood species than the clapper shown in these photos. The example pictured is the one I personally selected from the pieces made by Chris, but he has produced 4 different versions featuring a range of wood types and colors. Be sure to visit the Modern American Vintage pre-order page for this clapper to view all the Goose Goose Quilter Clappers so you can get a clear sense of the variety of woods, tones, and finishes this useful pressing tool is offered in. You’ll be able to preorder until July 2nd, and please allow 3-4 weeks after the preorder window closes for delivery.
They’re all absolutely beautiful, and it’s nearly impossible to pick just one!
Enter to Win!
*Note: This giveaway is open to US addresses only, sorry no international shipping. If you're a "no reply" or anonymous commenter, please remember to include your email address in your comment--you can't win if I can't contact you!
1. Simply leave a comment in the comments section (below) on this Week 1 post and tell me if you’ll be sewing along with us! (Counts as a separate entry number (1) one.)
2. Leave a comment and tell if you’ve ever used a pressing clapper or own any beautiful items handcrafted by Chris Hanson of Modern American Vintage. (This comment counts as a separate entry number (2) two).
3. Be following me (Sharon) on Instagram @sharonhollanddesigns and/or be signed up for my blog post newsletters AND be following @modern_american_vintage on Instagram (counts as your number (3) three separate entry) when you let me know you’re following us in a comment.
That’s THREE possible entries and up to three chances to win a handmade Goose Goose Clapper! Enter now through Monday, June 22, 2026. I’ll draw one lucky winner from the comments pool on this post. The winning comment will be picked at random around 4 pm Central on Monday. I’ll post the name of the winner on this post once they've been notified and have responded back to my email.