Bring the Fishing Trip Home: Quilting with Outdoor Gear Prints
Some prints set a whole mood before you cut a single piece. Let's Wander Gone Fishing in Forest, designed by Casey Cometti for Riley Blake Designs, does exactly that. This quilting cotton features outdoor gear and foliage on a forest colorway, so it reads as woodsy and grounded from a distance, then rewards a closer look with the details of a day spent outside. It suits quilts and accents that feel like camping and fishing, without needing a large panel.
What This Fabric Is
Gone Fishing is part of the Let's Wander collection by Casey Cometti for Riley Blake Designs, a collection described as great for quilting, apparel and home decor. This print is 100% cotton, 43/44 inches wide, and sold by the yard. The color is Forest, and the pattern brings together outdoor gear and foliage suited to cabins and lake houses.
Because the design is a repeating print rather than a panel, you control the scale. Use large cuts to show more of the gear and foliage, or cut it smaller for pieced blocks where the motifs become texture and color. That flexibility helps across a whole project.
What Gone Fishing Forest Is Best For
- Outdoor-themed quilts: Use it as a feature print for a fishing, camping, or cabin quilt for a child, a lodge, or a favorite angler. The forest background holds stronger prints together and keeps the theme clear.
- Borders and backing interest: Long border strips show the repeating gear and foliage well. As a backing, it turns the back of a quilt into a second, simpler design — though note it is standard 43/44-inch width, so larger quilts will need a seamed backing.
- Bags, apparel, and home decor: The collection is also suited to apparel and home decor. Try a tote or gear bag, pillow covers for a cabin or reading nook, a table runner, or casual sewn accents where a woodsy print fits the room.
Cutting, Piecing, and Pairing It Well
Start by looking at the repeat before you cut. If a particular piece of gear or cluster of foliage matters in a block, fussy-cut that square or rectangle so the motif sits centered. For strips, sashing, and borders, straight cuts are enough — just keep the print running the same direction if you want a tidy, intentional look.
Press before cutting, use a sharp rotary cutter, and measure carefully so pieced points stay accurate. This cotton pieces like a standard quilting cotton: sew with a consistent quarter-inch seam, press seams to the darker side where you can, and check contrast as you go. Against the forest ground, lighter creams and tans will stand out, while deep greens and browns will blend for a low-contrast, layered effect.
For color pairing, pull colors from the print itself. Cream and warm tan lift the forest base, rust or muted orange adds a campfire warmth, and denim blue gives a lake-water contrast. Let Gone Fishing be the busy or thematic print, then support it with solids, small checks, and tone-on-tone fabrics from the same collection so the quilt has places for the eye to rest.
Care and a First Project to Try
Care follows the instructions given for this fabric: machine wash cold and tumble dry low. Washing cold helps cotton hold its color, and drying low is gentler on finished quilts and home decor.
For a first project, make a patchwork throw: alternate squares of Gone Fishing Forest with cream and tan squares, then add a wide border from the same print. The piecing is beginner-friendly, and the theme stays front and center.
Shop the Let's Wander Gone Fishing Forest Cotton 43"/44" Fabric Per Yard at Linda's Electric Quilters.
