Oh it was definitely my Michigan Maize that made the change for this season!!
I wasn't quite as productive as I hoped but I'll be done as of today -- still with days to spare. I have the half of the geese with white on the left done (that is, both white and yellow are on). I have all the yellows on the other half with white on the right. Using the rectangle/2 squares method as opposed to my usual cut large technique means I won't have the trimming down for group, it is often hard for me to find things to bring on Tuesdays. So this morning I'll sew the white squares on half the pieces and leave them pinned and connected by the chain stitches. At group, I'll take out the pins and trim the excess and then pin the remaining squares on the final pieces.
I'm glad I stopped myself and looked at some of my pinks/yellows under the ott light. While I'm still concerned about going too dark, a couple of the pinks I really wanted to use were just too light. As it is, some of my combinations of pink/yellow are very close in value and would fail the black and white photo test for contrast but are clearly pink/yellow for the color contrast.
Judging by the amount of yellow used, I'd expect a similar step in the future with either geese or HST, but probably making sets. But that is pure conjecture... I'll just have to keep on working the clues to find out.