quilting

Reva's Tips: A Flock of Flying Geese

I am sure that you have all heard that there is always more than one way to complete a task. This is very true when creating flying geese. You will find the flying geese Units to be fundamental and are found in a majority of quilt patterns in one way or another.

THE ANATOMY OF A GOOSE:

• A flying goose unit is twice as wide as it is tall.

• The center triangle is the "goose" and the side triangles are the "sky."

• The colors of the goose and the sky should be contrasting in color or value.

• There are two sky pieces and one goose piece needed for each flying goose unit.

In this video I show six different ways to sew flying geese. The technique that will work best for you will depend on the quantity and size of the flying geese you wish to create, the tools you have, as well as your own personal preference – you know how you like to sew! Enjoy:

I would like to break down how to cut the pieces for your flying geese units using the traditional manner, one goose at a time.

CUTTING YOUR PIECES:

For our example, our desired finished unit size is 3" x 6". Since we are working with triangles, we will need to add more than just a 1/4" on each side for seam allowance. We will actually need an additional 1-1/4" to the width and 7/8" to the height of our goose and an additional 7/8" for both the width and the height of the sky pieces. The addition of 1-1/4" and 7/8" is consistent no matter what size finished flying geese units you may need.

For our example, a 6" x 3" finished flying geese unit, the Goose fabric would be cut to 7-1/4" wide. Goose rectangle height needs to be 7/8" taller than our desired finished height so for our example this is 3-7/8" tall.

For our Sky squares, the fabric needs to be 7/8" larger in both height and width, than our desired finished size. For our example these two squares are 3-7/8" x 3-7/8".

TO STITCH THE UNIT:

Place one sky on the end of your goose piece and stitch diagonally from outer corner
to upper corner in center of goose piece.
Open, press & trim extra, unneeded fabric in the seam allowance.
Repeat with the other side.
Your unit is complete!