Posted in Free Tutorials & Tips, Quilts, Quilts & More Quilts

Flipping Flying Geese — A Tutorial

Ever have one of those ah-ha! moments when you’re sew­ing?   I did recently when I was press­ing some fly­ing geese units and it’s all because of some ‘stuff’ my young­est child left sit­ting on the iron­ing board.  Fly­ing geese and I have always had a com­plic­ated rela­tion­ship.   I love them because they are so pretty but they bug me because I don’t always get them right.   Not any more though!   I’m happy to report that ever since I employed this little trick I’m call­ing Flip­ping Fly­ing Geese my geese are per­fect. Every single time.

SheQuiltsAlot-Flying-Geese

In this tutori­al I made a fly­ing geese unit that fin­ishes at 2″ x 4″.     You will need:-

  • 1 — 2.5″ x 4.5″ rectangle;
  • 2 — 2.5″ squares;
  • a pen­cil;
  • ruler;
  • rotary cut­ter; and
  • a piece of cardboard.

If quilt math isn’t your thing and you need the cut­ting dir­ec­tions for a dif­fer­ent size fly­ing geese unit The Crafty Mommy has a great siz­ing chart on her blog.

SheQuiltsAlot-Flying-Geese-1

1.    Start by draw­ing a diag­on­al line on the wrong side of the 2 — 2.5″ squares.   Make sure you line up each corner properly.

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2.    Place one 2.5″ square right sides togeth­er on top of the 2.5″ x 4.5″ rect­angle so that one end of the pen­cil line is in the middle of the rect­angle.   Ensure you align the square to the top, bot­tom and side of the rect­angle.  Pin in place.

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3.    Sew a line one thread width away from the pen­cil line as shown.

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4.    Using a rotary cut­ter trim away the excess fab­ric the from the edge of both pieces of fab­ric.  Leave a 1⁄4″ seam.

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5.    Now here is the trick!!!   You’re going to want to be at your iron­ing board for this bit.  Line the card­board up with the pen­cil line you drew earli­er then flip the tri­angle back over the card­board.    (I’m hop­ing the reas­on I call them Flip­ping Fly­ing Geese is mak­ing sense now?)

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6.        Ensure the tri­angle lines up with the top of the rect­angle.   Hold the card­board in place securely and then press with your iron.

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7.    Take the card­board out and give it anoth­er quick press.   Con­grat­u­la­tions!  You now have one half of your Flip­ping Fly­ing Geese unit complete.

SheQuiltsAlot-Flying-Geese-8

8.    Place the remain­ing 2.5″ square right sides togeth­er on top of the oppos­ite side of the rect­angle.   The pen­cil line needs to be point­ing towards the middle again as shown in the image below.   Note that this time the 2.5″ square will over­lap the tri­angle you have just pressed.

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9.    Sew a thread with away from the line.

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10.    Trim, flip and press again (repeat steps 5. through 7.).

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11.    Stand back and admire your per­fect Flip­ping Fly­ing Geese.

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If you feel like doing a few more you can very quickly turn fly­ing geese units into a super cute little saw tooth star.   Just cut anoth­er 4 — 2.5″ back­ground squares and voila! you’ll be done.   Don’t stop there though.   There are lit­er­ally hun­dreds of blocks that use fly­ing geese just wait­ing for you to try.

SheQuiltsAlot-Flying-Geese-Block

I hope this little trick helps you as much as it does me.   I’d love to hear from you if it does -:)

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19 thoughts on “Flipping Flying Geese — A Tutorial”

  1. Thanks Peta! I need all the help I can get with points and I’ll def­in­itely be try­ing this technique.

    Reply

  3. This is inter­est­ing and the next quilt on my list has a LOT of fly­ing geese. I am def­in­itely going to give this a try! I have tried every meth­od and hon­estly, the only way I get those great points is to paper piece them — and that is not prac­tic­al when you have about a bajil­l­ion to make 🙂

    Reply

  4. Thanks for men­tion­ing my siz­ing chart in your post — your tutori­al is great, espe­cially the tip about using card to get the sharp crease.

    Reply

  5. This is fant­ast­ic Peta. I haven’t seen this before — neither the stitch one thread away from your line nor the card­board flip trick. Such a great res­ult! And I love that aqua flor­al fab­ric, can­’t seem to find it any­where lately. Beau­ti­ful! A x

    Reply

  7. Thank you Peta for accept­ing my sub­scrip­tion, I love (what I have seen so far) your pro­jects and tutori­als, I have been quilt­ing for years but have not seen ‘fly­ing geese’ made using the card­board for the first press, makes a whole lot of sense re not stretch­ing while press­ing on the bias, I am look­ing for­ward to the many new exper­i­ences I will no doubt enjoy on your website
    Cheers Joy

    Reply

  8. Thank you Peta for accept­ing my sub­scrip­tion, I love (what I have seen so far) your pro­jects and tutori­als, I have been quilt­ing for years but have not seen ‘fly­ing geese’ made using the card­board for the first press, makes a whole lot of sense re not stretch­ing while press­ing on the bias, I am look­ing for­ward to the many new exper­i­ences I will no doubt enjoy on your website
    Cheers Joy

    Reply

  9. Thank you, I am hop­ing I’ll be able to adapt the large lap quilt that I’ve already cut out but nev­er began because the “oth­er” meth­od was so time con­sum­ing. Any thoughts on that would be greatly appreciated.

    Reply

  12. Have always thought these were hard to do but this way looks easy so I will try it today

    Always thought these were hard but you make it look easy will try right now

    Reply

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