- After four patches and half square triangles,
Flying Geese is the next block that quilters learn.
Today I'm going to go through the basics,
and then I'm going to show you some tricks
to take it to the next level,
and at the end, I'm going to have a hack
to make the trim-ups fast and easy.
So stick with me, and I'll show you how to do it.
(gentle music)
Hi there, I'm Karen Brown of Just Get It Done Quilts.
I give you tips, tricks, and strategies
to help you make the quilt that you want to make.
And the best compliment you can give me
is hitting that subscribe button.
I'd like to thank today's sponsor, Skillshare.
Now, the Flying Geese block
is one of the core quilting blocks.
It builds on your beginner skills,
and it's the first block
where precision becomes very important.
It can stand on its own, as in this modern example,
or be a building block in more complicated blocks.
Sometimes the goose is pointing up,
and sometimes the goose is pointing down.
So, is one of these a Flying Goose,
or do we still call it a Flying Geese?
Whatever it's called, a Flying Geese block
finishes twice as wide as it is high.
So if we take an example,
which is three inches by six inches finished,
which means when we add a seam allowance,
our unfinished block should be 3 1/2 inches
by 6 1/2 inches, so that means to make it,
we need two 3 1/2 inch squares
and one 3 1/2 inch by 6 1/2 inch rectangle.
So the traditional way of making this block
is to place one square on the left side of the rectangle,
aligning the corners,
then sew on a diagonal from one corner to the other.
Then we trim, we press, and we flip.
And then we repeat it on the other side.
I find the most important part of this block
is the top of the goose.
And if you miss it in the piecing,
it's very hard to make your block work.
I have found my accuracy has gone up
when I do the marking on the rectangular piece,
so I sew from the other side.
I fold my rectangle in half,
then I mark 1/4 of an inch down and the dot there,
I line my ruler up on the 45 with the bottom,
and then draw a diagonal through the bottom corner
up through that dot, and then I repeat on the other side.
And sewing just to the right of the line,
you can see I hit that intersection perfectly.
Now the four-at-a-time method builds on your skills
that you've learned for half square triangles.
The finished block measures the same,
but we're going to be using methodology
from making quarter square triangles
and half square triangles.
So we need a large square which is 1 1/4 inches
larger than the width of our finished block,
and our background squares need to be 7/8 of an inch
larger than the height of the block.
7/8 is just too hard to measure on the ruler,
so I round it up to an inch.
So for our three inch by six inch example,
we will need four 3 7/8 blocks for the background
and one 7 1/4 inch block for the geese.
I have the same issue with the four-at-a-time block
that I had with my one-at-a-time block,
and the most important part
is nailing the height of that goose.
I find I can be a lot more accurate
if I do all my marking on the larger square
and sew from that side.
One of the most important steps
is ensuring that this larger square is actually square.
If you place the centre of your block
at the intersection of two lines on your cutting mat,
all four corners should lie straight on a line.
You want to mark sewing lines,
one 1/4 inch on either side of the vertical centre line
and the horizontal centre line.
My 1/2 inch ruler from Omnigrid makes this fast work.
And where these lines intersect in the middle of the block
is where the top of the geese are.
So we align one small square with the top corner,
and the other small red square with the bottom corner.
In the traditional method you would sew on this side,
but we're going to flip ours over,
and I'm just going to realign it
just so there's a little bit showing through.
I rounded my cutting of the smaller blocks up to one inch,
so I've got a little bit of extra fabric to play with,
and then I pin in place.
And I repeat this with the block on the bottom.
To avoid my sewing machine eating the tip of my block,
I've used a leader, and I've snipped the tip.
For more tips on how to sew HSTs,
see my video "Making the Perfect HST."
One of the downsides to this method,
is that the lower square can get flipped under,
so I pause in the middle and do a quick check.
And cut in between the two sew lines,
then press the block open.
You want a little overlap
in these smaller squares right here.
This is right, this is wrong.
Next we take one of our remaining small squares
and align it to the corner of the block,
and then we repeat with the other block.
And then we sew.
When cutting in between the blocks,
you can use either scissors or your rotary cutter.
And then we press, and that's it for the basics.
When you want to move from a beginner quilter
to a higher level,
you need to start looking at your fabrics.
Our eyes instinctively are always looking for symmetry,
and that's one reason why quilts are so appealing.
So when we find it in our fabric,
we need to make it work for us in our piecing.
Now I talked about fabric properties
in my "Playing with Fabrics" video,
and I'll link that video down in the notes.
There are several ways, just with a little planning,
that you can get so much more out of your Flying Geese.
The first symmetry we're going to look at in the goose
is directional fabrics.
We're looking for any fabric that has a right way up
and an upside-down.
In this fabric, all the cats are sitting up.
These fabrics work really well
in the four-at-a-time method in the large goose piece.
Just be sure when you lay out all your Flying Geese
that you arrange them so that the goose fabric
is all pointing the same direction.
Mirror is what it sounds like.
What's on one side is a reflection of what's on the other.
We're looking for fabrics with strong horizontal
or vertical elements.
Look for stripes, look at landscapes,
look at fabrics like William Morris's "Strawberry Thief,"
or a couple of Tula Pink's.
Grab your template plastic,
and cut it to the side of your goose block,
and mark the centre.
Lay the template on your fabric
and find the centre of the pattern.
Using mirror symmetry, the four-at-a-time method
produces two sets of identical pairs.
They can produce some real dynamic energy in your blocks.
And honestly, the pattern doesn't need to be
an exact mirror to produce better results.
The last symmetry is called rotational symmetry.
We're looking for patterns with a centre.
Look for circles, look for crosses,
look for radiating lines.
This beautiful Kathy Doherty fabric is perfect for it.
It's got a centre,
and as you go around you can get four not identical,
but fairly identical pieces,
and we can use this centre, or we could use this centre.
Whatever centre you use, it produces four identical blocks
that produce a wonderful rotational symmetry.
This is a fairly ho-hum fabric,
but if you take the time to find the symmetry,
once you cut it, you'll be absolutely surprised
at how much the block is elevated.
There's one last type of symmetry for the goose,
and that is forced rotational.
You use four identical blocks and the one-at-a-time method.
And truly, your eye just loves this type
of kaleidoscope symmetry.
What if you can see more than one way to use your fabric?
This is a directional fabric,
which means it will work well
with the four-at-a-time method,
but it also has a strong horizontal element,
which means if we cut four pieces from the same strip,
they will produce four identical Flying Geese blocks,
and when they are put into a larger block,
produces a beautiful rotational symmetry.
Which one of these do you prefer?
It's your judgement call.
But the important part is you need to know this
before you cut your fabric.
Okay, so that was the inside goose.
What about the outside pieces?
There are three different layouts for directional fabrics
in the background pieces.
We talked about fabric with a right side up
in the last example,
but the good thing about this method
is you can have right side up fabric
in both the background and the goose.
But you have to get your layout right for it to work.
So this is how it works.
Take four identical squares with right sides together,
place the bottom of one square along the left top.
Place the bottom of the next square
along the right bottom.
We're changing it up, and we're putting the top of the block
along the right side at the top,
and the top of the last one goes in the left bottom.
I mark all the squares, both top and bottom,
along the side, so I don't mix it up.
Then I mark the sew lines
and pin the way that I normally do.
And before I sew the second pair onto the block,
I always just do a peek,
just to be sure I've laid them out properly.
And I think it's worth the effort.
To make the background fabric mirror the other side,
we lay it out slightly differently.
Again, we use four identical squares,
but this time the bottom of all four
is against the sides.
And of course, I mark all four pieces in the underside,
just to be sure I don't mix it up.
And it's not a lot of effort to make these great results.
There's actually four different layouts that this can make.
Rotational.
This is where those corners spin.
Again, we're using four identical squares.
But this layout is just a little bit more complicated.
We want the bottom of the first block
along the left edge at the top.
We want the bottom of the second block
along the right edge at the bottom.
We want the bottom of the third block
along the top edge at the right,
and the bottom of the fourth block
along the bottom edge on the left.
And once I lay them out,
I mark all four blocks along the left edge
and on the right edge,
and the large block on the bottom.
This produces four identical blocks.
You could produce some nice secondary designs
with these corners.
I've got a couple more layouts and a hack,
but let me talk to you about Skillshare first.
It's important that we devote
some time in our day and week to learning,
and Skillshare is perfect
for learning new skills in self-isolation.
Skillshare is an online learning community
that offers membership with meaning,
with so much to explore and real projects to create.
Now is the time to learn that skill
that you've always wanted to try.
I am finding it really important
to have moments in my day to be creative,
do something that's out of my comfort zone,
so I have been trying some of these creativity exercises.
You'll find Skillshare very affordable.
An annual subscription is only $10 a month,
which is inexpensive compared to
in-person workshops and class.
So, turn this self-isolation into an opportunity
to explore new skills or deepen an existing passion.
Take a look at the class list.
What you might find just might surprise you.
And when life returns to normal,
these classes are designed to fit into your life.
You can learn and grow with short classes
designed to fit into your busy day.
The first 500 people who click on the link
in the notes below
will get a free two-month membership of Skillshare Premium.
Is your head full yet?
Just two more fast easy ones.
If you use four different background squares in your block,
you'll get four different Flying Geese blocks,
which will produce an instantly scrappy larger block.
Use up your orphan blocks in the goose
in the four-at-a-time method.
Just sew it up as you regularly would sew it up.
You'll be amazed at the designs that you can come up with.
This is my one and only Steampunk block.
It just wasn't my day to do it.
And it's just lost in my orphan block pile,
and it's going to live a much better life
as a Flying Geese block.
I am making the Meadowland quilt,
and the version I'm making requires 20 Meadowland blocks.
Each block has four Flying Geese,
so that means I have to make 80 Flying Geese blocks.
This hack will make light work of trimming them up.
Make a stack of three to four layers of masking tape.
Trim one end at a 90 degree angle, and trim.
Grab a ruler, preferably the same width as your block.
We are going to be working with the underside of the ruler.
We are going to be laying the tape on the ruler
so that it intersects at the top of the goose,
and at the bottom.
And if you don't know where those are,
just put one of your Flying Geese underneath your ruler.
And then we are going to make a second stack of tape
and lie it along the other 45.
Where the bottom of the block is,
we are going to draw a line on the bottom of the tape.
And trim.
And yes, I am using my paper scissors here.
Just slide the wedge of masking tape
into the V of the goose, them trim.
To trim the bottom of the block, just flip the ruler around,
and line up the bottom of the masking tape
with the top of the block.
Trim if necessary.
But what happens if you do not have a ruler
the same width as your block?
We use the same method.
We use the underside of the ruler,
and we place the tape from the top of the goose
along the 45 to the edge.
We make a second stack of tape,
and put it down the other side.
We mark the bottom of the block, and we trim.
And then in the opposite corner,
we are going to make a second masking tape ledge,
exactly the same way we made our first.
So when we trim our block,
we use one corner to trim the top two sides,
then we rotate the block,
and we use the second corner to trim the other two sides.
When you're making your one-at-a-time blocks,
you might want to make the bonus HST.
When you're marking your sew lines,
just make another line a 1/2 inch over.
Great blocks to have on hand
to incorporate into an after quilt.
And if you haven't heard,
this month, "Make Modern" issue 34,
I am one of their featured quilters,
and they're offering a free copy to all of my viewers.
So just use the link down below,
and use this coupon code at checkout to get your free copy.
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