Thursday, August 25, 2011

Corner to Corner Method for Making Flying Geese

Tomorrow I will post instructions for our last Flying Geese block.  I was planning on showing how to make some of the flying geese units with the corner-to-corner method, but I don't have very much of the light yellow fabric I want to use and this method is a bit wasteful of fabric.  So I am just going to introduce the corner-to-corner method tonight.


The pros of this method are that it is fast, easy to be accurate and the math is very straightforward.  It is also useful if you only have to make one or two units.  The only negative is that it uses more fabric than the other methods.

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Edited (5/15):  The Skill Builder Sampler will is available for purchase in book form!  It has been renamed "You Can Quilt!  Building Skills for Beginners" but covers the same skills with the easy, medium and challenging blocks and is a million times better than the original quilt along.  It is perfect for the beginning quilter or the experienced quilter who wants to branch out and learn new skills.  Find more information and order a signed copy in my Etsy shop or order on Amazon.  Because of the release of the book some posts have been removed.
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To make a flying goose unit cut a rectangle 1/2 inch longer and wider than the finished flying goose unit.  This will be your goose.  The sides are made from two squares that are 1/2 inch larger than the height of the finished unit.

The rectangle in this example is 4.5 x 2.5.  The squares are 2.5 x 2.5.  Draw a line from one corner to the other of each square.

 Place one square on the side of the rectangle and sew ON the line.


Trim off the corner and press.

Place the other square on the other side of the rectangle with the diagonal line running up towards the other side piece.

Stitch on the line.  Trim off the excess - be sure to leave at least a quarter inch seam allowance.

 Press and you are done.

 Now you know three ways to make flying geese:  The traditional/exact method, the "Magic" method and the corner to corner method.

Here are some more very detailed posts on making flying geese units from the Skill Builder Series you might want to read:
Traditional, Squares/Corner-to-Corner and Dimensional
Magic Method (she doesn't call it that, but that's what she means :)  )


P.S.  It is getting late, my mind is fuzzy, Block 9's tutorial isn't done and the kids have dentist appointments tomorrow morning...so the next  block probably won't be posted until tomorrow afternoon.  Sorry.  It will be worth the wait though.  It is one of my favorite blocks so far.

4 comments:

  1. wow! thank you for sharing these links! I'm terrified of anything triangular... I never manage to end up with a perfect flying geese unit! and I like quick, easy methods too.

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  2. thank-you for the flying goose tutorial & the links. You are doing a fabulous job with this quilt along, I appreciate how much work you are putting into this. No worries about block 9, I'm sure it is worth the wait :)

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  3. I am curious, but if you ran a second stitch line and then cut between them wouldn't your leftovers end up as a small half square triangles for another tiny project? "Dear Jane" comes to mind.

    Just thinking out loud...
    Lynda

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  4. Yes, you could definitely use those extra triangles for something. I love all those Dear Jane blocks.

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