Showing posts with label flying geese. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flying geese. Show all posts

Monday, August 18, 2008

Traditional Method for Piecing Flying Geese Units

Below is a quick tutorial on how to piece flying geese units the tradtional way--with three triangles. It's NOT a hard method, and I'm always surprised to see directions written with the "cheater" method.

A flying geese unit is made from three triangles that, when sewn together, form a rectangle.

Skill Builder: Here's a quick block that uses eight flying geese units
Requirements: a rotary cutter, cutting mat and acrylic ruler, scrap fabric.
Cut TWO pieces of scrap fabric 5-1/4" square. Cut the square on the diagonal TWICE (see first photo below).

Cut EIGHT pieces of scrap fabric 2-7/8" square. Cut the square on the diagonal ONCE (see first photo below).

The picture below shows HALF of the fabric requirement:
2. To begin the unit, lay out one large triangle (the "body") with two small triangles (the "wings") in the upper corners:
3. Fold down the left "wing" so that the bottom edges of the two triangles align and the fabric is right-sides together:
4. Sew with the "wing" triangle on top. Sew along the short edge of the "body" triangle:
5. Iron the seam toward the "wing" triangle and trim off the two dog ears:
6. Next, fold down the right "wing" triangle so that the bottom of the two triangles align:
7. This time sew with the BODY on top. Sew along the short edge of the "body" triangle:

8. Press toward the "wing" and trim off the dog ears. The resulting rectangle should measure 2-1/2" x 4-1/2":

9. Repeat the above steps until you have EIGHT flying geese units. Lay them out in a pattern you like. Below is the one I chose:

10. Next, join the flying geese units to each other: Align two units and and sew with a 1/4" seam. The 1/4" seam should land just OUTSIDE the point where the "V" of the "body" joins the "wings." If the 1/4" seam falls INSIDE the intersection, the point is lost so slow down and pay attention!!!

11. Below shows what the flying geese units look like when the 1/4" seam falls where it should have. Notice the point of the left hand unit is still visible:

12. Finally, join the sets of flying geese units together: