EASY FLYING GEESE TUTORIAL

I've been making flying geese for my son's wedding quilt and I thought I would share with you two methods for making accurate flying geese.

Here's the first method:

Cut one rectangle 6 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inches.

Cut two squares measuring 3 1/2 inches each.

Draw a line on the center of each square. 

This will be your sewing line.

 Now sew directly on the line

Your rectangle with the square will look like this.

Take your ruler and line it up on the line with

1/4" seam allowance and cut.

Press open and iron.

Take your second square and carefully line it up.

Just like the other square, sew on the line.

Trim

 Iron

Square it off using your ruler so that you'll have an accurate

flying geese.

Perfect flying geese.

Here's the second method:

 You will start off with one 7 1/2 inch square.  This is

the geese.  Cut four 4 inch squares.  

These are the background.

 Set two small squares in the corners of the

large square, right sides together.

Take the ruler on the diagonal and draw

two lines on either side.

Pin the squares in place on either side of the lines.

Sew the small squares right on the line.  

Turn it around and sew on the other side.

 

 Then take a ruler and cut it directly down the middle 

between the stitching lines for a perfect 1/4" seam.

Press the small background squares open 

so that the seams are pressed towards the small squares.

 

 Now take the remaining 2 small squares and place them in the lower corner of the geese fabric.  

Right sides together.

Take your ruler and place it on the diagonal into the corners of the small square.

Draw two lines on either side of the ruler

 

Sew on the line and then turn and sew on the opposite line.

It will look like this.

Take your ruler and cut it on the diagonal between the 2 stitched lines.

Your pieces will look like the above.  Take all four pieces and press the 

background fabric open so that the seams are pressed towards the background fabric.

 

You now have four flying geese that are not quite complete.  

They will need a tiny amount of trimming.

 

 You now have 4 very accurate 6.5 X 3.5 inch flying geese.  

The nice thing about trimming down instead of trying to get the

correct dimensions on the first try is that you 

ALWAYS have the size that you need and it is accurate.