- 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. So, if you like this video, please give it a thumbs up. Don't forget to subscribe
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JustGetItDoneQuilts.com. So take care, and I'll see you next time.
