How To Make Flying Geese Blocks – 4 at a Time

I have become obsessed with Flying Geese!

No, not the ones currently flying south for the winter.  With the quilt pattern Flying Geese.  It’s a quick and easy (my favorite!) quilt pattern, and it looks great in all sorts of colors!

Here is the first Flying Geese quilt I made.  Outer Space Astronaut Flying Geese.

 

 

And a Christmas Goose.

 

 

 

Using the 4 at a time method makes these geese quick and easy, while also making sure that all of the points line up just perfectly like they are meant to.

 

I’ve made flying geese before, and even wrote a quick tutorial on how to make them, but as star points, rather than as flying geese.

What’s the difference, you ask?

The finished product is different based on how you turn your flying geese units, and other background squares, but the construction is the same.

So why, you ask, am I writing another tutorial so soon after the first?

You have a lot of questions!

I wanted my finished geese to be larger this time.  And I couldn’t remember the measurements for cutting my fabric to make a different size.   As a writer of the tutorial, I shouldn’t have to go online to look up measurements.  I should have that resource available at hand at all times.

Flying Geese can be made in any size, the finished size is always like this, each individual goose is twice as wide as it is long.  Math, I know, it’s hard!

Just a warning, more math is coming!

I know, I try not to inundate you with too much math, but this time around it’s necessary.

Let’s say you want your finished goose to be 3” by 6”, this will make each pair of geese into a 6” square.  Why 3” by 6”?  That’s the size I used most recently, so it’s fresh in my mind!

So, now that I’ve looked it up, I’ve created a cheat sheet chart of many different sizes, to keep for handy use.  The 4 at a time Flying Geese method uses one big square (this fabric is the goose body) and 4 small squares (this fabric is the sky).

You should keep it handy too, you can pin it for later and never have to go looking for these measurements again.

Now that you’ve got the list of what size little squares go with what size big squares, how ‘bout a quick tutorial on what do with them once you’ve cut them?

 

Flying Geese Tutorial- The 4 at a Time Way

To make Flying Geese this way, the large square is your width dimension (6”) plus 1¼”, for a total of 7¼”.  The smaller squares are your height dimension (3”) plus 7/8”, for a total of 3 7/8”.  This added fabric accounts for the seam allowances (that’s the bit that gets sewn into the seam).

 

I wanted my finished piece (remember, finished means once it’s sewn into the quilt and no edges are left unsewn) to by 3” by 6”.

To make this set of 4 geese, you’ll need:

1 Navy Square: 7¼”

4 Teal Squares: 3 7/8”

Draw a line with a pencil from corner to corner across the diagonal of your 4 teal squares.

Take your 7¼” Navy Square and 2 of your 3 7/8” teal squares, and place the teal squares corner to corner across the diagonal of the navy square.  The corners of the teal squares will overlap in the center of the navy square, and the pencil lines will match up, to continue all the way from one corner across to the other.  Pin in place

Sew ¼ of an inch to the right of the pencil line.

Turn the fabric pieces 180* and repeat, to sew down the other side of the pencil line.  Because you’ve turned it, you will still be sewing to the right of the line.

Cut along the pencil line.

Iron the seam, pressing towards the smaller teal pieces.  It makes sort of a heart shape.

Pin your 3^rd and 4^th small teal squares, to the remaining navy corner of each of your heart shaped pieces.  The pencil line will go from the navy corner, and should go right through the V of the heart.

Sew ¼ inch from the pencil line, turn and sew ¼ inch from the pencil line on the other side.

Cut along the pencil line, and press, again towards the teal.

Now you have 4 Flying Geese!

Here they are finished and sewn into a quilt.

You can do lots of things with your 4 Flying Geese (even turn them into a star!) but here is the quilt I made with the navy and teal geese used in this tutorial.  If you are wanting to making this same quilt, the original pattern (not my creation!) can be found here!  My version is made with 40 different fabric combos.  At 4 geese per combo, that’s 160 geese total.

And, one more time, in case you scrolled by it above without memorizing it, here is the chart of square sizes again.  Save it.  Pin it.  Use it again.  And again.

 

Happy goose flying!

I love, love, love the binding I chose to go with this quilt!  There’s a little bit of it in the quilt top too, but I just love it as binding.