Medallion Quilt – Flying Geese Quilt Block Tutorial

The next step in the Medallion Quilt is a Flying Geese Quilt Block!

But, before we get to the Flying Geese, here is a review of the Medallion Quilt up to this point.

Medallion Quilt

A Medallion Quilt starts with a center quilt block, and then each subsequent round is a new quilt block.

Each step of my Medallion Quilt has been its own block tutorial, with directions for both the size of block needed for the Medallion AND a tutorial for how to make an entire quilt of just that one block.

I started with a center block made up of Broken Dishes Quilt Blocks.

Round two was made from Sawtooth Star Quilt Blocks.

16-Patch Quilt Blocks make up Round Three (and Scout!).  Round three actually included enough blocks for Round Six as well.

Round Four is today – Jumbo Flying Geese!

If you are interested in making a quilt entirely of flying geese, this is what it could look like. 

Larger or smaller geese, there are lots of ways to put them all together.

Flying Geese Quilt Blocks

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) to make perfectly aligned geese in sets of four.

For this Medallion Quilt, the geese bodies are a mix of navy, red, teal and purple fabrics. All of the sky fabrics are white on white tonal fabrics.

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. 

For this Medallion Quilt, my geese all finish at 3” by 6”.  Since all of the blocks in my Medallion Quilt are 6” square, all of the individual geese will be sewn into pairs.

Of course, for this tutorial to be really useful, I won’t only tell you how to make 3” by 6” flying geese, instead I’ll teach you how to make them in a variety of sizes.

The blocks for today need to finish at 6” square, like all of the blocks in the Medallion Quilt, but if you are making a quilt that is just flying geese, you might need different sizes. 

Here is a handy reference chart, with all of the cutting sizes needed to make flying geese in a variety of sizes.

Flying geese… ready, set, fly!

How to Make Flying Geese – 4 at a Time

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”, so that once I sewed them into pairs I Would have 6” blocks, like all of the other blocks in the medallion.

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).  

Supplies

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

1 Purple Square: 7¼”

4 White Squares: 3 7/8”

Block Directions

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

Take your 7¼” purple square and 2 of your 3 7/8” white squares, and place the white squares corner to corner across the diagonal of the purple square.

The corners of the white squares will overlap in the center of the purple 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” 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. 

I didn’t take a photo of this step (I’m sorry!), but if you look back to the center of this Medallion Quilt, to the Broken Dishes Quilt Block tutorial, you can see what it looks like to sew ¼” to either side of the center line.

Cut along the pencil line.

Press the seam, pressing towards the larger purple triangle.  It makes sort of a heart shape.

Pin your 3^rd and 4^th small white squares, to the remaining purple corner of each of your heart shaped pieces.  The pencil line will go from the purple 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 purple.

Now you have 4 Flying Geese (although only two are shown here)! 

Trimming

While trimming isn’t required, it will make the rest of your quilt making so much easier!  Trim the geese to 3½” by 6½”, taking care to keep the point of the goose right in the center and ¼” from the edge.

How to Make Flying Geese Blocks

To make 6” blocks (they’ll be 6½” at this point because they aren’t yet sewn into the quilt, so they are still unfinished), sew two geese into a pair.  Repeat to make 28 pairs.

Make sure the seam goes right through the point of the goose when sewing the pairs together.

I chose to make my pairs from geese of the same color, but there is no reason that you couldn’t mix and match your geese at this point for more color variety.

Flying Geese Quilt Block Tutorial – Directional Fabrics

I have some bad news, and some slightly less bad but not quite good news.

4-at-a-time Flying Geese do not lend themselves well to directional prints.

For directional prints like mine, where there isn’t really a top or bottom like these loops, they still work in the quilt, they just won’t all be looping the same way.

Now, does this mean you absolutely cannot make your flying geese from directional prints?  Not at all, it’s just going to take some planning.

If you make two sets of 4 from the same fabric, you’ll be able to pair up the geese so that each pair matches, you’ll end up with 4 pairs.  Then, you just need to be strategic about that block’s placement within the quilt.

So, to recap, more complicated but still workable.

And, if you are using your 4-at-a-time Flying Geese to make Sawtooth Star quilt blocks, directional fabric works perfectly!

Adding Geese Blocks to the Medallion Quilt

Just as you may choose not to sew your geese into matching pairs the way I did, you also may choose a different way to sew your geese round to the Medallion Quilt.

You can have your geese fly in one direction (all points pointed the same direction).  This might be in towards the center of the medallion, or out towards the edge of the quilt.  Or following each goose in front of them, around and around the quilt.

Or, your geese might be more scattered, flying in all sorts of directions.

No matter which way you choose to have your geese flying, you will need to sew your 28 geese pairs into four sets of seven.

Sew your side borders first, and then the top and bottom borders.  Continuing the pattern of alternating the direction of sewing, your quilt center will be against the feed dogs, and your geese borders will be on top.

And, one more time, incase you scrolled by it above without memorizing it, here is the chart.  Save it.  Pin it.  Use it again.  And again.

Happy goose flying!

The next round of the Medallion Quilt is Friendship Star Quilt Blocks.  They’ll be ready to roll in about ten days, make sure to check back then!