Flying Geese are popular patchwork quilt components. There are several ways to construct Flying Geese, but my favorite is the no-waste method, a quick piecing technique that produces four accurate geese from one large and four smaller squares of fabric. Refer to the no-waste Flying Geese tutorial for complete instructions, but once you’re familiar with the process, use the handy Flying Geese cutting chart at the bottom of the page to create geese in many popular sizes.
A Few Things to Remember About Flying Geese
Flying Geese are twice as wide as they are tall.The larger square becomes the ‘peaked’ shape – the geese (shown as dark patches in the block on this page).The smaller squares become the side triangles.The no-waste method produces four Flying Geese for each set of fabrics you cut.
Another method is often used to construct quick pieced Flying Geese. To make geese in that way you’ll sew squares to the ends of rectangles in the same way we often make Snowball quilt blocks. It’s a good option when you are sewing with small pieces of fabric or when you make a scrap quilt and don’t need four identical geese. Do keep in mind that the method produces waste when squares are trimmed to create triangles after sewing.
Special Rotary Rulers Can Help you Sew Flying Geese.
To print this chart, see How to Print Quilt Patterns.