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Lesson # 8 - Flying Geese
Quilters use the flying geese block
over and over as part of many quilting block designs. There are several
ways to make the flying geese block. These tutorial will teach you
the easiest and most versatile way as far as attaching different bits of
fabric.
There is a flying geese ruler
that will let you sew two larger pieces of fabric together, and come
out with 4 geese, but we will not cover that in this lesson.
All you need to make one flying geese
block is one rectangle and two smaller squares. A flying geese
block is always exactly twice as long as it is wide.
You will be using
the same technique that you learned when you made the
snowball block
in as much that you will be attaching small squares to a rectangular
shape and sewing on a diagonal line. The small squares, however, will be larger
than half the rectangle, because they must overlap to achieve the 1/4
inch seam necessary at the point of the geese.
 To
begin, cut one rectangle 4 1/2 inches by 2 1/2 inches. Cut two
small squares, 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches. The first square must be sewn and
pressed before you add the second square. This is because the
second square will overlap the first square.
In the first picture above, you looking
at the rectangle with one of the small squares ready to be sewn.
In this picture the first square has been
pressed (away from the point), and the second small square has been
marked, placed on the fabric, and is ready for sewing.
Finally, the second square is pressed, and it
is done!
Take note- at the top of the geese
(the point), there is 1/4 " of space from the the tip of the geese
to the edge of the fabric.
When you sew another
flying geese or piece of fabric to the top, you do not want to cross the
line of stitching to cut off the point. It is better to leave space
before the point than to cut off the tip.
Sometimes it can be confusing
knowing where you need to have that 1/4 inch space. When you look
at the bottom of the block, you might wonder why the two points on the
bottom do not have any space. Look at the block with the black
lines. You can see the seam allowance on the top and why it is
necessary.
However, on the bottom you will be sewing both a
vertical and a horizontal seam to the block. That will keep those
points sharp
On to Lesson
#9 -
Making Stars
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