Why do my flying geese look so bad?
 

I've been quilting for 20 years and I still haven't mastered the flying geese. I just had to make some for a quilt I'm making and I ran out of fabric because I kept having to re-do them. I sew on the line I make on the back of the square and put the square in the corner of the rectangle and then put the other square on the other side and cut the back off (behind the squares) and it's the wrong size every time. I tried making it bigger and planned on cutting it down, but I would have lost my points. I lose my points anyway and they are always too small every which way. Is there a trick to making them? Is there another way? They are suppose to be 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 rectangles and I add 2 1/2" squares. Any help would be appreciated.

My flying geese are not so great either,so I have been using half square triangles,not as pretty but it works.

I can't tell you since mine are usually pretty bad. The next quilt I do will have flying geese so I have been preparing by looking at all the methods there are out there - some requiring rulers and some not. Google flying geese Ricky Timms, Eleanor Burns, Deb Tucker. They have videos. There are others also. So far I am leaning toward Ricky's method. Maybe one of these will inspire you.

I use the Flying geese 4X4 ruler. I love it. I also use the math method same principle as the ruler.
http://www.lazygirldesigns.com/books.php
Luann

Thank you. I'll go check them out right now.

Thanks, I'll check it out. I'm doing 5 BOM and they all require flying geese, so any help is grateful.

check out the eleanor burns video using her flying geese ruler. i haven't tried the ruler yet but am looking forward to it.
http://www.quiltinaday.com/televisio...geeseruler.asp

I had luck with the Eleanor Burns method. I didn't use her rulers because my sizes were odd. But the method itself really helped my quality. Also, I just bought the Angler 2 tool and found that it helped my sewing from corner to corner - and no need to draw that line on the back of the square.

Good luck.

I just watched a Youtube video called "One seam flying geese quilt block" and it looks fantastic. I am going to go try it right now.

Practically every thread I follow on here has me off on an interesting and informative internet flight. Good job I'm done for the day.
Annie