The Eleanor Burns flying geese rulers are wonderful! I too had difficulty getting flying geese to turn out right until I tried these rulers that a friend had purchased. What an easy way to get accurate flying geese! I love these rulers. You won't go wrong if you try them.

I now I have two sets...one for use at home and one that I keep in the basket of things I take to classes or on retreats.

I have tried a bunch of methods but like the Burns method best.
HST and Flying Geese are used so much that the investment in good rulers is a must. I have all her rulers for geese and the triangle square up ruler and love them.

I just watched the demo by Eleanor Burns for her flying geese. Looks like a lot of work to me. I use the method of folding the side squares on the diagonal, one pin to hold in place, then sew on the pressed line. You can either leave the extra fabric there or cut it out depending on what you like. I think it was Mary Ellen Hopkins who showed this method. I also like, I think Ricky Tims method, where you put a square of fabric in between two others and wind up with a 3 dimentinal flying geese. Sure with some googling you'll find what you like best.

Are you sewing a 'scant' 1/4" seam allowance? I had the same problem you did until I learned that the space the thread took was taking up some of the space the fabric needs when it folds over. Try to sew your seam just a teeny bit to the outside of your drawn line and see if that helps.

Or... you can use this method on Bev's Quilting page which doesn't require any special rulers: http://tinyurl.com/6qp3y5a

Easy peasy! Good luck! :)

Try sewing, trimming, and pressing the first square before you sew the second square, trim, and press the second square. You are losing a little bit at the intersection of the two seams when you sew both squares on before trimming and pressing.

I love Eleanor Burns flying geese rulers. If I need an odd size or just 1 more goose I make them the old fashioned way, but I make the squares a half inch bigger than the rectangle so I have plenty to trim from the top.

try this if you haven't already......when you mark that diagonal line on the small square, sew to the right edge of that line...which is probably just a thread away from the line.....seems to allow for the fold over. Also, when you do fold over and iron...if that now triangle is smaller that the square edge of that original rectangle do not cut that back triangle off.....use it as your sewing guide edge for attaching those flying geese to whatever element they go with.......sometimes the pressing of that fold over "now" triangle will be shorter and thus will make your geese "cockeyed" That seems to work for me..those little namol-measured differences add up in the overall finished product.

Great way to practice with scraps. Thanks for sharing.

GladGRAms, Love your poem in the signature. Did you write that? It is so heartfelt.

I have been making the Tonga Nature quilt with about 200 flying geese. We did it as a block of the month through our LQS where they showed us the Wing Clipper method and I am totally sold on it. There is very little waste and it has been the most accurate method I have tried yet. It comes with directions and cutting instructions for several different sized flying geese.