Flying geese quilt

Four at a Time Flying Geese Tutorial – Tips, Tricks and Directional Prints

I have a four at a time flying geese tutorial to share with you today! If you have never tried flying geese four at a time, it’s pretty clever! When you make flying geese four at a time, they go together nice and fast and have no waste!

When you make flying geese one at a time you snowball the corners and end up discarding the cut off corner. Well guess what… with four a time flying geese, there are no discarded corners! There is absolutely no wasted fabric when making flying geese four at a time.

I like making flying geese four a time whenever possible since they do go together nice and fast and use up all of that fabric.

This post will walk you through making flying geese four at a time. Plus I’ll add some tips and tricks and directional print instructions.

Flying Geese made with Ruby Star Society Tarrytown

Calculating Four at a time flying geese

There is a simple way to calculate the squares needed for four at a time flying geese:

Add 1-1/4″ to the finished width [x1]

Add 7/8″ to the finished height [x4]

Flying geese are always twice as wide as they are high. So if you need a 2″ x 4″ finished flying geese then the math looks like this: 2″ + 7/8″ = 2-7/8″ (4 squares), 4″ + 1-1/4″ = 5-1/4″ (1 square)

The larger square is the “geese” and the smaller squares become the “sky” or the side triangles.

This calculation makes exact sizes. They should finish at the exact size and not need any trimming. (*should* being the key word. haha. See additional tips and tricks below!)

Four at a time flying geese chart

With four at time flying geese you will need one larger square and four smaller squares.

Step by step instructions for four at a time flying geese

Gather your squares together. One large square plus four smaller squares.
Directional prints: Large square should be facing up. Small squares should also both be facing up.
Mark a line on the diagonal of the wrong side of two small squares (prints are facing up).

Line the smaller squares up as shown below. The line should be perfectly straight. That ensures your corners are also lined up.
Pin in place.
Sew a scant 1/4″ on each side of the marked line.

Cut on the marked line using a rotary cutter.
Flip corners open and press. You will end up with two heart shapes as shown.

Now it’s time to add the last two smaller squares. They will be placed sideways when using directional prints. You can make sure they are the correct direction by flipping open. Are your prints going in the same direction? (Like photo 2 below). If not, rotate 90 degrees. Check again.
When your directional print is in the right direction, mark a line on the diagonal.

Sew a scant 1/4″ on each side of the marked line.
Cut on the marked line using a rotary cutter.

Press corners open.

You now have four perfectly sized flying geese! (Well maybe. I never have perfectly sized flying geese…haha).

As you can see you will end up with your directional prints going in two different directions. If you are using a true directional print that is vertical your prints may end up sideways depending on the flying geese quilt pattern you are using.

Flying Geese four a time tips and tricks

Unless you have perfected your 1/4″ seam and are a perfectly precise cutter you may find your flying geese are not coming out to the exact size. Here are some tips and tricks for better four at a time flying geese:

Use a scant 1/4″ seam allowance. A scant 1/4″ seam is a smidge under 1/4″. The scant 1/4″ seam is going to be crucial when making flying geese four at a time. A scant 1/4″ seam allows for a little extra room for thread thickness and flipping your corners open.
Cut your squares a little bigger and then trim to size if needed. Try adding 1/8″ to the smaller squares or adding 1/8″ to both the larger and the smaller squares. Or even 1/4″ extra to both squares. This should produce a larger flying geese that you can then trim perfectly to size. I personally have way more luck with my four at a time flying geese when I make them a tiny bit bigger like this.
Pull your smaller squares in a few threads from the corners. I just learned this trick from a quilter on Instagram and it sure is helpful! This alone may be just the trick you need to size out your four at a time flying geese. This really helps ensure you have a good 1/4″ allowance between your triangle peak and top edge.

Use flying geese quilt rulers. I personally haven’t used speciality flying geese rulers but quilters love them! Two that I’ve heard a lot of good things about are Bloc Loc rulers and Wing Clipper rulers.
Cut accurately. It’s all going to come back to your cutting skills with no waste four at a time flying geese. Take your time to cut those squares perfectly sized and perfectly squared.

Trimming Flying Geese

If you made your four at a time flying geese a little too big then you will need to trim to size. When I add 1/8″ to my squares it results in the tiniest bit of trimming. Just enough to straighten the top edge.

Ideally, you will want to end up with a nice straight edge along the top of each flying geese. You can try to straighten out that line during the pressing stage. So instead of just pressing fully open and getting wonky edges, you might eyeball it into a straight line. That might mean your seam has a little more fold in it.

When trimming your flying geese you want to make sure you preserve 1/4″ between the triangle peak and the top edge. I always start by trimming that top edge for that reason.

Start by trimming the top edge and the right side of the flying geese with a ruler that is bigger than the flying geese. As I’m trimming the top edge, I’m making sure I can also trim a tiny bit off the bottom and still have the perfect height.
Flip and then finish by trimming your flying geese to the exact size. Both of your bottom seams should perfectly go through the corners. If your ruler has a 45 degree line on it you can use that as a guide when cutting. You can see how the 45 degree line goes perfectly on the seam in the third photo.

I hope these tips and tricks help you to better size out your flying geese four at a time! And if you have never made flying geese four at a time they really are a fun and clever way to make them.

Check out these flying geese quilt patterns:

PATCHWORK FLYING GEESE
FLYING

Full picture of a flying geese quilt — PATCHWORK FLYING GEESE

Scrappy Patchwork Flying Geese quilt – A stash buster

I whipped up a few samples of the new flying geese quilt pattern and this Scrappy Patchwork Flying Geese quilt might be my favorite. Patchwork Flying Geese is the latest in the Quilty Love Stash Buster Series and it is fun and addicting to make.

I dug into my fabric stash for this Scrappy Patchwork Flying Geese quilt. I had a bundle of original Cotton and Steel fabrics that have been waiting for the perfect quilting project. The best part about this quilt is that the fabrics all have been sitting in my stash for years! It feels so good to sew up quilts using older fabrics like this.

Patchwork Flying Geese is in the Quilty Love pattern shop.

Scrappy Patchwork Flying Geese quilt

I’ve had this stack of original Cotton and Steel prints in my stash for so many years. I kept them all together like this hoping one day sew them all up together. Well I finally found the perfect quilt for them!

For this version of Patchwork Flying Geese I used that stack of prints and my low volume fabric stash. Somehow I’ve managed to collect quite a few low volume prints over the years and love using them as backgrounds all mixed together like this. The low volumes became the “geese” and the prints are the “sky”.

Stash Buster quilt pattern

Patchwork Flying geese is a really great stash buster quilt pattern! It’s the third in the Quilty Love Stash Buster series. Patchwork Flying Geese is written around Fat Quarters which most quilters have in their stash. I also include cutting instructions when cutting from your scrap stash just like this Scrappy Patchwork Flying Geese version.

This quilt pattern doesn’t require any background or accent fabric making it a true stash buster quilt pattern!

All the quilt sizes

I’ve included 8 size options in the Patchwork Flying Geese quilt pattern! Sew a baby size all the way up to a king size using your fabric stash. The Patchwork Flying Geese quilt pattern includes:

Baby size
Small throw size or lap size
Medium throw size
Large throw size
Twin size bed quilt
Full size bed quilt
Queen size bed quilt
King size bed quilt

This Scrappy Patchwork Flying Geese quilt is the medium throw size quilt.

No waste flying geese

Patchwork Flying geese uses the four at a time no waste flying geese method. The flying geese go together nice and quick and don’t waste any fabric!

I share some tips and tricks for making more accurate four at a time flying geese in this post. I say “more” accurate because I’ve yet to perfect them myself..haha. My preferred method for making four at a time flying geese is to add 1/8″ to both the smaller and larger squares which gives a little extra room to then trim to size.

Sewing your stash

The goal with the Quilty Love Stash Buster series is to hopefully inspire you to sew your fabric stash! You might have already curated bundles or loads of loose fabrics in your stash. It can be tricky mixing and curating your own fabric bundles from your stash. Here’s a few simple tricks for making your own bundles from your stash:

Stick with 2-3 colors + neutrals. It’s easier mixing fabrics when you are just using a couple of colors. You can grab varying shades of those colors and then add in neutrals such as greys or creams as fillers. For this scrappy Patchwork Flying Geese quilt I used three colors: Navy, aqua and green. And then of course added those low volume neutrals.
Find some inspiration. If there is a fabric line that you really love pull similar colors from it using your own stash! Pay attention to how the designer distributed colors. It might not be evenly spread throughout the colors in the fabric line. Instead it might have a primary color, secondary color and an accent or two. Try to mimic that ration within your own fabric pull.
Or maybe your inspiration isn’t from another fabric line. Pinterest is full of color combinations that you can translate to a fabric combination.
Go monochromatic. I LOVE monochromatic quilts. Think all blue quilts or all red quilts. For a monochromatic quilt you might pull all of your fabric in one color in varying shades. As long you vary the shades it’s going to look so great in this flying geese quilt!
Add some solids. If you are struggling to mix enough of your fabrics for a cohesive look throw in some coordinating solids.
Place in color order. I learned this simple trick from my friend Meghan of Then Came June. When you are mixing fabrics from your stash, line them up in color order. You will see if you colors are flowing better when you line them up this way as opposed to all mixed together.
Stick with fabrics from the same designer or manufacturer. This can be a simple way to mix fabrics! For example, the Ruby Star Society fabrics tend to mix and play well together. Another example is Bonnie and Camille fabrics. All of the Bonnie and Camille fabric lines tend to play well together.

I wrote all about mixing fabrics from your stash along with photo examples in this blog post (scroll down to the middle of the post).

Wavy stitch quilting on the Scrappy Patchwork Flying Geese quilt

I quilted up this scrappy Patchwork Flying Geese quilt myself on my Janome MC6700p. Of course I quilted it using the wavy stitch. I quilted another sample using straight lines and kind of regretted not just using this stitch.

This wavy quilting is super easy to do on your domestic sewing machine! If your machine has that wavy stitch it’s basically quilting straight lines using a walking foot and the machine makes the wave. I like to space my lines 3/4 inch or 1 inch apart. I did 3/4 inch spacing for this scrappy quilt. This is stitch 8 on my Janome and I use a stitch length of 3.0 and a width of 7.

When I quilt a quilt myself like this I always start on one edge and quilt every other line and then go back and fill in the lines in between. When I quilt, I like securing the quilt as quickly as possible which is why I do every other line.

I also start on the edge and keep my quilt the same direction rather than starting in the middle and flipping. I do this because you can always see where you flipped. The fabrics tend to pull in opposite directions and that always drove me crazy. To be honest, this Janome MC6700p can probably handle flipping without pulling fabrics but it’s a habit I picked up from using smaller sewing machines.

Scrappy Patchwork Flying Geese Grid quilt backing

I recently bought a ton of this Robert Kaufman Yarn Dyed Classics grid fabric to use as quilt backings. This scrappy Patchwork Flying Geese quilt is the first time using it. I love a good classic neutral quilt backing and this one is exactly that. The best part is it is a yarn dyed Essex linen! I love using Essex Linen in my quilts because it adds extra weight and warmth to quilts. Linen shrinks quite a bit so pre-washing is always a good idea.

Speaking of neutral quilt backings… that is where a lot of my low volume fabric stash has come from! A lot of the prints in this scrappy quilt are cut offs from quilt backings. I really love to tone down the backing of a quilt when the front is super busy like this scrappy flying geese one.

Low volume geese (kind of)

I really had fun playing with the low volume prints for this scrappy Patchwork Flying Geese quilt. As you can see some of the fabrics are more neutral than others. I really love the added dimension some of those busier backgrounds add. Some of the low volumes read more like a print but still work well since they contrast nicely with the navy, aqua and green prints.

I hope this scrappy Patchwork Flying Geese quilt inspires you to dig through your stash and sew one up!

Materials:
Quilt Pattern: Patchwork Flying Geese quilt pattern by Quilty Love
Fabrics: Assorted old Cotton and Steel prints
Backing: Robert Kaufman Essex Linen Classic Yarn Dyed
Pieced and quilted on my Janome MC6700P
Batting: Quilters Dream Select white
Spray baste: 505 spray

Patchwork Flying Geese Quilt – A Stash Buster quilt pattern

I’m so excited to share the Patchwork Flying Geese quilt with you today! This is the third quilt in the Quilty Love Stash Buster Series. Patchwork Flying Geese is written around fat quarters and doesn’t use any background fabric so it is as stash friendly as it gets!

Patchwork Flying Geese is a fast and fun fat quarter quilt. The flying geese are constructed with not waste and come together super fast when making them four at time.

Flying Geese are one of those classic quilting shapes so it was fun to come up with a little different layout using them.

Patchwork Flying Geese is available in the Quilty Love pattern shop.

Ruby Star Society Tarry Town Fabrics

For this version of Patchwork Flying Geese I used the brand new Ruby Star Society Tarry Town fabrics. This bright and colorful fat quarter bundle worked out so well for this modern flying geese quilt. Tarry town has some neutral prints in the fat quarter bundle making it a really great option for this quilt.

Those neutral prints can be tricky to use if you use lighter colored backgrounds in your quilts. I particularly love when bundles have those lighter neutrals for the Quilty Love stash buster quilts.

Stash Buster quilt pattern

The Patchwork Flying Geese quilt pattern is the third pattern in the Quilty Love Stash Buster quilt pattern series. This series has been so much fun to create and sew up.

The goal of the stash buster quilt pattern series is for you to get inspired to sew your stash. All of these Stash buster quilt patterns are written with your stash in mind. I’ve designed all of the quilt patterns in the series around precuts and precuts only. So far they have not needed any background fabrics. This means you can pull some fabrics from your stash and start sewing.

Fat Quarter Friendly quilt pattern

The Patchwork Flying Geese quilt pattern is written specifically around fat quarters. Fat Quarter quilts are really great stash quilts since so many quilters collect fat quarters or half yards.

I personally have always collected fat quarters but I was curious if this was common among other quilters. So I polled my audience a couple of weeks ago. Fat Quarters was selected easily as the most common fabric size in quilters stash. Next up was half yards and yards both coming in at similar numbers.

I was kind of relieved to get those results since I’ve always assumed Fat Quarters are a popular size among quilters. I write most of my patterns around fat quarters. Even if you are one of the quilters who collect half yards or yards then these fat quarter quilts are still perfect for you since you can cut fat quarters from either one of those bigger fabric sizes.

Flying Geese quilt

I enjoy creating quilt patterns around commonly used quilting shapes. This time it was flying geese! I personally enjoy making flying geese. I find them super satisfying to sew up.

Patchwork Flying Geese is a simple and modern take on flying geese. The quilt pattern has you making flying geese four at time which means quick construction and no waste! Making flying geese four at time is so clever!

Tips and tricks for sewing Flying Geese four at a time

It can be tricky to get those flying geese the exact size when making them four at a time! I admit that just about every thing I sew comes out too small. I’ve yet to perfect the perfect quarter inch seam. But I tend to be consistently too small so my quilts always work out just fine.

I did a little research while I was creating this quilt pattern for better flying geese.

Use a scant 1/4 inch seam allowance. A scant quarter inch is pretty much the standard when it comes to quilting but for something like four at a time flying geese it’s super important. A scant 1/4 inch seam allowance is a smidge under 1/4 inch. This gives you a little extra room when you account for thread thickness and pressing fabric.
Cut your squares a little bigger and then trim to size if needed. I did some experimenting and I found that increasing both the larger square and smaller squares by 1/8 inch helped my flying geese come out a better size. This allows for a teeny tiny bit of trimming. Just enough to get that nice straight line across the top.
Pull your smaller squares in a few threads from the corners. This was a brand new trick I just learned and it sure is helpful! This alone might be all you need to do to size out your flying geese better. (See the diagrams below)
Use flying geese rulers. I personally don’t have any flying geese rulers but so many quilters love them! Two that came up were the Bloc Lock rulers and Wing Clip rulers.
Cut accurately! It’s all going to come back to your cutting skills with four at a time flying geese. Take your time to cut those squares perfectly sized and perfectly square.

The flying geese in Patchwork Flying Geese are a larger size which makes them easier to make and a little more forgiving in their size. The smaller a flying geese gets the trickier it is to perfectly size out.

I would consider Patchwork Flying Geese to be an ambitious beginner quilt due to those flying geese. Once you get the hang of making flying geese four at a time they really are not too bad!

Fast and easy quilt pattern

Patchwork Flying Geese really is a fast and easy quilt to make. Once you get the hang of those flying geese four at a time it sews together really quickly. This is one of those quilts that I want to make up with all of the bundles I currently have in my stash…haha. It’s an addicting one to make just like Lucky Log Cabins.

Long Arm quilting

Here’s a photo of Patchwork Flying Geese freshly quilted by Jenae of Vintage Stitch. I love that Jenae sends the best sneak peek photos when she does the quilting.

We chose the wavy lines for this one to keep it fresh and modern. It shouldn’t be any surprise that I love this wavy design since my own go to quilting stitch is also wavy lines on my domestic machine.

If you are having a hard time choosing a long arm quilting pantograph, try this one! It works so well on so many quilts. Since this flying geese quilt was pretty busy the minimal quilting design works well.

There is nothing better than getting a quilt back from the long arm quilter! I still feel very spoiled when I do. I’ve been sending more of my quilts to a long armer over the past year since my time is more limited with a two year old. It’s been one of the best things to outsource. I still love quilting myself but I enjoy it a lot more when I feel like I have the time to do it.

All the quilt sizes in Patchwork Flying Geese

I have you covered for every size quilt in Patchwork Flying Geese. The pattern includes instructions to make:

Baby size
Small throw size
Medium throw size
Large throw size
Twin size
Full size
Queen size
King size

The Tarry town Patchwork Flying Geese quilt featured in this blog post is the large throw size. It’s a very generous throw almost big enough to be a bed size. I do include all of those bed size quilts though too!

I love large throw quilts and the larger the quilt, the quicker you sew through your stash 😉

Patchwork Flying Geese Backing and Binding

I used a new widback on this Patchwork Flying Geese quilt! If you have been following along then you know I really love the Peppered Cotton wide backs. I picked up a new color recently. This is Peppered Cotton in the color Oyster. It’s a beautiful creamy color. It’s not white but it’s still pretty light.

I use widleback fabrics as quilt backs whenever possible because they save time and money. No piecing and they usually come out cheaper than 44″ wide fabrics. Most wide backs are around 108″ so you only need about a yard and a half to two yards of it.

Calculating yardage for a wideback fabric

If you want to find out how many yards of a wide back fabric you would need for a quilt pattern, this is my favorite quilting calculator.

Or you can figure it out yourself by dividing the width of the quilt by 36″. This is assuming the length of the quilt is under 108″. So for example this large throw quilt is 65″ x 80″. 80″ is under 108″ so I’m going calculate the wide back yardage like this: 65″ + 8″ overage = 73″. 73/36 = 2.02. So I would need 2.02 or 2 yards of a wideback fabric.

Patchwork Flying Geese quilt pattern

I see patchwork when I look at this quilt which is why I included it in the pattern name. I love all of those busy prints all mixed together creating a wonderful patchwork. Patchwork Flying Geese looks good in a variety of options!

So far I’ve done this busy print version, an ombre version, a scrappy three color version with neutral geese and a monochromatic version.

Sew one up using a curated bundle or create one using your fabric stash.

I hope you love sewing up this stash buster quilt pattern!

Materials:
Quilt Pattern: Patchwork Flying Geese by Quilty Love
Fabrics: Tarry Town fabrics for Ruby Star Society
Binding: Kona cotton in the color Curry
Backing: Peppered Cotton wideback in the color Oyster
Pieced on my Janome MC6700P
Long Arm quilted by Vintage Stitch

Flying quilt – The Ruby Star Society Speckled one

I have another flying geese quilt to share today! Flying is one of the latest Quilty Love patterns. You can find it in the pattern shop here.

I made quite a few of these Flying flying geese quilts! You can view all of my completed quilts here.

This flying geese quilt is made up using Ruby Star Society Speckled fabrics. Speckled is a Ruby Star basics and so good! Subtle prints that read like solids are my favorites to sew with so you know I love these.

I chose six of the warm colors from the Speckled line for this version of Flying.

Ruby Star Society Speckled fabrics used in this quilt

Colors used: Metallic Daisy, Metallic Cotton Candy Pink, Metallic Peony, Metallic Strawberry, Metallic Cactus and Metallic Peach

Flying quilt pattern – a simple flying geese quilt

Flying is a simple flying geese quilt pattern. It looks great in solids or prints. I’ve made a few of both 😉

All the quilt sizes

The pattern includes instructions for a crib size quilt, throw size quilt, twin size quilt and a queen size quilt.

Four at a time flying geese

The flying geese are made four at a time for super fast construction and no waste. I love making flying geese like this because you don’t have any corners to cut off and waste.

The flying geese size up and down with the different sizes so the layout stays the same.

The throw size flying quilt uses six half yards of fabric. Choose six half yards from your stash or find a fabric line and pick six of your favorite prints.

The colors in this flying geese quilt were so much fun to sew up. They are so bright and happy. I’m loving the pop of mustard or (cactus as it’s called) with the pinks and peaches.

Long arm quilting

I sent this flying geese quilt off to Knot and thread for quilting. Kait chose this fun swoopy quilting design which pairs perfectly with the geometric points of the flying geese.

Flying is finished off with a pink binding in the Ruby Star Society grid line up. This color is Strawberry.

Look at that quilting! Such a beautiful design!

You can see the subtle speckle print really well in this photo below. The background of this flying geese quilt is another grid from Ruby Star Society. I love using their grid fabrics as background. The background fabric used here is the color Cotton Candy.

I was back on the kitchen table for this one..haha. The one year old has been BUSY so when I have some serious sewing to do I usually haul everything out to the dining room.

Look how pretty those flying geese rows are all lined up like this.

This quilt is an expansion of a quilt I made years ago for Love Quilting Magazine. It was a surfboard quilt and the surfboards had a single row of flying geese with sashing on each side. I’ve been wanting to expand that into an full quilt for the longest time.

These Flying quilt photos were taken in my daughters room before we rearranged it. It had the perfect lighting scenario before we moved it around..haha. I might need to put it back like this some day and photograph a bunch of quilts.

Flying quilt pattern

Backing and Binding

Both the backing and the binding of this Flying throw size quilt are Grid in the color Strawberry by Ruby Star Society.

I tend to use the backing fabric as the binding in a lot of my quilts. It’s easy and a great way to use up all of that extra fabric you trim off. There is always more than enough for binding the quilt.