One of the most popular ways to make Flying Geese is the "Make Four No Waste Flying Geese" method, not only because it uses less fabric, but also because you save time making four units at once! Today we will not only talk about this technique, but we will also experiment with stripes and figure out how they behave depending on how and where you place them. The amazing fabrics in this tutorial are from the exotic and artistic Mediterraneo collection.

One of the myths of The Flying Geese name comes from its resemblance with an actual goose flying in the sky, and surely that's where its parts also get their names from: 

Goose: the big triangle in the center.

Sky: the corner square triangles on the sides.

 Make Four No Waste Flying Geese cutting formula:

Goose: one (1) square measuring the finished flying geese width + 1 1/4”.

Sky:  four (4) squares measuring the finished flying geese height + 7/8”

In this case my finished size is 6” x 3”, so I cut one (1) 7 ¼” square for the goose and four (4) 3 7/8” squares for the sky:

1. Let's start discovering how the stripes will behave when using them in the goose part:

Place two sky squares aligned diagonally and face to face to the geese fabric. Notice that the small squares will overlap in the inner corners.

Draw a line on the diagonal and stitch at ¼” from each side of the line.

Using your rotary cutter and ruler, cut on the drawn line.

Now you have two halves. Open the fabric and press both resulting pieces.

Place one sky square on the uncut corner of each half and draw a diagonal line.

Stitch at ¼” from each side of the drawn line and cut.

Open the seams and press. As a result you have four units, two of them with horizontal stripes and two with vertical stripes.

2. Now let's see what happens when using the stripes in the sky part!

Place two sky squares aligned diagonally and face to face to the goose fabric. Draw a line on the diagonal and stitch at ¼” from the line on each side.

Cut on the drawn line to get your two halves.

Open the fabric and press both resulting pieces.

Now we will place the striped sky squares in different directions to see what happens.

On the  first half, the sky square will have the stripes in the same direction as the stripes attached to the goose fabric. And on the second half the sky square will be placed so the stripes are perpendicular to the ones already attached to the goose fabric.

Draw a diagonal line.

Stitch at 1/4" of each side of the lines and cut.

As a result, you can see that on the first half we have two identical flying geese units, but the left sky stripes are perpendicular to the right sky stripes. And on the second half, both units are different, but the right and the left sky stripes are in the same direction.

Now let your imagination run! I love how the stripes make a big impact on any design, and combined with such a practical method, the sky is the limit!

How do you like your stripes better on the goose or on the sky? Are you ready to create using this method? Please share your ideas and history knowledge with me, I love hearing from you!

Enjoy creating,

 - Laucara