tractor

tractor
At Plum Loco Ranch, Door County, WI.

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Star Surround QAL - Flying Geese


Oh  - flying geese....they are my least favorite quilting component.  Until I finally tried the "no-waste" method that I've read about on several blogs. Melissa, our QAL hostess, has a great tute on the method and the math!

Instead of starting with either 3 triangles or a rectangle and two squares, this method uses all squares.

Untitled

It requires marking of the smaller squares.  So, here's my opportunity to plug another little tool that I really like.   That blue "stick" in the pic above is called the Quick Quarter II.  Now, when I first saw it I thought, "why do I need a special tool to help me draw lines?"

Well, there are two reasons really.  First, after drawing lots of lines for the Fourth of July top, I found that my lines, despite using a ruler, do not always go from corner to corner precisely, oops!  I usually do these types of things with my feet propped up while watching TV with DH.

Untitled

Second, I love to piece with my featherweight and I discovered in a Bonnie Hunter workshop that the 1/4" foot gives me a teensy too-big 1/4" seam.  It works better if I measure the 1/4" and then use the guide that screws into the machine bed.  (Bonnie had us all test our 1/4" seam by sewing two block pieces together and then measuring the two pieces now joined into one.) So, now I actually do use those two sewing lines for stitching.

I now have the FGUs (flying geese units) ready for my two blocks.  You can see some more FGUs here.

Have a wonderful Saturday!

2 comments:

  1. I really enjoyed making the flying geese this week and normally I'm not a fan at all! Thanks for sharing about your Quick Quarter tool. I might have to get one of those!

    ReplyDelete
  2. And they look so pretty. Great job on getting them all done. And I am so glad you liked this method of making Flying Geese. I love it too :)

    ReplyDelete

Please leave a message. I love to hear from you.