Friday, April 4, 2014

Unintentional project ~ flying geese

I started off yesterday experimenting with a new-to-me flying geese method, and ended up with this:


I have made a lot of flying geese in the past, after all I did make a Swoon quilt which has many flying geese units.  These were all made with the method using a rectangle and two squares of fabric (the first method described on this page), which totally works but ends up with wasted triangles, or free HSTs if you like to think of it that way, but honestly when I'm making a project I'm not thinking that way - it ends up feeling like waste to me even if they are useful leftovers. 


Nicole pointed me in the direction of this alternate flying geese method, which actually makes 4 at a time.  This technique is the second method described in the same link I gave for the more traditional flying geese method above.  It wasn't intuitive to me but I followed the step-by-step and it totally worked!  Who comes up with these things is what I'd like to know!!  :) 


I liked my little experiment so much that I decided to add skinny borders right then and there, quilt some dense matchstick lines, bind it and call it a finish.  It ended up being 6" x 10.5" and I actually have a perfect spot for it, a place where my husband likes to put his coffee mug when he's working on his computer.  :)

There is actually another method for flying geese that was pointed out to me on Instagram that I really want to try.  Also from the Connecting Threads website, the third method can be found here.  I'll let you know if I give it a try.

One more thing.....until recently I have always joined binding strips straight, end to end, and have always been a little bit frustrated with how bulky those joins are.  On a recent project I decided to try joining my binding strips on the diagonal and I found myself wondering why I had never done this before!!?  It's a bit more effort but it distributes the bulk and makes a much smoother finished binding in my opinion.  BUT I was still joining the two final ends of the binding with a straight seam.  Yesterday when I was finishing this little mug rug I decided to try joining the two ends on the diagonal and I found that it was so much easier than I thought it would be (like so many things!!) and will do it like this from now on.  You can find the tutorial I used here.

Have a wonderful day everyone!

Linking up with finish it up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts
 

13 comments:

Lucy | Charm About You said...

Gorgeous mini, great colours! The hst method looks good, I will have to try it sometime. I always bind diagonally and love that you can't tell where it begins and ends!

Sarah Fredette said...

Its so much fun to learn new things! I like the 4 at a time method - except when using directional prints. When the go different ways my quilting OCD comes out. :D

Gorgeous little mini!!

nicole said...

Looks awesome Heather!
Your matchstick quilting is fantastic!
I love that method and i feel a full on flying geese quilt in my future :)

Taryn said...

Thanks for all of those links - I haven't tried the third method myself. When I did proper quilting lessons a few years ago the tutor told us joining the binding on the diagonal was the ONLY way to go. It is a lot of extra work but worth it. :-)

Susan said...

I've used that method for flying geese and always wonder part way through..."how in the heck is this going to work?" Genius! Love the little mug rug with its matchstick quilting too!

Izzy said...

How cute is that? Really nice little finish. And thank you for those links. :-)

Debbie said...

Darling! And I love that quilting! I have always joined binding pieces at an angle cuz that's how I was taught, but the ending I have always tucked in. Not the best, I know so will look at your method. None of the ones I've tried have been flawless... ;-(

Erica said...

Beautiful! I use a Fons and Porter Flying Geese ruler, it works pretty well, but now I want to try this :)

Kleep said...

So cute. Love the dense quilting.

DeborahGun said...

this is gorgeous Heather. I haven't tried flying geese yet, so a little mini like this has given me the incentive to try :-)

ipatchandquilt said...

Very pretty flying geese coffee rug!
Esther
esthersipatchandquilt at yahoo com
ipatchandquilt dot wordpress dot com

Katherine said...

So pretty! Love that matchstick quilting, too. Doesn't the diagonal join make a world of difference? Yay, for giving it a go... always good to try something new. ;o)

CitricSugar said...

Love that quilting!! I did a mini in February that was all matchstick - took forever but so worth it. Great job!