Flying geese cutting chart
One large square and four small ones make four geese with no waste and no bias on the outside edge. Here are the sizes, for every unit you are likely to need.
A flying goose is a rectangle twice as wide as it is tall, with a triangle point in the middle and two background corners. It is the unit inside Sawtooth Star points, the whole of Dutchman's Puzzle, and the standard border motif in medallion quilts.
No-waste flying geese chart
| Finished goose (w × h) | Large square | 4 small squares |
|---|---|---|
| 2" × 1" | 3¼" | 1⅞" |
| 3" × 1½" | 4¼" | 2⅜" |
| 4" × 2" | 5¼" | 2⅞" |
| 5" × 2½" | 6¼" | 3⅜" |
| 6" × 3" | 7¼" | 3⅞" |
| 7" × 3½" | 8¼" | 4⅜" |
| 8" × 4" | 9¼" | 4⅞" |
| 10" × 5" | 11¼" | 5⅞" |
| 12" × 6" | 13¼" | 6⅞" |
The formulas
- Large square (the point fabric): finished width + 1¼″
- Small squares (the background), four of them: finished height + ⅞″
Because a goose is always twice as wide as it is tall, a 3″ × 6″ finished goose takes one 7¼″ square and four 3⅞″ squares, and produces four units.
Four at a time, step by step
- Draw a diagonal on the wrong side of all four small squares.
- Place two small squares on opposite corners of the large square, right sides together, drawn lines forming one continuous diagonal. They will overlap slightly in the middle.
- Stitch a quarter inch either side of the drawn line, then cut apart on the line. Press the small triangles open. You now have two heart-shaped pieces.
- Place a third small square on the corner of one heart, drawn line running into the point. Stitch either side, cut apart, press. Repeat with the fourth square on the other heart.
- Four geese. Trim each to the unfinished size: finished width + ½″ by finished height + ½″.
Why star points vanish
On a correctly sized goose, the tip of the triangle sits a quarter inch below the raw edge. That quarter inch is what the next seam consumes. If the tip touches the raw edge, the point is already lost — and the usual cause is not the cutting but the seam allowance: a thread's width too wide on each of the two diagonal seams is enough to eat it.
The fix is the same as everywhere else in patchwork: make the unit slightly oversized, then trim to exact size with the ruler's diagonal lines aligned to the seams.
The other method, and why it wastes fabric
You can also make one goose from a rectangle plus two squares, stitched across the corners and trimmed. It is simpler to understand and uses fewer marked lines, but it throws away two triangles per goose and leaves bias on the outer edge of the unit. For one or two geese it is fine. For the ninety-six in a Dutchman's Puzzle quilt, use the no-waste method.
Flying Geese block → · Sawtooth Star → · Dutchman's Puzzle →
Questions
What size squares do I need for 3 by 6 inch flying geese?
One 7¼ inch square of the point fabric and four 3⅞ inch squares of the background. That makes four geese with no waste.
What is the no-waste flying geese method?
One large square and four small squares are stitched and cut in two stages to produce four identical geese, with no trimmed-off triangles and the straight grain on every outside edge.
Why do my star points get cut off?
The triangle tip needs a quarter inch of clearance above it before the seam. If the goose was trimmed too small, or the seam allowance ran wide, the tip lands in the seam and disappears.
Stop looking things up
FourPatch does this arithmetic for every piece in your quilt, every time you change something — block size, sashing width, fabric width, waste allowance. The cutting list and yardage just update.