Moda Blockheads: Block 19-Night Flight

Lynne Hagmeier of Kansas Troubles Quilters has this week's block.  She has provided directions for both her Layered Patchwork version which I have yet to try, and the Traditional Patchwork method.  The pattern can be found by clicking HERE.  It was fun to visit the designer blogs this week and see how they display their quilts in their homes.  Lots of great inspiration so if you have not taken the time to do so I would encourage you to visit their online homes this week.

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I decided with a name like Night Flight I would use the blue fabric in my collection to be the sky and lighter fabrics for my geese.  We live in area that has geese by the million spend the winter so I had visions of Snow Geese against a blue sky as I prepared my fabric.

Me being me, I did not use either of the methods Lynne shared but when to my favorite No Waste method-a bit of a misleading name as I tend to cut my pieces large and trim them down. If you want more variety in your geese you will want to use a different method or just know that you will have extra geese flying around for another quilt-which would not be bad at all either.

I love this method for how quickly the geese go together.  
Cutting Directions for No Waste Flying Geese:
Fabric A (Geese)- 4 1/2" x 4 1/2" (cut 2)              
Fabric B (Sky)-2 3/4" x 2 3/4" squares (cut 8)    
       

First place two of the B squares on top of each A square as shown in the photo below then draw a diagonal line through the B squares.

Just like with the Half-square triangles we did last time; I sew 1/4 inch from each side of my diagonal line.  A little tip here: sew with the point of the top B square pointing towards you-not a big deal if you forget, but everything lies so much nicer for sewing this way. (Like I did in the photo on the left)

Cut the units apart on the diagonal line.

Press towards the smaller triangles.

Now place another B square on top of the unit just made.
​ I like to draw my diagonal line on it before I place it.

As I lined them up to sew they looked like little jets in formation.  As many times as I have made these I have never seem them as fighter jets before...maybe the fact that the jet fighters are flying over the house as they do their training exercises has influenced me this morning, lol.
​At any rate my geese currently look more like loud and raucous airplanes to me.

Just like before we will sew 1/4 inch from each side of the line.

Now for the fun part-the big reveal.  Cut apart on the line and press towards the little triangle.  Each A square yields 4 Flying Geese!

I am going to show two ways of trimming these units.  One using the Bloc-Loc ruler which is my absolute favorite for trimming Flying Geese units.  I will also show how to trim using a regular ruler.  I happened to have the perfect size Bloc-Loc for these Flying Geese which finish at 1 1/2" x 3".  Bloc-Loc rulers have an indentation in them that "locks" onto the seam making it quite easy to trim to the correct size and the 1/4 inch seam allowance is built into it for a trimmed size of 2 x 3 1/2 inches.

With the Bloc-Loc just slide the indentation into place and trim the first two sides.  Then rotate and trim the next two sides and you are done.

With the regular ruler you have to pay attention to a few details.  
We want to trim these to 2 x 3 1/2 inches so first we need to line up the 1 3/4 inch mark with the top point of the triangle at the same time make sure you have 1/4 inch of seam beyond it.  On the bottom of the triangle the 3 1/2 inch and 2 inch mark need to fall on the seams.  
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When we rotate the block to trim the last two sides the 3 1/2 inch and 2 inch lines are on the outside and once again the point falls on the 1 3/4 inch line with 1/4 inch seam extending beyond.  Now we also have the diagonal line on our ruler falling in place on the seam.

Once all of the flying geese units are trimmed we need to join them together in pairs.  
​At times it helps to use a stilleto tool to hold the seams down.  I have also found that lifting my presser foot (with the needle in the down position) as I come to that seam to make sure it is laying flat can also help.

I pressed these seams in opposite directions though I am not happy with the bulk that creates.  I tried making a set later with the seams pressed and with careful pinning that did help.  It is just so much harder to line up the seams when I do that.

Whichever pressing style you use at this point when you join these units together take your time as there are some pretty bulky seams to go over and it is best to slow down for them.

My version with the seams pressed open can be seen here-make sure to line up the pin on the top and bottom right into the seam if you choose to do this.

Ready for the final seam.  I do want to point out that this method is not really good for using directional fabric.  You can see how the the writing on the blue fabric will run a different direction on half of the Flying Geese blocks-but I am okay with that here.

A second version of Night Flight.

This is a video I took of some of the geese this winter...this is just a few of them with, some swans in the foreground...in case you would like to see what we experience.

I hope you enjoy making your own Flying Geese.  For a pdf version of this tutorial click HERE.
Happy Quilting!