A while back, a fabric company ad dropped into my feed somewhere online. I don't remember much about the ad. But I do remember that it was attached to a tutorial (also lost in the void of space and time and internet dust).
The block that was featured is a modified flying geese unit--with a inner border in between the large quarter square triangle and the two half-square triangles. It looked something like this.
I recall glancing at the tutorial and I don't remember the specific steps involved. However, I thought immediately about the leftover squares I stored in the dreaded pizza box.
This fabric has been languishing in my stash for a long time. It was originally intended for a mystery quilt project. But I started making the project and didn't care for it. I stopped the presses and reverse-sewed the squares. Then stored them in the pizza box. For years.
You may recall, maybe about a year ago, I assembled some of the parts from the box into a scrappy quilt. However, even after the quilt was done, the pizza box was still at least half full.
So I started in with some experimenting with this flying geese concept from the ad. I grabbed onto an idea to use the squares (after modifying them, more info on the modification in the next few steps) along with the technique to make four flying gees units at a time.
Start with a large square (in my case a slightly modified one), then add two smaller background squares on opposite corners, sew, cut apart and press. Then add an additional square to the resulting heart-shaped unit, then sew, cut apart, and press. Then trim.
The problem with using this technique is that you can't really be sure that you're centering the smaller squares properly to get consistent results. Notice how one 'inner border' on each of these examples appears to be significantly skinnier than its neighbor.
Back to the drawing board to test a slightly different process. For starters, let's define the parts. The pizza box square as the 'main print' fabric for each unit. I'll call the fabric between the quarter square and half square triangles an inner border. I'm using a solid-ish reading fabric that is similar value, but different print to the main print. Then there are the corner triangles or the block background fabrics, solid-reading light-value--those will make an appearance next time.
First I need to cut some 2" inner border strips. For each set of four flying geese blocks, I need two 7" strips and one 15" strip.
My main print is pre-cut (or previously cut) from the pizza box. Each square is 8-1/2" square. I cut each square on the diagonal twice.
Then I head to the sewing machine and lay out the pieces.
Four triangles, with two 7" strips in between two adjacent triangles, opposite each other, and one 15" strip in between.
I then sewed the short sides of the triangles to opposite sides of the 7" strips. Then pressed toward the triangle.
I then centered an sewed the longer strip to one triangle/strip/triangle assembly, and press toward the triangles (not shown).
And then centered and sewed the remaining triangle to the opposite side of the long strip. I'm careful to align the seams 7" strip seams (red lines) before sewing.
Both long seams are pressed outward, toward the triangles. I left the corners sloppy
That's where I'll leave things this week.
Now, you may think I have this quilt all laid out nicely in a pattern somewhere or in my head, you would be mistaken! However, there are a couple of things I can predict:
I will not have any more 8-1/2" squares left in the pizza box when I'm done.
I will use stash fabrics to supplement the project. No new fabric will be harmed in the making of this quilt(s). Although I reserve the right to add additional fabrics already in my stash.
I don't know how many modified flying geese units I'll need, although, I'm aiming for a lap or twin.
I may have enough geese units for more than one quilt.
So, in a way, the original purpose of this old pizza box fabric remains in place - it was a mystery quilt then, and it's still a mystery quilt!
More flying geesing next time!
Happy Stitching!
Head Hummingbird
Hummingbird-Highway.com
Leave a Reply