Stars and Flying Geese

Every project starts with selecting your fabrics! Want to see them in a quilt? Check out my Quilts of Valor page!

Individual Flying Geese

You begin with a rectangle and two squares. There size depends on the size of the finished flying geese, mine here are: rectangle 4 1/2" x 2", and two 2" (cut size  4-1/2 x 2 1/2) squares. (In the image below, you can see that I am chain stitching my pieces, the piece before almost abuts to the piece I am sewing.)

First, you draw a line diagonally on each of the squares, on the wrong or backside of the fabric. Place one square on the end of the rectangle with the right or front side together, and sew across the line you drew. 

If you are making more than one (and you usually are), cut out all your geese, draw lines across all your squares, and sew them all, one after the other. It saves time, and makes your job easier.

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  Sewing first square and rectangle together

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  Once sewn, trim to 1/4" 

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  Iron your new rectangle into shape

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  Repeat on the other side of the rectangle, trim.

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  Press open, the back should look like this

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  And your geese are made!

For 4 Flying Geese at a time

You begin with a square and 4 smaller squares. Start with the center fabric. Determine what size you want your finished flying geese unit and add 1 1/4". For a 4 1/2" finished flying geese unit, you add 4 1/2" + 1 1/4" = 5 3/4" which adds up to square of the center fabric. 

Now the corner or pointy fabric. Determine the finished height of your flying geese unit and add 7/8". The finished height is 2 1/4", so 2 1/4" + 7/8" = 3 1/8" squares. You will need 4 of these to complete your four flying geese units.

Draw a diagonal line on the wrong side of all of four point squares. Lay two of the point squares with right sides together, on the larger center square, as shown. Note, the point squares will overlap slightly in the middle. (please disregard the imperfections of these images. I will make this pattern soon and replace these with actual images, but they will give you some idea of what you should be seeing.)

Layout pieces and sew on both sides of the line

  

Stitch 1/4" away from the marked line, through all the layers, as shown. Repeat on both sides of the marked line. Cut on the line you drew. Open out pointy pieces and press.

Cut along the line you drew

Press pointy pieces out

Select one, it should resemble a heart shape, with the pointy fabric being the two top sections and the center piece the bottom. Add one of your remaining point squares right sides together, matching the bottom of the heart, on the center fabric. 

Add 'point' square and sew on both sides of the line.

Stitch 1/4" away from the marked line, on both sides. Cut on the line you drew, and iron with the pointy side open. You now have 2 flying geese, repeat on the second set you created and you will have 4.

Cut along the line

Press with points out, creating a bigger point with the rectangle.

Making Stars of Flying Geese

If your geese are 4 1/2" x 2 1/4" finished, your side corners will be 2 1/4" squares finished (or 2 3/4 before sewing together), and the center portion of the finished square will be will be 4 1/2" finished (5" before sewing). Using the images below, construct your star with flying geese.

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  Add corner sections to two of your flying geese sections

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  Add two flying gees to your center block section

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  Then assemble your blocks, to look like this.

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  Star in a star alternative. Lots of fun.

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  These make great squares for Quilts of Valor

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  And can be made with lots of FUN fabrics

My star in star in star blocks above feature a 6" star (1 1/2" finished flying geese and 3" center block) inside a 12" (3" finished flying geese and corner blocks. I made these for Quilts of Valor, counting each block as 2 stars, there were 25 star blocks in each quilt.

Making Stars!

I made these stars in two sizes. The small are 5" finished squares are 9" squares. Following are two methods for making these Hunter Stars. Here's how I made them, though not perhaps the easiest method...

Beginning with strips sewn together, 2 different sets, to add color to your stars, you cut star points. I used 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 inch strips, which together make a 2 1/2 or 4 1/2 inch strip as shown, at a 45 degree angle. These stars also featured in some Quilts of Valor that I completed,

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  Cutting strips at 45 degree angle

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  Adding a triangle, (small 2", larger 3" unfinished) gives your star background/sides

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  Sewing these assembles pieces together gets you a 1/4 star

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  Putting 4 of these together makes a star complete

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  Its best to put many stars together, finishing each step

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  Before moving to the next with all of them. 

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  Finishing them all at the same time

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  Then they are ready to add to your quilt!

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  Adding to my quilt!

An Alternate Method for Making a Hunter's Star

There's another way to make a Hunter's Star, and it's just a set up of half-square triangles and a full square.

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  The blues here are the outside of the star. The peach and purple make the star.

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  The top row, 2 full-squares, and two opposite facing half-square triangles (outside in, dark out)

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  The outside, center, to alternate colored opposite facing half-square triangles (outside in,light out.)

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  The center, 2 sets of opposite facing half-square triangles (light in, dark out)

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  You can see by turning the direction of the half-square triangles, you create a star

Making a Hunter's Star Quilt

For this method, you only need two blocks. Half square triangles and full squares, as shown below. Watch how they go together.

Half-Square Triangles

Full Squares

Start with you 'dark' full square, 4 1/2" (finished) square and 4 2 1/4" (finished) half-square triangles. Putting your 'dark' square down first, add to the right of it, aligning with the top of the block, 2 half-square triangles with the dark fabric to the bottom and left. Below this lay the third half-square triangle below the left half-square triangle, also with the dark fabric to the bottom and left. The last half-square triangle goes into the empty space on the right, and this triangle should be flipped, so that the 'dark' fabric is in the upper right.

Now, taking your 'light' full-square, and 4 half-square triangles, laying 2 half-square triangles to the right of the full-square, one below the other, with the 'dark' fabric in the upper right. In the upper right hand corner, lay your 3rd half-square triangle next to the top half-square triangle, with the dark fabric to the upper right. The 4th half-square will lay below this one, with the dark fabric to the lower left. So essentially, you lay a full-square and 4 half-squares together, with one of those half-square triangles flipped.

As always, I suggest that you first create all your half-square triangles, and have them pressed and set next to your machine, before you begin assembling these pieces. Then move on to assembling all the pieces above. These are the only two pieces that you need to assemble for the full quilt. They go together to complete the block, like this: