Saturday, December 4, 2010

More Get Well Flying Geese and How I Made Them!

Michelle, another lady in the BlockLotto, had an operation in October that was taking longer to recover from than expected.  She is back to sewing already, but I wanted to make her some blocks anyway.  Since I finished the December challenge already I was able to do this sewing.  As I finished the first block, I remembered that the last time I had trouble making the blocks.  To solve it so I could send the blocks to Mary Jame in a timely manner I used much larger pieces of fabric than were really needed - and ended up with a bunch of scraps that I didn't think I would be able to use...

This time I made time to figure out a way to do Flying Geese so I end up with more usable pieces of fabric.  Here are the Get Well Geese I made for Michelle (scroll down to see my notes of how I made them!)

The technique that I ended up figuring out, The June Dodge Method for Get Well Geese*, was a variation of the directions for the December 2010 block - trees.  When I was using the original liberated directions I just ended up with scraps - this way I end up with a mini-reversed goose or point.  (The original directions are very clearly written - it's just that I'm not following them correctly I'm sure.) Anyway,  I'm quite please with myself for figuring out this new way to do the Get Well Geese!

Step One:  Cut background fabric about 1 inch taller and wider than the desired size of the block.  Cut colored goose fabric roughly the same height as the background fabric but narrower.
Step Two:  With right sides facing the same direction, cut a point in the fabric. Be sure to have the tip so when it's sewn together the point tip will show.
Step Three: Move the fabric - you have a full sized set and the mini set.

Step Four: You can either place the bottom of the goose fabric so it lines up to the sky fabric (see normal size for example)  - this will make the end result so it's not even when the sewing is done).  OR
(see mini size for example) Bring the goose fabric so it is below the sky by 1/4 inch (then when sewn the bottom will be even).
Sew the two pieces together.  
Step Five:  Press toward the dark fabric and see how the different placement of the fabric affected the result. Normal size the bird is higher, Mini the bird is flush with the sky.
Step Six:  Place the fabric for the second seam.  For both of these the bird part is not below the sky, so neither of them are going to line up evenly once they are sewn.
Step Seven:  Sew second seam and press - see how the different placement of the parts affects the result.  In both of these examples the outside sky fabric is below the center bird fabric.
Step Eight:  Trim to square up and get to desired size.

DONE!

Here I thought I knew what I was doing so I did three blocks at one time...

But I must have cut the length too short as for all of these I had to sew on a piece to get the block to be 6.5 inches.  It was just 1/8 inch off but I had to add a wider piece so there would not be extra bulk at the seam when quilting...  The extra seam, I think, will disappear once the project is quilted... or will add charm to the liberated quilt project!
After figuring out and using this June Dodge Method for Get Well Geese*, I have mini-reversed units all ready to use in a project myself later on!

* Ha ha!

3 comments:

  1. Good method, and one I think I can remember when the time comes.
    Thanks.

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  2. I've really struggled with this, I think it's my lack of spacial awareness that messes them up, so I've been using the folded method, but this is a brilliant idea! If I started with two full size rectangles, I'd have two flying geese at the end, one negative and one positive - awesome!

    Thanks for sharing!

    Benta

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  3. Thank you both for your comments! Fun to know that folks are reading the posts!

    : )

    I agree that doing this with two pieces of fabric the same size would be great to do. Would then end up with some very interesting block combinations.

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