Flying Geese Size Chart: No-Waste and Stitch-and-Flip Cut Sizes

A flying geese unit is a pieced rectangle twice as wide as it is tall, made of one large triangle (the goose) and two small triangles (the sky). Four of them around a center square make a sawtooth star. A unit finishing at 2 x 4 inches measures 2 1/2 x 4 1/2 inches before it is sewn into a block.

Cut one large square 1 1/4 inches larger than the finished width, and four small squares 7/8 inch larger than the finished height. For 2 x 4 inch geese that is one 5 1/4 inch square and four 2 7/8 inch squares, which yield four units. The chart on this page lists both figures for every size from 1 x 2 to 6 x 12 inches.

No-waste makes four geese at once from five squares and trims almost nothing, so it is the efficient choice for a star quilt. Stitch-and-flip makes one goose from a rectangle and two squares, and wastes two small triangles each time, but it is easier to control. For 2 x 4 inch geese, stitch-and-flip starts from a 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 inch rectangle.

Four geese, a center square and four corner squares make a sawtooth star four times the goose height, so 2 x 4 inch geese make an 8 inch finished block. A 3 x 6 inch goose therefore makes a 12 inch finished star, and a 4 x 8 inch goose makes a 16 inch one.