Cutting Triangles for FPP Flying Geese

Cutting triangles for FPP Flying Geese is not totally necessary but will make your life easier and can waste less fabric.

Generally when I am working on an FPP project I tend to work from larger pieces of fabric and trim it down as I go OR I call upon my scraps stash to find a discarded piece just waiting to be used.

Things are a little different though when I am working on a project such as Flying Geese, where there are pieces that are more ‘regular’ in size. This is when I prefer to work with pre-prepped pieces of fabric that are ‘just about’ the right size.

By pre-prepping fabric in advance it saves me a lot of thinking and faffing and I can just get on with the sewing!

Flying Geese Units are made up of three triangles. The larger triangle in the middle is the Geese (or the flock of Flying Geese) and the two smaller triangles on either side are supposed to represent the Sky.

To make life as easy as possible when making FPP Flying Geese, you’ll want to be working with triangles…and the easiest way to make triangles, is to cut squares first!

Once you have a square, you can then cut it in half on the diagonal to make triangles.

The question is though….what size square do you need?

Below are some rough calculations that you can use to work out what size squares to cut, based on the size of Flying Geese unit you are making.

When using the FPP technique you are mostly working with a 1/4″ seam allowance (although with smaller, more complex piecing it’s often reduced to 1/8″). The squares that you will cut using the calculations below are a little larger than absolutely necessary in order to allow you a little bit of wiggle room.

If you can’t be bothered with the quilt maths then scroll down to see how you can get a cheat sheet that details the cutting requirements for 17 different sizes of Flying Geese units.

The below calculation makes 4 triangles at a time from one square of fabric for the Geese section of a Flying Geese unit being made using the FPP technique.

Cut the square in half on the diagonal and then in half again to make 4 triangles. These triangles are used for the Geese sections.

Depending on your design you may not need all four of these triangles.

Examples of when you will only use one triangle: 

• making one individual Flying Geese unit
• making a strip of Flying Geese units where each Geese section is a different print

Examples of when you will use more than one of the triangles:

• making more than one individual Flying Geese unit, where the Geese section is the same colour for each unit
• making a strip of Flying Geese and all of the Geese sections are the same print

Using the calculations above for cutting triangles for FPP Flying Geese is great if all of your flying geese sections are going to be the same colour. If you want all of your geese sections to be different colours then the above calculation is going to create a lot of wastage. If this is the case, check out the free cheat sheet below that has sizes of squares to cut that give you 2 triangles, instead of 4, from each square.

The below calculation makes 2 triangles at a time from one square of fabric for the Sky sections of a Flying Geese unit being made using the FPP technique.

Once the square has been cut in half on the diagonal, you will have two triangles for the Sky sections, one for either side of the Geese section.

A little note…these calculations allow for a 1/4″ seam allowance, plus a little extra to make the process as easy as possible. Who doesn’t love a little wriggle room?

The small amounts of excess fabric will be trimmed away either during construction or once the piecing is complete and the template is trimmed to size.

Save yourself from the quilt maths! There’s no need to work out or remember what size squares you need to cut out when cutting triangles for FPP flying geese. Sign up for the newsletter and get a copy of the FPP Flying Geese Cutting Chart for FREE!

You can buy FPP templates for either Strips of Flying Geese or for individual Flying Geese Units. These downloadable pdf patterns can be bought from the website and printed at home on standard printer paper or specialist FPP paper.