Keep 'Em Flying!

Keep 'Em Flying! was a slogan in World War II.  Average citizens were helping the war effort in all sorts of ways, including buying war bonds to fund airplanes, ships, and materiel.  No, I'm not old enough to actually remember this history (but my mother is!)

I was thinking of this slogan when I was making my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks this week.  I'm not doing anything as serious as fighting the Nazis, of course.  But I still want to keep 'em flying.

Flying geese, that is.

Here are my Fly Away Home red blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge in July.
I am making lots and lots of flying geese for the RSC this year, and I thought I'd share how I do it.

First, I'm sort of curmudgeonly.  I don't like drawing lines on fabric.  Okay, I CAN'T STAND drawing lines.  I will only do it grudgingly, if I have to.  So I need a method that doesn't involve drawing those @#$% lines.

Also, I'm a fabric miser.  I hate methods that waste fabric.  And I find that I don't use those "bonus" units if they're too small.  It's a lot of work to press and trim them, if you're making lots of geese.  And it's hard to plan what size these bonus units will be. 

Some methods make more than one flying geese unit at a time.  That's great, if you need identical units, but I often don't.  So then I've got another unit to put somewhere.

Another pet peeve is needing two different sizes of strips/squares to make the flying geese units.  I've already got enough odd-sized scraps. 

So, with all those personal idiosyncrasies to deal with, I've ended up with this method.

I use two rulers, the Easy Angle and the Companion Angle.  I've had them for years, and even wore the markings off of one and had to replace it.  
First, I cut the two smaller triangles from the background strip with the Easy Angle.

Next, I cut the "goose" triangle (AKA quarter square triangle) from the print strip with the Companion Angle.

Did you notice the placement of the ruler?  I move it in from the end of the strip.  Then when I've cut the "goose" triangle, I also have another half-square triangle cut.

After I cut the goose triangle, I use the Easy Angle to make the end of the strip square again.  This gives me another half square triangle to use in a different project.  Sometimes I plan and cut both projects at once.   These half square triangles are very useful, and I know just what size they are because of the size of the strip (in this case, 2.5 in. unfinished).

All that's left to do is sew!  First one side:

 Then, press gently, and add the second white triangle on the other side.

Ta-da!  Flying geese unit!

We are so lucky to live now, when there are so many new methods and such great ways of communicating.  There are really no wrong ways to make flying geese, or any other units.  We all get to choose what works for us.

When I'm not making blocks, I'm enjoying the summer with Little Buddy and his big brother Big Buddy.

Here's Little Buddy, just in from the garden.  His face and shirt are covered with raspberries, and he's holding cherry tomatoes.  How's this for red?

These three jokers were playing on the living room floor.  Bella keeps giving them doggie kisses.  Yuck!

Life is, after all, a bowl of cherries.  I will be very sad when cherry season is over.

Til next week, Keep 'Em Flying!

Linking up with So Scrappy
and Oh Scrap.