Flying Geese and the Jiggle in My Middle
Good morning and happy Tuesday.
Have any of you even made flying geese, and they kind of, well... flew sideways? I know I sure have. Of course, that was before AccuQuilt. So, what makes a Geese go goofy?
Let's start by considering what a flying geese is made of. It is made of both the half square triangle shape and the quarter square triangle shape. It matters which goes where - and why.
A half square triangle, shown in pink below, is a square cut in half. Two sides are the same length but the third side (the hypotonus) is longer. If you have the straight of grain as the base of the square, that means the hypotonus will be a bias edge.
A quarter square triangle, shown in green below, is a square cut in half, and then cut in half again. Two sides are the same length but the third side (the hypotonus) is longer. While that sentence is the exact same sentence as the sentence in the paragraph above, the difference is that now the hypotonus will be the ONLY non-bias edge.
To sum up: HST has one bias edge. QST has two bias edges.
When ever you sew a quilt block, you want the outside edge to be the most stable with all the bias inside. Additionally, you typically want to sew "bias to bias". As you can see in the third example, if I sew the green quarter square triangle to the two flowered half square triangles, I would sew the green bias edges to the single bias edge on each of the flowered pieces. This keeps "all the jiggle in the middle", and all the stability on the outside of the block.
This is the same in real life. Tee hee. I have a lot more jiggle around my middle now than when I was younger. But, I keep some stability on the outside of that jiggle (thanks to spandex and denim) so that I am able to keep my shape better than if there were no stability there holding it in.
Anyway, back to the Geese. When I use AccuQuilt, if I put the fabric on my die correctly (length of grain on my belly), then I don't have to think about the bias. AccuQuilt dies have taken into consideration which way the bias goes. So, if I use a QST die - I get 2 bias edges. If I use a HST die, I get one bias edge.
Happy sewing!
Have any of you even made flying geese, and they kind of, well... flew sideways? I know I sure have. Of course, that was before AccuQuilt. So, what makes a Geese go goofy?
Let's start by considering what a flying geese is made of. It is made of both the half square triangle shape and the quarter square triangle shape. It matters which goes where - and why.
A half square triangle, shown in pink below, is a square cut in half. Two sides are the same length but the third side (the hypotonus) is longer. If you have the straight of grain as the base of the square, that means the hypotonus will be a bias edge.
A quarter square triangle, shown in green below, is a square cut in half, and then cut in half again. Two sides are the same length but the third side (the hypotonus) is longer. While that sentence is the exact same sentence as the sentence in the paragraph above, the difference is that now the hypotonus will be the ONLY non-bias edge.
To sum up: HST has one bias edge. QST has two bias edges.
When ever you sew a quilt block, you want the outside edge to be the most stable with all the bias inside. Additionally, you typically want to sew "bias to bias". As you can see in the third example, if I sew the green quarter square triangle to the two flowered half square triangles, I would sew the green bias edges to the single bias edge on each of the flowered pieces. This keeps "all the jiggle in the middle", and all the stability on the outside of the block.
This is the same in real life. Tee hee. I have a lot more jiggle around my middle now than when I was younger. But, I keep some stability on the outside of that jiggle (thanks to spandex and denim) so that I am able to keep my shape better than if there were no stability there holding it in.
Anyway, back to the Geese. When I use AccuQuilt, if I put the fabric on my die correctly (length of grain on my belly), then I don't have to think about the bias. AccuQuilt dies have taken into consideration which way the bias goes. So, if I use a QST die - I get 2 bias edges. If I use a HST die, I get one bias edge.
Happy sewing!
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