Truly Perfect Flying Geese - Tips & Tricks from the Tucker Team 

Great tips and tricks Deb. Here's my evangelical message on Deb's tools: "Deb Tucker makes many rulers to help quilter's accelerate their learning curve and achieve frustration-free, perfect results." I recently converted a HST pattern which used HST's to make Flying Geese. Why make 2 HST units when 1 accurate FG unit will do? I made160 perfect flying geese using this tool. I have a couple of hacks I'll share while in that heavy production mode. I glue baste my small squares to the large squares and do so en masse. I mark a diagonal on the large square and serpentine a bead of glue inside the seam allowance. Place my squares (with the nudge!). Heat set the squares. They are secure! (You could simply do this step and stop and have much benefit). Stack them up in a pile and..... .... slice it down the diagonal. Then sew a perfect 1/4" where the clean cut edge (and securely fastened sky blocks) runs right against your quarter inch gated foot or seam guide. It is much faster --for me--sewing against my seam guide than sewing on either side of the line. I do the same for adding the second square to the two halves for the second pass. The glue adheres the squares securely and stabilizes the bias. Careful pressing and trimming with Wing Clipper tool assure that every unit is perfect. If you have to sew flying geese units together at the base, (to form a square v. nose to tail) consider pressing one sky toward goose and the other sky away to get a perfect nesting corner. I saw that tip from Carolyn Gibbs Quilts. It made a really big difference in my finished block.

My first quilting instructor had us use sandpaper in a folder! Great tips! Thanks Deb….

I have owned wing clipper for a long time but when making someone else's pattern I will usually try their method. I am working on a sew-a-long a weekly block. This week's block has flying geese. I made one strip of 7 flying geese using their method. Turned out okay considering I haven't made many flying geese. But I knew they could be better and decided today was the day to learn how to use my wing clipper. I am so pleased they turned out perfect! I was not surprised as any of Deb Tucker's rulers that I have taken the time to learn how to use I have loved the results. This one surprised me only because I was trying to make dark background with light geese, turned out the opposite with with light background and dark geese. Note to self the large square makes the geese had to laugh at myself. Thank you Deb for another fabulous ruler. Bet I make lots more flying geese.

My favorite tool!

Love my Wing clippers Deb!!

Excellent tips!!

Excellent tips. Thank you.

I can watch you all day thank you for sharing your wonderful Tips 🇦🇺😍

Funnily enough I was watching your migrating geese tutorial this morning! Thank you - I like the ironing tip - very useful as sometimes I've had the banana sides! xx

These are great tips! I think they are going to help me a whole lot. Thanks for sharing!

Love watching your tips. Thank you ❤

Deb, your tips on marking on superb! Thank you.

Awesome! Thanks for sharing.❤

Thanks, great tips.

Oh my, I love all these tips! The sand paper though made me go “Why didn’t I think of that?!” 😜 Thank you for these tips, can’t wait to try them out and help me improve my flying geese.

I just bought this ruler, good demo, thanks for the tips

that was a lot of information thanks so much.

Your so good you always give us great tips.

Oh Deb! Thank you so much for this tutorial. I have learned so many good tips that I’m sure will truly improve my precision when making Flying Geese! I can’t wait to try it! And I must say, I LOVE your Wing Clipper rulers!

Thanks! I just ordered the Wing Clipper and the Tucker Trimmer.

I use Deb's Wing Clipper and now use these tips too. Works beautifully! Thanks for these extra tips especially sewing just inside the two lines of "railroad tracks." That one is awesome! Love this tool and Deb's extra tips! Thank you.

I just tried my new Wing Clipper tool. Fabulous, wonderful, too easy, super simple! Thank you Deb Tucker. Highly recommend these tools.

Thank you very much for these tips.

Thank you

Your tips are fantastic. I’m a general sewer who dips into quilting occasionally but your tips are good for all sorts of sewing. Love the sand paper tip. You have given me a bit more confidence to have a go at a more complicated quilt than plain squares.

Will definitely be adding the sand paper trick to my diagonal seam marking. My fabric always moves and stretches when marking. Thank you!

You just saved my sanity 💗💗 the wing clipper is great but these tips oh yaaaa!!!

Love your tools & videos. I’m just learning the Tuckerizing methodology. Getting better, but not quite ‘there’. You nailed one of my problems here- getting that stitch line in the exact best spot. I love that you sew with the quarter inch seam instead of the vague scant quarter. But would you please consider making a scant magic wand? I keep trying to sew just inside those railroad tracks, but I’m not good at it.

Thanks!

Just heard about you and your flying geese methods. This is something that has been frustrating me for quite some time.T hanks so much for this instructional video and your tools. I'll be checking out more of your videos and your ruler

Thanks for all the great tips. What is the nudge?

"just inside the nudge" would make a great t-shirt -- cup -- just to jog the memory...just inside the nudge!

Thanks for the video. You touched on many things, except Thread. The thread is very crucial to successful flying geese. Also, your ironing, you pressed in the wrong direction.

I discovered another reason why my units are too wide to be trimmed properly: when I place the second small square, sometimes the stitching line is not at an exact right angle. I find by taking any square (or 90 degree) ruler and positioning the smaller square so the lines are at a right angle, I don’t have the problems with “spread eagle” flying geese units. However, if you do have that problem it can be fixed! Unsew one side of the wonky unit and trim off the the piece that is too wide (using any right angle ruler. Line up the stitching line and trim the excess fabric off so you have a right angle. Then carefully resew the smaller triangle back on the unit. That should result in a perfectly straight flying geese unit that can be trimmed to the precise size. Unfortunately, I can’t post pictures to give you a visual. I hope my directions are somewhat clear so folks can figure it out.

I don't quite understand the nudge when putting 2 smaller squares in opposite corners of the larger square.

What do you mean by the nudge??

What is the size ratio of the big square to small square in this method?

How do I do flying geese on a curve, to edge around a mariners compass?

What is the difference between wing clipper and wing clipper 2

Hello! I am new to quilting and am wondering how to Tuckerize the element that you didn't demonstrate! It has a square with small QSTs, and in the pattern I am working on, larger HSTs are then added to make a FG unit. Anyone??

I find that I do need to be more careful when pressing! I remember the nudge technique but invariably my diagonal lines do not line up when trimming. I have recommended the wing clipper tool at my quilt group and I will say that after having the gals watch me trimming, they have purchased the tool. Shame on those knock-off manufacturers!

What is difference between wing clipper & I & II. Three separate rulers with slightly larger or smaller. Why three???

What’s a nudge?