Medallion Along: May/Round 4

Flying Geese with Paper Pieced Cornerstones

Robert Kaufman sponsored guild quilt made with Carolyn Friedlander Botanics fabrics

Instead of a Block of the Month this year, we are doing a Medallion Along! Join us each month as we introduce a new round. We will introduce new rounds through September and hope that gives people time to finish their quilts by December's meeting, where we will have a mini exhibition of them. The completed quilts should finish around 60 inches square.

The May round consists of 36 Flying Geese with Paper Pieced Cornerstones. By piecing the flying geese using the 4 at a time method, it goes quite quickly!

Before you start, your Medallion should measure 36.5 inches square.


1.) Make 36 flying geese that measure 4.5 inches x 2.5 inches. A variety of methods are outlined below, please use what works best for you.

• 4 at a Time Method

If using 1, 3, or 9 different fabrics, using the 4 at a time method will work well for you. I like this tutorial found at Connecting Threads (scroll down almost halfway for the 4 at a time method). However, I prefer to make mine a little bit oversized (measurements below) and trim them down on 3 sides. I only straighten the point side, this helps prevent losing your geese points in the seam on the next round, something I find a problem with sometimes. If you want to make them oversized and trim down, follow these measurements:

Cut (9) 5 3/4 inch squares in your "geese" fabric
Cut (36) 3 3/8 inch squares in your background fabric

You want finished 4.5 inch x 2.5 inch flying geese. Using the above measurements and the 4 at a time method you will trim off a decent amount, but will have lovely accurate points when the next round is stitched on;

So this is how I trim them down to ensure that my points will not later get lost:

On the point side, only take off the barest sliver to get the edge straight.

On the opposite side, trim off a bigger piece so that it now measures 2.5 inches wide.

Then you can just trim the other sides evenly down to 4.5 inches.

• 1 at a Time Method

If you prefer a scrappier quilt with 36 different fabrics for the geese you can just use the 1 at a time method found here.

•  Paper Pieced Method

You could also paper piece all of your geese.
 Download the flying geese paper pieced pattern here. Click on the down arrow near the top left to download.  You will need 12 copies total (not 11). Thanks to Cath Hall of Wombat Quilts for designing the patterns.

Don't know how to paper piece? There are lots of tutorials online. Here's a video from the blog Ellison Lane that is pretty clear. Plus, here are some paper-piecing tips and tricks from Cath.

2.) Make (4) 2.5 inch square cornerstones. Download the paper piecing template for the cornerstones here.

3.) Stitch 9 geese together, side to side, using 1/4 inch seams. Do this 4 times.

4.) For two of these strips, attach corner stones to each end.

5.) Your starting medallion should measure 36.5 inches square. Attach the strips without cornerstones to opposite sides of your medallion. Iron your seams whichever way seems to reduce bulk the best for you. I attached my strips so that the flying geese are flying "out" away from the center, but you could point them "in" towards the center if you like.

6.) Attach your strips with cornerstones to the other sides, again ironing seams in whichever way reduces bulk best for you.

7. Your medallion should now measure 40.5 inches square.

 

Mary Ann's Medallion

Customize Your Medallion Further!

• Use a different technique to make your flying geese, such as the provided Paper Piecing pattern

• Add a solid rectangle or square in between each goose (so you can make less geese!)

• Make plain cornerstones or a cornerstone pattern of your choice

Kelly's Medallion