Flying geese cut size, three ways

30 September 2026 · Sashing guides

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Finished, unfinished, and why geese are 2:1

A goose is a 2:1 rectangle: the big centre triangle is the goose, the two triangles either side of it are the sky. A single number like “6″ flying geese” is usually the finished width, so the unit finishes 6 × 3″ — that is how Sashing names its Flying Geese block, offered at 4″ and 6″, meaning 4 × 2″ and 6 × 3″ finished. Charts that print both dimensions leave less to guess at.

Two numbers get confused constantly. Finished is what shows once the unit is sewn into a block, 6 × 3″. Unfinished is what the sewn unit measures on its own, finished + ½″, so 6½ × 3½″ — that is the number to check with a ruler. Every cut size below has the ¼″ seams in it already. Where a chart and a pattern disagree, look at the method before the arithmetic: different methods give different cut sizes and both can be right.

Stitch and flip: one goose at a time

Cut one rectangle the finished size plus ½″ in both directions, and two squares the finished height plus ½″. Draw a diagonal on each square, lay it right side down over one end of the rectangle, sew on the line, trim the two layers behind it and press the corner out; repeat at the other end.

For a 3 × 6″ goose: one 3½ × 6½″ rectangle and two 3½″ squares. Scrapish and Simple Simon and Company both publish exactly those numbers for that size (charts read 29 September 2026), and it is the method Sashing's own cutting chart uses. It makes exact counts — one goose, no leftovers — and wastes two small triangles per goose, which is the trade.

No-waste flying geese: four at a time

Cut one goose square the finished width plus 1¼″, and four sky squares the finished height plus ⅞″. Those five squares make four identical geese. Mark a diagonal on each small square, sew two of them onto opposite corners of the big square, cut apart, then add the last two the same way and cut again.

For a 3 × 6″ goose that is one 7¼″ square and four 3⅞″ squares. Generations Quilt Patterns' no-waste chart and Scrapish agree on those figures, and Sew Can She cuts a 12″ Dutchman's Puzzle from two 7¼″ squares and eight 3⅞″ squares on the same rule (all read 29 September 2026).

Note the roles swap. In stitch and flip the rectangle is the goose fabric; here the big square is the goose and the small ones are the sky. And four geese need only four sky squares this way instead of eight, which is where the fabric saving comes from.

Flying geese cut size chart

The middle column is one goose; the right-hand column is four. Sewn correctly, each unit should measure the finished size plus ½″ before it goes anywhere.

Which method should you use?

Count how many identical geese you need of one fabric pairing, then ask whether that number divides by four: one goose needs a whole set and leaves three behind, while four star points use a set exactly.

In patch area the four-at-a-time set wins clearly. Four geese at 3 × 6″ by stitch and flip means four 3½ × 6½″ rectangles, 91 sq in of goose fabric, and eight 3½″ squares, 98 sq in of sky: 189 sq in altogether. The set is one 7¼″ square (52⁹⁄₁₆ sq in) and four 3⅞″ squares (60¹⁄₁₆ sq in), 112⅝ sq in — roughly 40% less.

Patch area is not yardage, though. Put both through the rules Sashing plans with — 40″ of usable width, pieces cut from strips across it, the total rounded up to the next ⅛ yd with ¼ yd as the smallest amount — and four geese come to ¼ yd of each fabric either way. The minimum purchase swallows the saving whole.

It shows up at quilt scale. Twenty 12″ Sawtooth Stars need 80 geese finishing 3 × 6″. Run each cut list through those same strip rules by hand and stitch and flip wants 14 strips 3½″ deep for the 80 rectangles (six per strip, 49″) and 15 strips for the 160 sky squares (52½″): 1⅜ yd + 1½ yd = 2⅞ yd. Four at a time wants 4 strips for the 20 goose squares (29″) and 8 strips for the 80 sky squares (31″): ⅞ yd + ⅞ yd = 1¾ yd. That is 1⅛ yd saved, counting the geese alone — in the app those strips are pooled with the rest of each fabric's pieces before the rounding, so a real quilt's gap is smaller.

Accuracy pulls the other way. Stitch and flip gives one unit at a time and nothing to trim, so a corner is right or it isn't. Four at a time gives four units off one set of seams, and a seam that wanders puts all four out together — which is why the oversized variants below exist.

Where the published charts disagree

The traditional four-at-a-time rule — width + 1¼″ and height + ⅞″ — is what Generations Quilt Patterns, Scrapish and Sew Can She all publish. The name oversells it slightly — nothing is left over only when every seam lands exactly right.

So some designers cut the same five squares larger and trim the finished geese down. Sashing's cutting rules record that variant as width + 1½″ and height + 1⅛″, and 3rd Story Workshop's Sawtooth Star cuts precisely that — a 5½″ square and four 3⅛″ squares for 2 × 4″ geese (read 29 September 2026). Other oversized charts add different amounts again. Any of them works; mixing two inside one block does not, so pick a chart and stay on it.

It is the same problem as the ⅞″ added to a half-square triangle, where the exact figure is 0.854″ and no ruler has a line for it — half-square triangle cut size works that one through.

Flying geese inside Sashing's blocks

Four of Sashing's 34 blocks are built from geese: Flying Geese at 4″ and 6″, Flying Geese Column at 12″, Dutchman's Puzzle at 8, 10 and 12″, and Sawtooth Star at 6, 8 and 12″. In the Sawtooth Star the roles invert — the goose is the background and the sky is the star fabric, so the two small triangles are the points you see. 3rd Story Workshop cuts it the same way round.

A 12″ Dutchman's Puzzle comes out as four 3½ × 6½″ rectangles of the outer geese, four more of the inner pinwheel, and sixteen 3½″ background squares. A 12″ Sawtooth Star is eight 3½″ squares of star fabric, one 6½″ centre, and four 3½″ plus four 3½ × 6½″ background pieces. How to read a quilt cutting chart explains the notation those lines are printed in, and a throw worked fabric by fabric shows the totals adding up.

Sashing's chart is stitch and flip throughout, one goose at a time, with no setting that switches it. To batch them instead, take a rectangle off the chart, subtract ½″ for the finished size and read the right-hand column above — they are the same geese either way. What changes a quilt's size far more than the method is the sashing between the blocks.