At Studio 180 we love to teach quilters how to have fun and enjoy their hobby. And it seems as if there is always more to learn! We offer a number of different ways to learn about our tools, our patterns, and other techniques to make quilting fun and relaxing.
When the pandemic hit many of us took to our sewing rooms and took on new challenges. Deb knew that people wanted to continue learning, so she decided to make twice monthly videos called Tips & Tricks from the Tucker Team. From her beautiful sewing studio, Deb turned on her camera and filmed some amazing tutorials, from learning how to spin seams to Tuckerizing using the tools. There are now over 50 videos! Best of all, they are free and available on our YouTube channel.
Today, let’s talk about a fundamental unit that we see all the time in quilting, but can be hard to get right; flying geese. There are so many ways to make this unit, but our favorite is making them four at a time oversized, and them trimming them down with the Wing Clipper.
Our original charts for this tool gives you just a tiny bit of fabric to trim off by nudging the smaller squares about 1/8” in from the edge of the larger square.
That little bit of precision can be hard to manage. Sometimes it doesn’t leave quite enough to trim off. Back in May Deb filmed a couple of Tips & Tricks videos on this method. The first one talks about how to Tuckerize and what to look for in a pattern with flying geese.
The follow up video done two weeks later introduces a method called No Nudge Flying Geese. By adding ¼” to the starting squares you not only don’t have to nudge your smaller squares in from the edge, you also get a little more fabric to trim off on the final unit.
This method is especially great for beginners, making them successful from the start.
We’ve added a chart to the Free Downloads section of our website with these new numbers for both the Wing Clipper I and the Wing Clipper II. Take a look at these two videos and see just how successful you can be making flying geese. You will have perfect points every time!
Be sure to check out some of the other Tips & Tricks videos for more great information from Deb and the Studio 180 team.
