Geese Redux

So.  The Otsego quilts that I started several years ago (when I had far more ambition than knowledge) had all these flying geese units.  I had never even heard of flying geese.  Anyway, I ended up having to get more fabric to make more geese.  Fortunately I was able to find the two fabrics I needed on line.  Now it's time to get them cut and use the geese as leaders/enders for other projects.

I had originally cut a bazillion triangles to make the geese.  Not only were they poorly cut, but I managed to distort them while sewing and again while pressing.  For these final units, I wanted them to be perfect, or at least much better.   These can go on top of the bed, the ugly ones can go against the wall, right?  I decided to use the 4-at-a time method.  That meant figuring out the sizes of the cut pieces.

I used ugly scraps from my stash to make the test units.  The first set were WAY too big!  I think I had mistaken the cut size for the finished size.

Well, yeah.  These are clearly too big, but there's plenty of room to get a nice 1/4" seam allowance on the top of the dark triangle.

Lovely!

 Now to trim the unit up.  The unfinished height should be 2-3/8" and the width 4-1/4".  Height good.

Width, not so much.  About 1/8" off, but the whole point is to make units that are correct.  I had made oversize units on purpose, but clearly this was not going to work.

OK, second try.  It seems that I had mistaken the finished size and the unfinished size of the pieces when I calculated the first units.  Time for a second go.

These worked out great!  And the only trimmings are the dog-ears and a couple of threads.

Plus, i got rid of some scraps that I was pretty sure I never would use.  I am now convinced that Bonnie Hunter's Scrap Users' System is the way to go.  Even if some pieces are just too ugly at whatever size, they are perfect for making test units and blocks.  I am so over the Civil War reproduction fabrics, but they did the job here just fine.  And they won't go to waste.  Doggie bin!

Bonus!  When the last geese were done, this was my bobbin.  Absolutely DONE.  Can you see the tiny piece of thread still hanging in there?  How often does that happen when you are trying to just get those last pieces through the machine?  

So now all set to quilt a baby quilt for someone who arrived when I was away from my machine and then move on to other projects.  Can't wait!