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4 tips for adding flying geese blocks to a border with the Brother NQ900

by Christine Baker

Yesterday on QUILTsocial we made 24 flying geese units using the no waste method. Today I’m using my Brother NQ900 sewing machine to sew these units together to start making the borders for my quilt.

A strip of pink floral batik fabric lays on the extension table of a white and blue Brother NQ900 sewing machine.

The Brother NQ900

TIP 1 Alternate the blocks.

Since I have three different colors of flying geese blocks (red, green and black) I’m alternating them on my four borders. First, I’m sewing together four sets of black and red blocks so the points of the blocks are oriented in the same direction.

Two sets of red, black and yellow flying geese blocks lay on the extension table of a blue and white sewing machine; Brother NQ900

Sew one black flying geese block to one red flying geese block.

TIP 2 Press the seams in the right direction.

Now I need to press the seam between the two blocks with my Oliso Pro Smart Iron. I find it easier to press this seam towards the block on the top (the red block in my picture). This way the bulk of the seam from where the points meet is pressed toward the side that doesn’t have any bulky seams.

A yellow Oliso Pro iron is shown pressing the seam between a red flying geese block and a black flying geese block. The background is a white, teal, blue and gray geometric ironing board cover.

Press the seam away from the point of the flying geese block.

Next, I’m sewing a green block beside the black block and then another red block. All my borders will have the blocks in the same order – red, black, green, red, black, green, and so on.

A row of four flying geese blocks in red, black green and yellow lay on the extension table of a blue and white sewing machine. A rack of thread is in the background; Brother NQ900

Sew four flying geese blocks together.

Here, I’ll keep adding blocks onto each of the four borders until I have two borders that are 5 blocks long and 2 borders that are 7 blocks long. Even though I’m putting the three different colored blocks in the same order, I’m starting each row with a different color so that my borders will each look a little different.

Two rows of five flying geese blocks in red, black green and yellow lay on a dark blue cutting mat; OLFA Double Sided Cutting Mat (navy blue)

Two borders with 5 blocks each

As you can see, no two borders are the same!

Two rows of seven flying geese blocks in red, black green and yellow lay on a dark blue cutting mat; OLFA Double Sided Cutting Mat (navy blue)

Two borders with 7 blocks each

TIP 3 Measure blocks before cutting other fabrics.

I’m making these 4 borders long enough to fit the quilt by adding my yellow word fabric to the ends. Before you cut your border fabric, measure your flying geese borders with your ruler to make sure they are the width that you think they are – mine are 6½” wide.

A hand is shown holding a quilting ruler on top of a black and yellow flying geese block. The ruler shows that the block is 6½" wide; Omnigrid ruler - 6" x 24", OLFA Double Sided Cutting Mat (navy blue)

Measure the width of the flying geese blocks.

With your rotary cutter and using a cutting mat, cut four strips of your border fabric the width of your flying geese border (mine are 6½”) across the width of fabric (WOF), and then cut one square from two of these strips (again, mine are 6½” squares). Set aside the remainder of these two strips.

One long yellow strip of fabric, one yellow square of fabric and one shorter strip of yellow fabric lay on a dark blue cutting mat; OLFA Double Sided Cutting Mat (navy blue)

Cut one 6½” square from two of the WOF strips.

TIP 4 Make sure the blocks are pointing in the right direction.

Sew one fabric square to the bottom end of each of your shorter pieced borders. The bottom end of the flying geese strip is the end that doesn’t have the point.

Two rows of five flying geese blocks in red, black, green and yellow lay on a dark blue cutting mat. One end of each of the borders has a yellow square of fabric sewn to it. A third border and scraps of fabric can be seen in the background; OLFA Double Sided Cutting Mat (navy blue)

Sew the fabric square to the bottom of each of the shorter flying geese borders.

Sew one of the short strips of border fabric that you set aside earlier to the opposite end of one of your short borders (the end with the point). Repeat with the second short border.

One flying geese border made of yellow border fabric and black, red and green flying geese lays on a blue cutting mat. A seam ripper, rotary cutting ruler, pin cushion and bolt of yellow fabric are also visible; Omnigrid ruler - 6" x 24", OLFA Rotary Cutter, OLFA Double Sided Cutting Mat (navy blue)

Sew the short border fabric strip to the opposite end of this pieced border.

You now have two borders with a square of border fabric at one end of the 5 flying geese and a longer strip of border fabric at the other end of the flying geese blocks. These are your top and bottom borders.

To make the side borders for the quilt, sew one of the remaining border strips to the top (pointed end) of each of the remaining flying geese block borders.

Tomorrow, I’ll show you how I use my Brother NQ900 sewing machine to make those flying geese blocks appear to float on the outer border of my quilt. See you then.

This is part 3 of 5 in this series

Go back to part 2: 12 easy steps to making no waste flying geese – Pick a size

Go to part 4: 4 steps to adding a floating block border to your quilt top [easy tutorial]

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