Stars & Geese Table Runner

I have something really cool to share with you tonight!  I got a new Creative Grids ruler to play with - the Creative Grids Ultimate Flying Geese Template and Quilt Ruler.  Sometimes making those geese can be so intimidating because of the stress of thinking about making perfect points, misshapen triangles, measuring and cutting odd sizes, snowballing corners, too much fabric waste, or deciding which technique to use.  Quilting friends, this new ruler can change all of that.  Please read on...

I have several quilt top projects already in progress, so I didn't want to start something big.  I thought I would see what I could do with a charm pack and some background fabric.  I planned to make some saw tooth stars rather than plain old geese.  Have you noticed that the points on a saw tooth star block are just flying geese units?  I followed the cutting chart in the packaging (and also conveniently printed right on the ruler itself) to discover that I could make 4 geese units with one charm square with the charm fabrics being the star points  The finished size would be 1" x 2".  I used the Fast Flying Geese method in the instructions.

This isn't a full blown tutorial, and I am missing some steps here and forgot to take pictures of the whole process.  I've done this method before, and it seems strange, maybe even like a little magic trick, but you just have to trust that it's going to work.  And those little heart shapes can make you smile while you press.

You can see the units here being trimmed with the ruler.  I really love that "Trim #1" and "Trim #2" are marked on the ruler so you cannot goof up on the trimming.  Line up the template markings with the seam lines and trim for perfectly shaped and sized flying geese units.

I did a little math, cut out the other pieces needed for the star block, and made my first stars in no time.  These are 4" finished blocks!

Aunt Brenda also needed some flying geese units for a quilt she is working on, and she tried the ruler, too.  She needed 3" x 6" finished units.  Hers also went together perfectly.  These shapes are very versatile and used in many different block patterns.  There is the Dutchman's puzzle!  Aunt Brenda gave this ruler 2 thumbs up, by the way.

That particular sewing day Mom's handsome cat Sammy was hanging around with us.  He likes fabric charm squares, too.  And this is isn't his first appearance on the Internet :-)

I took my 4 little stars home and made 8 more.  After some careful thought about how I could make a table runner and sketching out some different ideas, I made some 1-1/2" x 3" plain old geese with charm squares (this time the charm fabric as the middle goose triangle piece).  Background fabric sashing pieces were added, and for the outside border I had just enough charm squares left that could be cut in half and used for that.

If you look closely you can see that the points on those geese are so nice and pointy!  I am not a beginner at this, but I really didn't have to try very hard to get that to happen.  

The size of this table runner right now is 18-1/2" x 45-1/2".  It still needs to be quilted, but I LOVE the way it turned out.  I love it so much that I made a second one out of a different fabric line with bright, modern prints.  But this blog post has been going on long enough now, so I'm saving the modern version for next week.  Please come back to check it out!!!

I'm linking up over at Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Up Friday.  Happy quilting!