How to Use the Creative Grids Ultimate Flying Geese Tool Two

Published July 2026

Learn how to use the Creative Grids Ultimate Flying Geese Tool Two with Jen at Shabby Fabrics! This video is for quilters looking to make precise flying geese units, especially for odd-sized blocks like the Sawtooth, with minimal waste and maximum accuracy.

In this video, you'll learn:

• How to read and understand the markings on the Ultimate Flying Geese Tool Two
• Step-by-step instructions for cutting and sewing flying geese units using the tool
• The essential trimming technique to achieve perfectly sized flying geese blocks

Introduction

The original Ultimate Flying Geese Tool has been a favorite around our sewing rooms for years, and it covers eight finished sizes, from a tiny .5" x 1" for miniatures all the way up to a beefy 4" x 8".

When the second version arrived, the sizes looked strange at first glance. Then the reason clicks into place: these odd sizes are what let you build a sawtooth block in sizes that were previously a math problem.

A free PDF download covers the sawtooth block. It gives you the cut sizes for every fabric in the block, including the center and the corners, in sizes from 9" up to 17". The instructions packed with the tool only cover making the flying geese units themselves, since they can't know what you plan to build with them.

Think about what a 9" finished sawtooth opens up. It measures 9.5" before it's sewn in, and a layer cake square is 10". Square that layer cake piece down to 9.5" and you can alternate sawtooth blocks with beautiful whole squares of fabric across a whole quilt!

What You'll Need

• Creative Grids Ultimate Flying Geese Tool Two
• The free sawtooth block PDF download
• Creative Grids seam guide. The 9" reaches corner to corner on a 9" block, though a longer one is worth having for the bigger sizes.
• Rotary cutter with a sharp blade
• Spinning mat
• Patchwork pins
• Iron at full heat, and a clapper for the stubborn seams
• Creative Grids Perfect 5 and 3.5" square rulers, optional, for cutting the block centers and corners

Everything you need to read is printed on the tool itself. If the paper insert goes missing, you haven't lost anything. Creative Grids also keeps all their instructions available to download from the Creative Grids USA website, which is generous of them.

Reading the Tool

Turn the tool so the Creative Grids logo is right side up. The sizes run down the upper left, starting at .75" x 1.5" and finishing at 4.25" x 8.5".

These are finished sizes, meaning the measurement after the unit is sewn into your project on all four sides.

The block in this tutorial uses letter D, which finishes at 2.25" x 4.5". Add a .25" seam allowance on all four sides and the unfinished unit measures 2.75" x 5". You don't need that number to use the tool, but it's useful to understand what you're looking at.

Here's the clue that ties the sizes to the block. Double the long side of your finished unit and you have your block size. Letter D finishes at 4.5", and 4.5 doubled is 9, which gives the 9" sawtooth. The 5.5" produces an 11" block, the 6.5" gives 13", the 7.5" gives 15", and so on up.

Finding your cut sizes

Run across the row for your letter and then look straight up at the column headings.

For letter D, you'll find 6" with cut one above it, and 3.5" with cut four above it.

The large square becomes the goose. The four small ones become the sky. That one large square is the big triangle, the delta running through the middle of the unit. Crossing those two up is the most common way people end up with a reversed block, so it's worth a second look before you cut.

Making Four Units at Once

Step 1: Draw your lines

On the back of all four small squares, mark the diagonal. The instructions in the box have you draw a single line corner to corner and then sew a quarter inch away on each side, which works perfectly well.

Our preference is a Creative Grids seam guide, which draws both sewing lines for you so you stitch on a line rather than tracking beside one.

Those slits in the seam guide are for visibility. You don't draw in them. They let you catch a glimpse of the fabric underneath so you can confirm the guide is sitting exactly where it should before you mark.

Step 2: Position and pin

Lay your large square right side up and place two small squares right sides together in opposite corners. Check that your drawn lines run continuously from corner to corner, then pin well.

Step 3: Trim the overlap

Your two small squares overlap slightly in the middle. Reach underneath and trim that overlap away, taking care not to catch the piece behind it.

This step isn't in the instructions. It's simply something we've learned along the way. That extra layer of bulk in the middle does nothing for you, and the block lies noticeably flatter without it.

Step 4: Sew, cut, and press

1. Sew along your drawn lines.
2. Lay a straight edge corner to corner and cut between the two seams.
3. Warm the seam and press away from the larger piece.

Step 5: Add the remaining two squares

You've used the large square and two of the four small ones. Set a third square into the corner of each piece, lining it up so the drawn lines run straight up into the valley. Pin, sew, cut, and press away again.

That gives you four flying geese units, deliberately oversized.

Trimming With the Tool

This is the tool's most important job. Measuring your cuts was only the first part.

One side of the tool has a trim one function, and rotated around, a trim two. Always start with trim one.

1. Find your letter on trim one. Working in letter D, run along to D.
2. Scoot the tool up so the dashed lines for your letter settle into the V of your unit. When it seats correctly, the right side and the top are exposed, and the left and bottom sit under the acrylic.
3. Press down to activate the grip, and trim the two exposed sides.
4. Rotate the mat and come back for trim two. With two sides already cut, you'll have the V plus lines on the left and underneath confirming the position.
5. Trim the remaining two sides.

Turn the mat rather than the block. A spinning mat lets you trim all four sides without lifting the unit, which keeps your accuracy intact because you're never reacclimating to a block you've picked up. It also keeps you from reaching across yourself to cut, which is never a comfortable way to hold a rotary cutter.

There's very little waste, and every unit comes out right.

Building the Sawtooth Block

With your geese trimmed, the rest of the block falls into place. The 9" version calls for a 5" center square and 3.5" corner squares, both listed in the free download.

The Creative Grids Perfect 5" makes short work of the centers. Stack four layers of fabric, lay the ruler on top, then cut and rotate your way around. The same approach works for the 3.5" corners, though those are straightforward enough to cut without a dedicated tool.

1. Lay out your center, four flying geese units, and four corner squares.
2. Sew the rows with .25" seams, pressing toward the middle on the center row and toward the outside on the top and bottom rows.
3. Join the three rows.

A clapper settles the stubborn seams. Some of these joins would rather fold back on themselves than lie open, particularly where several points meet. Warming the seam and letting a clapper hold it flat while it cools makes a real difference, especially when you're making block after block.

Everything fits. Not hoping it will fit. It fits!

Which Tool Is Right for You

The original and the second tool cover different sets of sizes, so your project decides. Look at your pattern, find the finished size of the flying geese units it calls for, and that tells you which one you need.

This also works in reverse. Take any pattern that builds flying geese the traditional way, with a rectangle and squares stitched and flipped, and you can adapt it to whichever tool matches that finished size.

Deb Heatherly is the mind behind so many Creative Grids tools, and this one opens up sawtooth blocks in sizes that simply weren't convenient before. Odd sizes turn out to be exactly the point!