Flying Geese

About this block

This unit is built from one large center triangle flanked by two smaller triangles, forming a rectangle roughly twice as wide as it is tall, echoing the shape of geese flying in a V formation. It's one of the oldest known American quilting designs, with a surviving example dating to around 1800, though the name itself wasn't documented in print until the Ladies Art Company catalog of 1898, which listed a related quilt design as "Stars and Cubes" rather than under the Flying Geese name directly. Rather than a standalone block, it functions as a foundational unit that shows up inside many larger designs, including Sawtooth Star, Dutchman's Puzzle, and Wild Goose Chase. Oral tradition also ties this pattern to the Underground Railroad quilt code.