Stitched in Color

View Original

facing down the Y-Seam

I think I'd sewn a y-seam maybe once or twice before.  Mostly I'd avoided them.  In fact, when making quilt designs, I'd look for ways to add seams to eliminate y-seam needs.  You usually can.  It means more cutting and more piecing, but those tasks are reassuringly familiar.  It's not necessarily slower, I'd tell myself.

facing down Y-seams

We're always afraid of the unknown.  Even when we deny it.  Even when we truly, honestly don't think we are.  Until we face it and do it, there is a seed of fear there, always.  It is funny that that is so even in something so soft and harmless.   With sewing!  

facing down Y-seams

This weekend I mustered my army of True Blues and sorted them into piles:  light, medium, dark.  I calculated how to cut triangles for an ambitious sharp and twirly design inspired by this graphic.

facing down Y-seams

Each 8" finished block is made of a triangle half-block, which is itself made up of 3 triangles and 2 diamonds.  Rather than adding more seams and utilizing small half-square triangles, I decided it would be more lovely to use the whole, original shapes.  This requires just one y-seam per half-block.

My first two blocks came out annoyingly small.  So, I reworked my cutting plans to cut appropriate pieces oversized so that the finished work can be trimmed to a precise 8.5" unfinished.  Aha!  Such satisfaction in that last step.

facing down Y-seams

By my third block I might have been crowing a bit over the delicious tidiness and flatness of my y-seams.  It can be done!

facing down Y-seams

Yes, it can be done.  And, in fact, I can teach you!  I'll be making this quilt design into a stand alone pattern with all the y-seam steps meticulously photographed and explained.  Because I really enjoy, truly enjoy, helping others face down their fears. 

Mostly the sewing-related ones.

xo,

Rachel