I'm on the big, bad scary center block of my quilt. It's the one with the Y seams and I can say I'm not enjoying it very much! For those of you who don't know, Y seams are exactly that. Three pieces of fabric that are joined together with the seam appearing to be a Y. The trick is to sew them together so the point of the center fabric (The upper Y) tucks nicely inside the two side seams. It is the center of the quilt, see photo below.
I have never done one of these and it is taking me forever to do just one. I'm not sure I did it correctly. Mine are getting there but I'm having to pull out seams, something I normally don't have to do. I'm confused on how to line everything up. The two sides have rounded points but the instructions (for this very quilt) demonstrate how to do this using squared off corners, not these rounded ones. This is not a good thing for me.
I have the exact center completed but this is the second layer of the center. Then there is a paper pieced border before you begin the hundreds of flying geese.
I saw an awesome tutorial on You Tube that sews towards the middle of the Y (rather than from the intersection out to the edges). You stop at the "DOT" and swivel the fabric to sew up the other arm of the Y. My fabric doesn't want to swivel. I have the presser foot raised and needle down. It puckers and then I have to rip it out and start over. I discovered another printed tutorial, link below, that I'll print out in color.
This is the one and only reason I've put off finishing this for so very long. You can look at my photo and see the templates I used which I sprayed with adhesive so I could cut them out. Is that keeping my fabric from swiveling easily?
I have four of the units completed but not squared off. This particular designer makes everything big and then sizes down so I'm waiting to see if they are the right size. I have four more to do. I'm going to watch a few hundred more tutorials and perhaps I'll "get it."
When this is all said and done, I'll need some very strong sedatives, preferably intravenously.
Y seam tutorial for your viewing pleasure
10 comments:
Great post Kathy! I can FEEL your pain. Literally. I swore off inside/Y seams a long time ago for the same reason. They drove me nuts. All the tutorials and live instruction in the world never did me any good. All the ladies I saw "get it" didn't fuss like I did. Their pieces didn't seem to me to look any better than mine pieced either. It was something they were doing afterwards. Laying in the last seam... My brain never could digest it.
On the bright side, your blocks look fabulous. You are becoming a GREAT quilter. I expect that you are tougher than me and WILL get it eventually. I look forward to seeing it done. It's really nice Kathy.
Yuck! That doesn't sound like any fun at all! Remind me to never do any Y seams!! Your blocks look beautiful so whatever you are doing is working! :)
I think we all know what you mean!! You have to have an eagle eye for seam allowance and keep 1/4 inch seams. Oh, but it definitely looks worthwhile as your quilt is beautiful!
It does look great!
That quilt block looks fabulous and I am in awe of people who can quilt !!!! I found your blog via a shout out over at the Common Sense Homesteading page on Facebook :) :) Your blog is delightful ;) :) I'm now a new follower to your blog. Love and hugs from the ocean shores of California, Heather :)
Better you then me. I would go crazy trying to match the seams. Goggle is going to end at the end of the mouth. We will lose all our follower It is being replaced with Linky Follower. Heidi has the Linky part on her My simple country living site. If you join it please let me know so I can follow you on Linky
I thought it was dropping the google connect, but it's the followers? That makes no sense unless they would automatically transfer it. Wow. I'll have to figure out how to do that. I see you need a button? I don't know how to make a button.
I hear you on the tranquilizers. =) No matter how often I do this, it is tricky, even after a y-seam class with Sharyn Craig. Some fabrics swivel better than others.
If everything works out when I sew it all together I will celebrate with some frozen margaritas! And chips, with salsa.
Dropping by from The Country Homemaker Hop! New Linky follower! Can I get a follow back please? Thanks!
Tammy
http://luckyemeraldsreviews.blogspot.com/
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