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.



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!  



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.



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.



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!



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