Y Seams (Inset Seams) 101

Y Seams

In my early quilting years, I was determined to make a Grandmothers Flower Garden quilt. Not those tiny little hexagons that my great-grandmother had pieced with 1" sides*. Mine was going to be much easier, because I was going to do it on the sewing machine. Also, I was going to make the hexies larger with a 2.5" side. So, I cut out my hexies, had a pretty yellow path between the flowers and started sewing away. I made about 30 'flowers', then decided it was time to assemble them into the quilt top.

I did not know any of the tips that I'm going to share with you. I lined up the raw edges and sewed from one end of the cut edge to the other. I did use pins, and when I came to an intersection, I put my needle down and pivoted the fabric and kept on sewing and finished the top. It was awful. Hardly any of the intersections lay flat! WHAT??? (I never did get that quilt top quilted, and I think I donated it to some charity group for them to deal with!!)

*Hexagons/Hexies are measured by the length of one side.

Easy Disappearing Nine Patch Tutorial

Easy Disappearing 9-Patch Quilt Pattern

Disappearing Nine Patch quilts are designed by arranging and sewing together nine squares to create a traditional nine patch quilt block. But, instead of leaving the block as-is it is sliced (or chopped) into four equal sections to create the disappearing design.

I originally used this block with a block exchange with my quilt bee several years ago. We ALL used a French Navy Blue sold fabric for the 'sashing' blocks, and used brightly colored batiks for the 'color block' and 'cornerstones'.