Friday, February 10, 2012

It's about the process some days

I am participating in a round robin with four other quilters.  They are all extremely talented quilters.  They pay attention to things like points and seam allowances.  I try, but sometimes I fall a bit short.  This time, I am really working to be disciplined so none of them will be sorry I joined and they will want to work with me again.  My first center came from Jackie at Canton Village Quiltworks.  You can see it here.  After looking at it on my design wall for a while, I made some decisions and have started my addition.

First, I measured the center, and decided how wide the base of these triangles needed to be.  I decided how tall I wanted them to be, added a 1/4" seam allowance all around, and cut out the pieces I needed.

Since I have been playing with triangles lately, with varying degrees of success, I decided to mark the points in the corners where the seam allowances met.

I carefully pinned these points together, and sewed my strips.  This really worked well.  I got nice straight lines, and the strips are nice and even.  I am very happy with these results.
Amazingly enough, my measurements were correct and the strips were just the right length.  Then I got stumped.

These next few photos are without the strips sewn to the center. This is what the corners look like now.  Here is my dilemma.  I know how to achieve this:

But what I want to achieve is this:

I know how to build this corner piece, I just don't know how to sew it on.  It is a Y seam of sorts, but totally outside my comfort zone.  I will figure it out tomorrow, I am sure, but for now, I will just look at it for a while.  If you have any words of wisdom, I would be so grateful if you would share them.
What wonderful projects are you working on that have challenges to them?
Until tomorrow, joyful quilting, everyone.

2 comments:

Venus de Hilo said...

Wow, Miki, you picked some wonderful fabrics to add to this piece! Eager to see how it works out.

I'm not an expert at Y-seams, but have muddled through a few of them. Starting and stopping the seam exactly at that 1/4" mark is the key, along with patience. Why not pull some scraps for a practice piece or two first?

Unknown said...

So I am finally getting around to reading how you went about the block and love the process. Love the fabrics that you chose too! This is going to be great! Thank you!!