Hooray!

After some hard work, I have finished the blocks for my Barbara Brackman Civil War Quilt! Barbara hasn't finished giving instructions yet - there are 53 blocks in total, one for each week - but I've made enough for what I want to do.

The blocks were fun to do, although lots of them were quite challenging. She gives clear cutting instructions, but I would have liked 'finish at' measurements for some of the block components. It would definitely have helped my accuracy! It's lucky I'm a past master at fudging and easing, as I think the blocks have gone together well enough. I still struggle with 'Y' seams - yes I know how, pivot etc, but they still turn out puckered and pleated.

This poor cake stand block is a case in point - or no point, if you look at the base of the purple diamonds! So when it came to this star, I chickened out and paper pieced it. Much easier! (In fact, I wish I'd done the block in darker colours, but too bad.)The last block I did was this one, and I decided to give Y seams one more try. Practice makes perfect, and I was amazed that (with a little bit of attention with the iron!) this has turned out well. My method was to sew up to the V of the Y then take it off the machine. I pulled the next part of the seam together and manipulated it by hand to make all the fabric lie completely flat. Then back onto the machine and sew the other half of the V. It worked for me!

The dreaded Y seam

I have been doing some more work on stars. This time it was the eight pointed star, which includes some of the dreaded Y seams! I have always shied away from these before, because on the odd occasion that I did try one, it ended up a lumpy mess! This time I researched my subject carefully and tried several different methods. This is the one I found worked best for me.

First of all, when sewing you main shape, don't sew all the way to the end of the seam. Stop a quarter of an inch from the end and do a couple of back stitches. This allows the fabric to move a bit and not be caught in the sewing.

Most methods suggest you mark the corner of both shapes at the quarter inch intersection. I went one better than this, and marked the seam line up to the corner in both directions on the wrong side of the fabric - easy to see exactly where you are sewing and where the intersection is.

Then you lay the piece to be sewn on top of the star, right sides together with the edges parallel, and the intersection firmly in line with the seam line. You can poke a pin throught the intersection to check it's directly on the seam line if you like. Put a pin in to secure it while you sew.

Sew along the seam line up to the intersection and stop with your needle down.

This is the only tricky bit. Swivel the pieces round, so the next two edges are ready to sew. Try to straighten both pieces of fabric, especially at the Y bit, so they lie flat (or at least flattish!). Then continue sewing right to the end of the shape.

It should look something like this when it's finished.Now press and hey presto, a flat Y seam!

OK, it would have been better if I hadn't lost one of my points, but a bit of fudging will solve that. At least my Y seams are tuck and lump free!