Go Girl! start as you mean to go on.
It looks pretty good, even for a first ever try. Leaving it for a 'bench rest' while you work on some others will probably be a good move, and when you come back to it you will see how to fix it back to square.

Rosemary

Heather, you have started with a difficult block that would probably not be recommended for a beginning quilter, but you've stuck with it and got it all together!
Good for you! I think it's smart to set it aside now and work on some easier blocks for a while.

Looking forward to watching your progress!

Well, I finished it......

I used Dawn's method (connect 2 sides of the frame, connect those to the center square, repeat with the other 2 sides, connect the remaining 2 seams), which seemed to make the most sense to me. Everything was straight as I went, but in the end one side went very crooked.

For now, I'm leaving it. I did a lot of taking apart and re-sewing while working on it, to get the points lined up as good as I did (which still isn't perfect) and I'm just done with this block for now.

Since it's for a diary quilt (25 six-inch blocks, each one different) and this is the hardest block in the quilt, I'm just going to set it aside and re-visit it once I'm farther in on the project. I'll work in chronological order and when I reach the point where this block actually fits (it's something like block 18 or so....) I'll pull it out again and try to fix it/start over with it.

But, here's the picture anyway, since you were all so helpful along the way. Luckily, all my other blocks are just squares and triangles that sew up into squares/rectangles. Nice, straight edges and no more Y seams. So, the rest should be easy!



Thanks again for the help!
-Heather, hand-piecing quilting newbie

And even tho she is a beginner, she has done Y seams so I'm sure your helps will work! Thanks for standing in the gap for me today.

Sorry, no help from me this time. Dawn and Margo have given you enough information and Alex's video was good too. I don't hand piece or do Y seams. Not because I can't, I just choose not to. I do lots of miters though and they are almost like Y seams. Like Margo says, one seam at a time, and stop sewing 1/4" from the edge and you will have it pieced in no time.

Margo always is such a help! She's always able to give us great pictures.

This is just to clarify what I wrote before, if you chose to do it this way. I probably didn't expliain it well, but let's try this: Call the sides #1, #2, #3, and #4. Sew #1 to #2, ending seam 1/4 from the end of fabric that will attach to the center corner, backtack then sew that unit to two sides of the center square, one side at a time, beginning and stopping 1/4" after/before each of the corners of the square, back tack at start and ending. Sew #3 to #4, then sew to the square, same as above. Sew last two seams to complete block.

Your "unsewn bits" as you called them, are the means of turning your unit from sewing in one direction to sew in another, usually around a corner. Kind of like "clipping" a seam to curve it around a corner. Think of this unsewn portion of the seam as the "clip."

Dawn
In beatiful Northwest Montana

Heather, I would make four units like I've sketched. I would attach two units to opposite sides to the center square, then set in the remaining two units.
You might want to watch Alex's video about piecing a Lemoyne star block for an idea of how to handle those "Y" seams for the last two units, but for some reason it is not available right now. I'll check with Capt'n John and get back to you.


In the meantime, if you are piecing by hand, I assume that what you have already assembled is stitched right on the drawn lines and your stitches do not extend into the seam allowances. That's exactly what needs to be done.

If you have already stitched the pairs of fans together, you can either unsew some of them, or go ahead and sew them all together and set in the center square in the middle of the doughnut! It's really not as hard as it sounds like you think it may be!!

One seam at a time! You can do this!

Scoopie wrote:
Thanks, Dawn. I think I understand a Y seam (you explained it well!) but just to clarify -- I'd sew all 4 frame pieces together (to make the frame) then insert the center square and attach it to the frame (1 side at a time, and at that point attaching/sewing the unsewn bits of the Y seam from the other pieces??)?

I think that makes sense to make sure the frame is squared up, even though it sounds hard

Will wait, patiently, for others to chime in and clarify before I start. Thanks for the heads-up that Friday is a slow day

Heather, you may have to be a bit patient today, as Fridays are usually slow Forum days! I guess most of us are doing a catch up stuff, before the week end arrives. I have a couple of ways I might do this block, but may not be able to explain it well, and am not sure you know what a Y seam is. I would do what you said in the first paragraph, but the 3rd and 4th would also be sewn together before sewing it to the square. (Y seam at the corner of the square.) And then I'd sew the 2 remain sides together, with a Y seam at the square. (A Y seam is a seam that you do not sew the last 1/4" {and back tack it} of each of 3 seams that come to that junction. I'd like to see how Margo and Annis would do it, though!

Dawn
In beautiful Northwest Montana

Okay, folks, another question! My friend Joyce isn't home to answer me and I'm impatient, LOL!

I re-cut the pieces per the instructions that Joyce sent me (thanks to Annis' help on the EQ7). Got the fans all sewed together, the border wedges sewn on. Everything is straight! Hooray!!

Now I'm stuck --- how do I attach them to each other and then the center block????

I mean, in what order???

Do I attach two fan pieces (make 2 sides of the frame) to one another? Then attach the center block (the inside of the frame) to both of those frame pieces?? Then attach a 3rd fan, first to the fan, then the center block?? Then the 4th, in the same manner/??

Do I attach all 4 to the center block first and then sew the diagonals that attach each fan piece to the other???

Do I (please say no) attach all 4 fan pieces/frame pieces to each other and then somehow attach the center block to the center????

Help, please, so I get the seams and all right the first time and don't have to undo all this lovely sewing or start from fresh again. Thanks a million!!!

Annis: You are amazing! Your problem solving and directions are first rate!!!

ajclapp wrote:
Oh my goodness, you are amazing!!! Thank you!!! HOORAY!![/quote]

It's the EQ program that is amazing! Thanks to whoever developed it and to all the instruction writers. If you get some of the extra instruction books such as Pieced Drawing you can do some amazing things with it.

Also on the drawing I did the sections are identical in size. It's just an optical illusion that they look different, possibly because that center square cuts off a corner. Cutting the units in pairs is a great idea. And reducing with seam allowances is always a problem. Usually the seam allowance is marked on the template so you can see that it has been reduced. I didn't see any seam allowance markings on the original drawing so assumed they weren't included.

Welcome to thequiltshow, Heather! Be sure to post your finished block.[/quote]

THANK YOU for clearing this up!!!! So, that is likely part of the original problem I had as well. What craziness!!!

Okay, will definitely come and post a picture whenever I get this cut and sewn. Plans to do so while my youngest napped were a bit of a fail, as I fell asleep before he woke! oops!!! So, tending the house, then will cut (finally! have been saying that all day...) and sew and maybe tonight or tomorrow have this block finished. We'll see.....I'm slow-going doing it by hand and between life and all.

[/quote]

Oh my goodness, you are amazing!!! Thank you!!! HOORAY!![/quote]

It's the EQ program that is amazing! Thanks to whoever developed it and to all the instruction writers. If you get some of the extra instruction books such as Pieced Drawing you can do some amazing things with it.

Also on the drawing I did the sections are identical in size. It's just an optical illusion that they look different, possibly because that center square cuts off a corner. Cutting the units in pairs is a great idea. And reducing with seam allowances is always a problem. Usually the seam allowance is marked on the template so you can see that it has been reduced. I didn't see any seam allowance markings on the original drawing so assumed they weren't included.

Welcome to thequiltshow, Heather! Be sure to post your finished block.

Glad to have you join us Heather!