Y-Seams: Basket Case Block 5

{You can find detailed instructions on how to make templates, mark your fabric, cut, and sew accurate seams as part of Basket Case Block 1.}

The diamonds of this basket block are a great place to play a little with your fabrics and with color. I chose two striped fabrics to create a subtle chevron effect and if you used green fabric for the outer diamonds and a bright color for the inner ones you would have a nice flower. I am sure you can come up with many more versions, so have fun with it!

While our first four blocks all had straight seams, this one includes the much maligned Y-seams. It’s true, they are difficult to sew with a machine, but by hand they are really no problem. So, here we go:

Instructions:

1. Make your templates, mark and cut your fabric. You can download the block template pdf here.

2. Sew the four diamond pieces together. If you add triangles e and square a, you can see why they are called Y-seams. Sewing these background pieces to the diamonds requires a seam that makes an angular turn. The trick is to treat them as 2 straight seams.

3. Let’s begin by sewing square e to the diamonds. For the first leg of the Y-seam pin your square to the side of one diamond. Sew you seam as usual. Just make sure, when you reach the center where all the diamonds meet, that you do not catch any of those seam allowances. That’s already the whole secret to well behaved Y-seams!

4. Now line up the next side of the square a with the second diamond. Sew like the first leg of the Y-seam.

5. Sewing in triangles with a Y-seam works the same way.

Once you have sewn all your Y-seams, add triangle c to the bottom. You should now have a 4.5″ x 4.5″ square block.

6. Add a strip b to the square block segment.

Sew together the two triangles c to make a 2.5″ x 2.5″ square. Sew this square to the second strip b. Sew this segment to the basket segment. Beautiful!