I've read many posts from people who have such a hard time making a Y seam. Most of us, including me can not make the joins come out where they need to be without pinning. I took a tip from a clothing manufacturer where I used to work at and made "drill" holes. I'm not talking about something huge, so please don't gasp in fright!

When I start a tumbling block or something similar, I stack the pieces, 20 or so high. I mark the top one on all of the intersecting corners. Using the biggest machine needle I have, I walk it unthreaded into that intersection or matching point, wiggle it just a bit, then roll the needle out. Now, I have my diamonds ready to align up. I can pin if I choose, or at least have stopping points to eye-ball it.

PM me if you need more information. Seriously, if you can't get it right using another method, you are going to have several holes to deal with anyhow.

Really interesting...I can remember when I first started some years ago, I was a really newbie and I wanted to make this quilt and it called for Y seams...had no idea what the heck that was, did a search and saw a video and proceeded to make the quilt with no clue. I didn't seem to have any problems...However I haven't made a quilt requiring Y seams since...so will bookmark this for sure...thanks for offering tips on how to ease the mind to Y seams. :thumbup:

What a great tip. Thanks for sharing.

You are welcome! This also saves on pinning time and marking each piece. ;-)

Great idea!

Thanks for the tip. Haven't even attempted y seams yet.

I have put a quilt top aside for almost a year because I couldn't figure out an accurate way to make a Y-seam. Thanks to your tip, I will take a new, more hopeful look at it!

I tried to edit for clarification, but my time limit had expired. When I wrote to "walk" it unthreaded, I should have been more specific and said to "hand-roll" the one stitch.
(Thanks Holice)

Sorry I didn't have pictures last night. So a photographer I'm not. I rushed to cut a small stack of these diamonds, so they are not stacked as nicely as they could have been.

For this marking to show up for the camera I used a ball-point pen. Normally I would use a #2 pencil.

Good tip, thank you. I've always just marked with a pencil, I will certainly try the needle mark. Thanks!