I stumbled around yesterday trying to figure out how to assemble this quilt top panel – sewing some staggered diamond seams and some Y seams to get a small portion together (the point being to have as few Y seams as possible). I did three Y seams yesterday – today I can see how to put that grouping of diamonds together with just one!

I picked up today where I left off and began adding diamonds on the right side of the bottom, making mistakes with the orientation of the cube, and having to redo quite a few seams. The Y seam – turns out it isn’t terribly difficult – I’m managing to get a nice flat join; the challenge is seeing some kind of logical way to assemble these various elements.

I think I have finally figured it out:

I now have the bottom assembled. When I stood back and looked at the array on the floor, I decided I could put the side diamonds together into more or less a triangle shape; so I did that.

I then grouped the block elements for the top part of the panel which leaves the middle in two symmetrical 6-sided shapes (which are still side-by-side on the floor).

Here’s how I plan to proceed – start by putting together the centre diamond in the bottom half of the centre block (khaki/blue, blue/red); next the four “diamonds” laying on their sides; finally put those five pieces together and attach them to the bottom piece – that gets me the full bottom half of the panel completed. All I have to do is repeat the process for the top. The final assembly involves adding the two side pieces (which can be accomplished with a single Y seam, each).

Looks like my panel is going to measure ~ 45″ wide – not quite wide enough. I can extend it a wee bit if I add in another set of diamonds down each side. I already have 75 diamonds cut out (which I’m planning to incorporate into a second version of this quilt top); or I could put a 2 1/2″ – 3″ border around the finished, trimmed panel – the question is what would I use as “framing” fabric – no idea at this point. Any decisions about how to extend the width/length of the panel will have to wait until I have the panel assembled and just before I trim the sides.

Depending on how long the panel turns out to be – I may have to remove the triangles at the top/bottom edges replacing them with diamonds which would let me to extend the length as well. Again, that decision will have to wait until the panel is fully assembled.