Isn't it past your bedtime, Rita? I just cut the diamonds for my block and decided to stop for the evening--too much chance for mistakes, blood, sweat and tears... will start up in the morning, but I am so glad that you were able to tame the star!

Very true Nancy. It's the blood, sweat and tears we leave in those blocks. I just made a second one without a hitch.

Love it, Rita! Glad you hung in there! Isn't it funny how much more we love the result when there was some trouble in getting it right? I mean, if I somehow make a complicated block and don't have problems and it turns out great, I'll love the finished block. But if I have trouble and pull out my hair and hate the block at some points during the construction, and it ends up coming out good, then I'll really, really love the block. I think we leave a piece of ourselves in the blocks we struggle over.

Nancy

That is really nice, Rita. Glad you hung in there!

Wow what a difference that 1/8 inch made. It looks beautiful and neat.

Thanks everybody, it does feel like it was such a struggle - but I am smiling again.

Awesome!! You persevered and won!! It looks wonderful!!

Beautiful LeMoyne Star !!!!! Don't think they will ever be that hard again ! You whipped it !

Good for you Rita! It's a good lesson to learn, that ANY pattern should be tested before you cut out the whole quilt!!

Reetzbobeetz wrote: Impressed with your tenacity, Rita! It looks great!

Thanks for all the advice ladies. I finally did it. The background squares were too small. Increasing them by 1/8" did the trick. I am so glad I did not cut out a pile of these.

I decided that for myself, this is a study in color, not in how to sew the star. After two hours of NOT getting Inklingo's patterns to print (jammed my printer 5 times), gave up on that, and another two hours on learning what Reversed means I finally ironed a couple of freezer paper sheets together and made a relatively accurate template based on Christine's blocks. At first I used Steam-a-Seam and then realized that's a waste of money, so just glued the 2nd set to the paper. I submitted my picture in the classroom. I actually like how those ugly colors played together Whew!

I agree with the others that the squares may be a little small. If the seams on the star points are small also that would throw everything off. After sewing the squares there should only be 1/4" of background past the star point. If there's more than that the triangles may not be lined up correctly. For this block it seems everything has to be just right to work.

Also if you look at Step 5 Diagram C you will see that the tip of the sewn star point ends at the edge of the background triangle.