buescherbari

Am I chasing rainbows by trying to do a Lemoyne star that finishes at 2-1/2" by machine ?

I've tried assembling the diamonds first and insetting the triangles and squares...not really enough space to fold back and reach the inset corner marking.

Maybe it's best to try assembling it as four wings? Or resign myself to doing by hand?

Welcome all advice!

bearisgray

I have learned that some things actually easier to sew by hand than by ma hine.

Some blocks are also much easier to press when pieced by hand .

QuiltE

2-1/2" finished makes for odd sizes for each of the individual pieces.
Whereas 2-1/2" unfinished works better with our rulers.
Either ways, with such small pieces you don't have much wiggle room or forgiveness built in to your block whether doing by hand or machine.

When faced with such a challenge .... paper piecing is my go-to for perfection and minimal frustration.

Draw it out on graph paper, with diagonal seams across the square corner blocks
and you will soon have your mini Lemoyne done to perfection!!!

Everything is do-able if you really want to do it!
Good Luck!

Macybaby

I've done some of Carol Doak's 50 PP stars as 3"finished - and they are basically Lemoyne stars with lots more pieces. I found going smaller got too much, but if you are doing stars that are solid, it should not be that bad. Her method does not use any Y seams, and I'd go that route as they get difficult with really small pieces.

I did hand tack the points together - but some of them as as many as 16 pieces coming together. After that I limited it to 8 and that was not a problem.

I'd also suggest leaving the outside edge "long" until you've got it all sewn. Then trimming it to square. Makes it easier to work and you end up with a nice clean edge.

I love working with tiny pieces. I'm doing the Nearly Insane quilt now and there are some 6" blocks that have well over 100 pieces to them. Lots of 1/2" HST and 3/4x1" FG

Also, shorten up your stitch length significantly, and this will be way easier to do on a straight stitch machine with narrow feed dogs and a small needle hole.

Barb in Louisiana

I would paper piece the block by machine. I used the Lemoyne Star found in EQ7 and resized it to be a finished 2 1/2 inches.

WesternWilson

Even paper pieced, it is just increasing the difficulties of construction to make such a complex block in such a small size. If you are on for that challenge, go for it!

QuiltE

BarbInLouisiana ... That's exactly what I was meaning in my post earlier.
However, I don't have EQ to make these things happen easily.
Still resort to the old fashioned way of graph paper!

WesternWilson ... See BarbInLouisiana's PP pattern.
Makes it pretty darned easy and simple to do!

Barb in Louisiana

QuiltE Glad I could make it happen in EQ. There are times I can't make it happen in EQ (my limited knowledge) so I have to resort to graph paper.

I just thought about it and the block I used had split background colors that made the PP easy. If you go with a single background color then it is just individual pieces and likely should be hand sewed. If I wanted the solid color background, I would just go ahead and paper piece the block and just deal with the extra seams.

Macybaby

Here are the small blocks I made. I think the outer two finished at 4", and the middle one was the smallest I made. The others are between those two.

Barb in Louisiana

Cathy, those stars are beautiful and so well done. I love the miniatures.