Tiffany

Yep, I'm a firm believer in pinning the heck out of my blocks. I'm always amazed at those people who almost never pin and yet still have amazing looking blocks. I don't know how they do it but that's definitely not a talent I have.

ReRe

When you pin blocks though do you sew over the pins or do you remove them before sewing that section? And if you put in a lot of pins doesn't removing them slow things down?

omak

you don't want to sew over the pins, but they do keep things lined up until you get to the point.
Yes, removing pins does slow things down, but when you are doing stars made with bias edges, you need to go slow in order to avoid stretching things out of kilter ... the bias edge is very touchy.
I have a book "big one-star quilts by magic" by Nancy Johnson-srebro ... her recommendation appears to be that the longer the run of matching points, the more necessary the pinning.
I personally never use pins, but ... that may be the result of picking patterns that don't have that bias thing going on.
I am wondering (I would really like to see some pictures of the problems you are running into) ... if the problem might not lie in the way the bias edges are being sewn ...
Takes a very light hand to handle them ...
The best tip is to sew with the intersection on top so you can see where to sew through the "x" ... the next tip would be to use pins <g> <wave>

omak

I never stopped to question ... which kind of star are you making? Like a Lone Star or an Ohio Star ... sorry about that ... <wave>

ReRe

I make a simple 8 point star ... called among other things the Lemoyne Star. I'd like to make the Lone Star but that is way beyond me at this point. I use 1/2 square triangles to make it.

Up North

Is the block you are making called Sara's Star? That is what I used for these two quilts they were my 1st and 2nd quilts. I got luck and my points came out even tho I redesigned the pattern.

omak

Another technique you might consider is to press the seams open as opposed to ironing them to one side.

Tiffany

I do my best to pull my pins before sewing over them. There's nothing worse then having the machine needle snap because it hits a pin and I've heard horror stories of how it has messed up the machine. My machine is too expensive for me to want to damage it. Besides, if it needs to be repaired that means I'd have to go without it for awhile and I'm way too busy for that! :lol: And since the cost of those darn pins keeps going up, I find I don't want them to get bent when the needle hits them. It does slow me down when sewing but I'm a stickler with myself for accuracy so I sew pretty slowly anyway.

bebe

check out this thread :-D :-D :-D

look at my hint it has worked for me!!!!


http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-33682-1.htm

ReRe

Believe it or not but the J foot for my Brother SE350 on the right side of it sews a scant 1/4 inch ... who can believe my luck. I'd never measured it before and just did a few moments ago and and it was perfect. I did it 3 different times just to make sure and it did it every time. I even adjusted the needle over 1 click and it sewed a perfect 1/4 inch so I am good to go. All I need to do is to remember to use that seam for the whole thing.

Thanks to everyone who has offered advice.