Pressing a LeMoyne Star
 

I have just completed mu very first LeMonye Star, and I realized I had a "mess" of seams on the back. I used traditional foundation paper piecing to construct the colored fabric petals. I added the white blocks by marking the 1/4" marks.

Please ignore the weird shapes of the white pieces in the photos below- this block is going to be joined with 2 more LeMoyne Stars to form one large block.

I understand that you are not supposed to press the seams with a steam iron so you don't distort the fabric. The pictures below show the results of dry pressing the seams themselves- #1 is pressing away from the exterior white pieces and #2 is pressing toward the exterior white pieces.

Can anyone please tell me which is the best way of pressing these stars? Is it OK to starch the "good" side of the star when the seam side is finished? I typically do applique, which doesn't need to have seams pressed so this is all new to me.

Thanks for taking a lot and any advice you can share!

i press to the dark whenever i can.

your block looks equally good either way.

Yes both look great. I starch & steam iron my seams flat as possible. There is also a third option of pressing all seams open. Sometimes I snip a bulky corner to make it sit better.

I haven't made this exact star, but when I have an 8-point star I try my hardest to spin the seam at the center. I would for example press everything in the center clockwise. That sometimes means I get a mix of directions for the other seams, some pressed towards the background and some away, within the individual Y-seamed components.

In this example, if each unit of diamond-diamond-square is spun counter clockwise, the final center seam will then match as all clockwise.

Yours looks good though, so if you are getting the precision and flatness you want then keep going!

Thank you much for your replies! When I see a tutorial or read an article on how to do something, it really helps to hear from other people who have actually done the same thing. It makes me realize there's not just one way to do things, and my project won't fall apart if I try something different. ;)