Vintage Six Point Star (60 degree diamond) block/Help!
 

Alright, I've really done it this time. I'm in a pickle and I need some help to finish a quilt I've invested a lot of time and money into.

I saw this beautiful quilt on pinterest, and knew it was the perfect vintage look for my next project, and best yet, it looked pretty easy. http://countrycrossroadsquilters.com...um-287x383.jpg

From the research I've done online, this sort of quilt has several names, most commonly a six point star using 60 degree diamonds. Am I right or am I right? Ha. I immediately set to work cutting up my diamonds in teals and browns and whites. This weekend I wanted to start making my squares. I knew my quilt wasn't going to look exactly like the one in the picture, so I planned on a 12x12 block with my stars surrounded by white.

Frankly, the machine six point star tutorials I've found online (only two) have sucked major, and I spent 6 hours trying to make ONE block. I am not a patient person, so this was very, very frustrating for me. I started following one tutorial, which in my opinion had a lot of waste on it in regards to the white background against the stars, so after fiddling with it for awhile, I gave up on it and just started messing around with it on my own.


Big mistake. I decided to just sew the star first. And man was I excited when that was done. Everything lined up perfectly! This is a huge victory for me, because I suck at seams!

But then my new problem was/is, how do I connect my white space to my now completed star? Is there an easy way to do this without a huge amount of waste in fabric? I'm hoping this makes sense. Sorry for rambling. Let me know if I need to clarify anything, I need assistance!!

you'll see in the first picture how many white diamonds the tutorial I was using suggested I use. Thats a LOT for something that's just eventually going to be squared up, don't you think??

I can't help you, but I surely hope Jan from VA looks at this, I know she will have the answer for you! It is a pretty star, good luck!

There are 2 basic ways to do this block.

One is to do it like in your picture and do Y-seams.

The other is to divide the center of each star's top and bottom into 2 pieces and then strip sew. Therefore you would sew one lying on its side triangle to 1/2+ of an triangle on end to then another triangle on its side ... and continue. Will try to put a picture of it when I get my scanner up again.

I would do set-in seams. Vintage quilts were often pieced by hand, and it's easy to piece that kind of seam by hand. However, you can also do it by machine. The key is to stop sewing exactly at the seam line (and backtack) instead of going all the way to the edge of the fabric. (This is on that inner corner.)

Here are tutorials that might help:
http://www.freshlemonsquilts.com/?p=1373
http://www.quiltuniversity.com/y_seams.htm

It would seem to me that you don't square up the block, but turn one of the white blocks on the top section on its side and sew it in with Y seams. It then becomes an edge of the next block.

If you look again at the quilt you want to copy, you will see that there are no square blocks, so no waste by cutting down the diamonds. You have the diamonds in your example placed the wrong way and are using too many of them. Remove the ones at the 4 corners, take out one at top and bottom and place the remaining two the other way, and you will have a block. I would also do the set-in seams. They're not that hard when you practice a bit, and they do look nicer IMHO than having a seam running through the patch.

You need to assemble it like a Tumbling Blocks quilt with set in Y seams. You may have more luck viewing tutes for "traditional" tumbling blocks assembly. Irish rose is correct the white area around your star is "shared" background for the adjacent star. When you do the edges of your quilt you have to make partial diamonds or cut down.

Thlis quilt is next on my list, (after I finish the hexagon diamond quilt I'm working on now) but I plan to do EPP. I know I would not do well at all machine piecing those stars. Even hand piecing (not EPP) would be more accurate I would think. Others here have offered good advise. Good luck.

I agree with Dunster, I would leave them as hexagons and put them together that way. I am doing something similar but I am han piecing mine
http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...s-t180591.html

Yes! THANK YOU! The example picture I used with all the white diamonds (18 of them. FREAKING 18!) was from the tutorial I was following online that I ended up getting extremely mad at and abandoning. I KNEW there was a way to piece this quilt without wasting so many freaking white diamonds.

Frankly, if I can get the design to look exactly like the picture, that would be ideal. Am I going to be better off piecing these white diamonds into hexagons by hand? I know that they "tumble" into another block, so I guess I'm just having a hard time wrapping my head around how this is supposed to come together, unless I do it literally one star at a time...?

I don't really want to sew a diamond into each nook of my star to complete the block, do I? That's going to change the overall look of the quilt and have more white space than I was hoping for. I realize that I'm going to have some waste at the bottom of the quilt by making half stars, which I'm fine with, but for someone who's never done a "tumbling" quilt or block before, I'm not sure how to piece this together. Should I just do all of my stars first, then lay them out how I want them, and start piecing them together with my white space and my Y seams?

Here's a small diagram I did in EQ for you. You do not want to make separate stars and then sew them together. The key to the design is that each star shares its white spaces with the stars around it. Can you see the tumbling blocks in the design? I would approach this as tumbling blocks and mark it off in groups of three. Create each tumbling block in the right colors and then sew them together to form the stars. I'd start with a blank grid and color them with colored pencils and take my cues from there.

Sound reasonable?

Elf, if you look at that quilt on Pinerest, you will see that the white diamonds actually 'touch' two blocks. They snuggle together. So, you will not be adding more white background, they will be sharing that white and the next piece will be the color of the star next to it. Y seams are not the easiest to start with for sure, but not impossible. It would help if you had someone to show you how face to face. Hard to describe on paper/text!

This site has the layout, but she is hand piecing hers...but you can see how the white diamonds snuggle in...

http://darlingadventures.com/?p=394

I looked for about 15 mins, but could not find a tutorial on this pattern done by machine.

I felt like I was looking at one of those magic eye puzzles. I couldn't see the tumble blocks...and the, after like 10 minutes, they popped out! That finally makes sense. Thank you so much everyone, I think I have a plan now! I'll check in with some progress later this week!

Your colors are lovely and once you get the hang, the finished quilt will be smashing.

That is a lamoyne star and you can do it without any y seams. Check out debbie kratovil the naked quilter ( not really _ and she calls her a texas star. It is real easy to cut a piece. Each point of the star has two different sized triangles that are sewn to the lower end of the point then pieced together.

i am working on a version of this called "kentucky star. The stars are set together with hexagons. so you make all your stars, using the y-seam method, then you cut out large white ( in your case) hexagons and set those in with y-seams.

Bumping this thread, since I need to start thinking about how to put all of this together. Here's the quilt I need to re-create.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]491012[/ATTACH]

This has been my favorite quilt for 15 years. I didn't make it, it came from The Company Store. It's threadbare in places and I can't put it on my bed anymore. I decided to use the fabric from the Twilight quilt kit and copy the 6 point diamond star, and for a couple of weeks I've been puzzling over how to best assemble it.

That's a slightly different pattern than the original picture you attached. You don't want white diamonds. You want ot make all your 6 pointed stars, and join them with white hexagons I would make all the stars, lay it out, and carefully join them using the hexagons. One step at a time, and not in "blocks" - simple start in one section of the quilt and it will grown out from them with each hexagon & star you add.

Sorry, but I avoid anything with 60 degrees angles because you have to piece it perfectly. Almost looks like the 3D cube which I would then do English paper piecing to get the accuracy you want. There are new techniques that make this paper piecing go really fast.

Find Kaye Woods tute- quilting with friends- she does a good job of explaining Y seam construction. Sorry don't have the exact addy, but just search it

Since it's been... oh, you know, three years since I last posted in this thread, I thought I would give you an update.

Y seams are not nearly as hard as I thought they would be, so thank you all for the suggestions on tutorials. You can see from my attached picture, that I am FINALLY making progress on this quilt. I'm actually finding that bringing 5 points together to be the most challenging, but I'm dealing with that by hand sewing those points so I don't lose my tips. Can't wait to show you all when the top is done!

You need to do "set in" seams. You need to stop stitch a 1/4" in from the end seams on the stars. The is probably a u-tube video on show to do this technical seam.

Glad to hear you are now making good progress. yes, Y seams can be difficult but they are attainable.

Thank you so much for asking for help on this block. I found about 30 stars in my mother's stuff after she passed. This has been a UFO year and I decided to tackle the "quilt" she was maybe working on. I did not know she was making this. The fabric she used is some I remember as a little girl. It will be a scrappy quilt and your question with all the helpful replies is a godsend. Thank you, thank you, and thanks to everyone who responded to rainforest_elf.