charmednmissouri

I am just stumped as to what to do. I have been working on the Craftsy BOM for 2017 called the Blazing star. Its a beautiful quilt. I have everything done, ready to put the units together.
But they don't seem to be fitting together. This quilt contains a lone star and I know these are hard. But in putting the units together, the star doesn't want to fit together. I am having to make setting triangles larger than the pattern has stated as they do not fit. i have tried to follow this one to the letter. But then I hit y-seams. I really don't have much experience, but her method doesn't work, nor does the video from Kaye Woods on Youtube.
Should I just say the heck with it and take what I have made and try my own design? It is such a beautiful quilt and it seems like I am admitting this had gotten the best of me and I am not as experienced of a quilter than I thought I was. I taught myself to quilt about 8 years ago, but I admit there are a couple of things I haven't tried to tackle and y-seams is one. But it isn't just the y-seams. My diamond units all seem to be the same size, but when I add setting triangles, that doesn't work either. I am just so confused/depressed over this. I have been able to make any quilt I have tried to make. Does this happen to others? Is there a quilt that you just can't seem to do correctly? Do I give up and just try to make something improve with those blocks or rip it out and try it again? I am fairly certain I did all of my stirp sets correctly. But what if this is my problem? I have used most of my fabric on those things!
Just some honest advice...if if were you, what would you do next?
Thanks in advance!
Jacquie Fanning aka CharmednMissouri

illinois

Have you looked online to see all the Blazing Star patterns?! Goodness!! It might be that the one who made the pattern you have realized errors and has posted corrections. There are several youtube presentations online that might be of help to you.

bearisgray

Are you able to post pictures?

If the center is laying flat, I would cut setting squares and triangles to the size needed and ignore what the pattern says.

The center may have tuned out slightly smaller or larger for many reasons.

tallchick

Are you following along with the Craftsy Videos? Lone Stars can be challenging! The only update/correction I see is for February class woth a update in March of 2018. Can you post pics of what you are encountering? There are tons of talented quilters who might be able to give you some feedback, help and suggestions. I think at so me point in our journies as quiltes we have all been there done that!

charmednmissouri

I am following the class videos. Have looked thru the class notes and discussion listed. I do not see others having mentioned the trouble I am having. I have done a google search for this quilt, not finding any discussions about it.
Now for pictures. The first picture is the result with the triangle sized as the pattern calls for. It is just too small. The second photo is the result when it is flipped in place as the pattern mentions. You can see it is obviously too small.
So I made another triangle, large to make sure it reaches, thinking I could trim it down.
So I laid out the the 2 pieces of the block together and thought "ok, this will work" Until I measured the block with the 2 pieces together, unsewn but allowing for a seam allowance to join them and it is supposed to be 17.7" but measures out to 21+.
I am truly to the point I might throw the whole thing into my orphan block box and later just cut it up/design another block. I have never encountered a point where I am ready to throw up my hands on a quilt, but today seems to be the day!
The last will be of my y-seam gone wrong. But I admit, this is not a strong point for me, I have maybe sewn a couple of them in my lifetime, so I will admit, on that, I am a newbie. But I did try to watch as many videos on it and thought I had it. So I will rip that out and have another go.

charmednmissouri

the last pic

Onebyone

I started BOM at a quilt shop. I bought the kit up front too. After two months the instructor quit the classes. The block were not sewing up like the pattern stated. Nothing was the same size. I was almost ready to chunk the whole thing. The fabric was beautiful though so I wanted to do it. I decided to make the block then just simply square up all the same size that fit. I didn't care about points or matching seams anymore. I just sewed and squared. The quilt went together so much easier. I had fun sewing with no worry of matching anything. I put the fancy border fabric on it and it's beautiful. Not one perfect block by any means but it's beautiful. My motto now has become sew it, square it, quilt it.. Most blocks sew together just right some don't and that is fine with me. Here is the kit I bought:

My blocks were a mess. LOL

charmednmissouri

That is a beautiful quilt and I would love to make it! That being said, I about to come to the same conclusion. But I think I am going to go and make a few practice blocks and whip that y-seam. I think if I can get that to work, as there are quite a few in this quilt, maybe I can fudge everything and whip it into a quilt. What I got to lose? I already have alot of $ invested in the material and I NEVER let that go to waste. But I probably won't attempt something like this again.

cashs_mom

I've done a few y-seams. For me, the key was to mark the intersections (or even mark the whole seam to get things just right) and to starch the pieces so they don't stretch. Some of your problems might be working with bias and having it stretch a bit.

Onebyone

I took a class on mastering y seams. We were told to leave up to 1/2" or more.of the seam not sewn. Makes it much easier to put together to resew the seam. The leaving the 1/4" was made up by the quilt police.