sammyjain

Hello everyone! I am a new at quilting and need some help with lining up diagonal seams. I am attempting to make a lone star quilt and things were going ok until I started putting together the arms of the star - it's like I am making gigantic parallelograms. How on earth do I get the seams to line up?!

thanks!

Tartan

If you are at the spot I think you are describing, the seams do not line up. They arms need to be sewn together with the 1/4 inch seam allowances making a little X. To get the pieces in the right spot, you insert a straight pin right at the 1/4 inch mark on one arm and keeping the pin upright, insert it into the corresponding spot on the 1/4 inch mark of the arm you are trying to sew it to. Leave the pin standing upright and put in pins on either side. You can then remove the standing pin and sew the arms together.

Make sure when sewing the arms together to stop sewing at the 1/4 inch seam allowances at the edges so you can sew in the outer surrounding pieces with the Y seams ( unless you are using the newer pattern that doesn't have Y Seams)

JustAbitCrazy

Oh, my. You have certainly picked a challenging pattern to execute, even for an intermediate level quilter. I think you may be better off shelving this project until your skills are more up to it. This is not to say it can't be done by a new quilter, but you may experience a lot of frustration along the way, and in the end the quilt top may not lay flat.

woody

Take your time and pin it carefully as Tartan has described. YOU CAN DO IT!!!!! If I am not sure that seams will line up I increase the stitch length on my machine and sew the seam and make sure it lines up. If it looks good then I sew it again with a normal stitch length but if it's wrong the stitches are really easy to pull out
Good luck.

Jingle

Don't think I would try it. I'm kinda chicken.

pinkcastle

I admire your willingness to take on a challenging pattern. Take your time and once you do it several times it'll get easier. I recently made a quilt with diamonds and I first basted the seams together to make sure they lined up right. Good luck and be sure to post a picture!

cjsews

Lay the pieces out so you can make sure you piece the seams in the correct order. As you will be working with bias edges, you need to be careful. Spray startch is a very good thing to get these back into shape if you have stretched them. Spray heavily and hold your iron above the piece sto steam it into submission. Then lower your iron to press it dry. You can do this.

Mdegenhart

Make sure you clearly mark your 1/4" point at the beginning and end of each seam so that you dont sew into the seam allowance. Read a good tutorial on Y-seam construction. Never let anyone tell you to quit something, because you can do anything you put your mind to. When I struggled with LeMoyne stars which have a similar construction in my beginning class I did find it easier to do part of it by hand because I could see better how it did fit together, so the basting idea could be helpful.

sammyjain

Thank you for all of the ideas and words of encouragement! This really is a great board! Ok, here is what I have so far:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]441736[/ATTACH]

Of course it isn't perfect and it has some serious puckering issues in spots. But...hey...it looks better than I thought it would.

This is what the end result will be like (hopefully):
[ATTACH=CONFIG]441737[/ATTACH]

Thanks again everyone!

Tartan

It is going to be lovely and very do-able! That arrangement is avoiding the center trouble spot that can occur when you put 8 arms together. Keep going and post a picture when you get done.