Lemoyne Stars!

I got bit by the English Paper Piecing bug.

Never mind I'd never even hand pieced before, let alone even considered English Paper Piecing. Come to find out, its not really that hard. Time consuming and a bit persnickety, but really, you can't go wrong if you follow the steps. The next thing you know, you've made a beautiful star! And I have to warn you, they're addicting. 

What inspired me was when I saw what Sheryl of Temecula Quilt Company was doing on her Fussy Cut Fridays series. One look, and I knew I just had to make some of these stars.

First let me say, I've always loved the Lemoyne Star, but always thought it was beyond me to make one - let alone a bunch of them. Inset seams? forget it. When Sheryl showed her EPP method, I thought - you know? I just might give this a try. You could say, I talked myself into it. Now, you might have noticed she's actually making a six-pointed star, but I didn't figure that out until I'd already made three eight-pointed stars and finally realized there was something "different" about mine. Apparently I can't count.   

My first tries at fussy cutting were - ok - but could have been better. So how timely that Joann's just happened to be having a half-off notions sale last week, where among other things, I got a new (sorely needed) ironing board cover...

 gridded for blocking and has a ruler running the length of it - how groovy is that?

And.. Marti Mitchel's Magic Mirror..

...which helps tremendously in fussy cutting. Here's how it works:

As you can see, the possibilities are many with this piece of fabric, so let's try some out.
 

Can you see my diamond template on the fabric, with the mirrors lined up on the sides?

Here's another view.

and another

You can see here I took a couple of my paper pieces and lined them up along the outside of the diamond, so I might see more clearly what the star would look like.

Eventually I started getting distracted by the writing on the template itself, so I decided to cut a "fussy hole" out of an old checkbook box.

better.

See how fun this is?

The mirrors do have a limitation though, as you can see below, if the design within your diamond is not symmetrical.

Anyway, I "played" with about a dozen fabrics last night, but got too tired and didn't cut any of them! That's what I'm headed off to do now.

This is gonna be a sweet, fun little (or not so little, who knows?) on-going project, which may take years to complete. I have no idea how many stars I will make, or what quilt they might end up in. Who cares? This project is about the process for me, and so far I'm loving it.

Are any of you sewing along with Fussy Cut Fridays? If so, please comment and point me to your blog. I would love to see your stars. 

love,
Sandy