Welcome to Stitchin Heaven’s Journeys Month 5. My helper for Month 5 is Deb Tucker, of Studio 180 Design. This month you are going to learn to make Lemoyne Star Quarters using the Rapid Fire Lemoyne Star and Tucker Trimmer I tools. You will be using Prints 7, 9 & 11. Label your fabrics and use your best cutting skills when cutting your starter squares.

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Piecing Instructions

Step 1 – Organize Strips. Place Print 9 and Print 7 into two separate piles. Use Print 7 to make the A Strip Set and Print 9 to make the B Strip Set.

Step 2 – Make Strip Sets A and Strip Sets B in the same manner as described in the Rapid Fire® Lemoyne Star basic instructions. Position each diamond strip 4¾” down from the top of the background strip. Sew the strips lengthwise and press as indicated in the diagram below. Pay close attention to proper strip alignment and pressing to ensure success.

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Step 3 – First Cuts. Layer Strip Set A and Strip Set B right sides together as illustrated. Trim the ends of the strips at a 45° angle, then continue making 45° angle cuts every 3¼” across the length of the strips. You will get 8 cuts from a paired strip set. Cut the remaining strip sets in this manner until you have 20 pairs.

Step 4 – Make Second Cuts going vertically south to north, as shown. Position the ruler edge at the tip of the star strip and trim straight up. These triangles will be added to the pieced unit.

Jackie’s Tip for staying organized is to label two paper plates A & B. For Right handers, Strip “A” is on top & Strip “B” is on the bottom. Cut one unit at a time, place the “A” unit on plate marked “A” & the “B” unit on plate marked “B”. You will always know which units are A & B for pressing.

Step 5 – Arrange, position and stitch the cut pieces together into pieced triangle units. Press as shown in the diagram to yield future nesting seams.

Tip: Remember “whatever you are pressing toward – goes on top”!

Step 6 – Trim down all pieced triangle units using the 12” line on the Rapid Fire® Lemoyne Star tool as shown in the diagram.

Step 7 – Assemble quarters. Arrange the sewn and trimmed A and B sections into quarter blocks. Stitch the sections together and press the seams open to best distribute bulk. You should have 20 quarter blocks total.

Step 8 – Trim the quarters to 6½” x 6½” with your Tucker Trimmer® I tool. Clean up the dog ears and true up the first corner as shown (this should just be a few threads at most), then rotate the unit 180o to trim the opposite corner. Align the Common Diagonal with the seam and the 6½” clean up lines with the trimmed edges to trim the remaining two sides. Repeat for all 20 quarters. Label the finished quarters Unit H.

Recap: Make 20 Unit H – Homeward Bound Units.

Congratulations, you have learned to use your Rapid Fire Lemoyne Star tool!