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 Le Moyne & more ***

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Sewing on the Bias
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On this page, we cover the basic one-ring diamond star that is usually called the LeMoyne Star and the three-ring star that usually goes by Virginia Star. The variations include Blazing Star and National Star, below.

For diamond stars of more than three rings — Lone Stars — click here:

LeMoyne Star
Hunter's Star
Hunter
Star
Gretchen
Virginia Star
Blazing Star
National Star
Blazing Star(8-Star Designs)
Northum-berland Star


Coming soon:
Old Maid's Patience
4 Stars Patchwork

LeMoyne Star

LeMoyne Star

LeMoyne Star
Ohio Farmer
1894
Lemon Star/ Star of Lemoyne/ Star/ Diamond/ Diamond Star/ 8-pointed Star/ Star Bed Quilt/ The Southern Star/ Hanging Diamonds/ Simple Star/ A Star of Diamond Points/ Eastern Star/8-point Star/Star of the East/ Sunlight & Shadows/The Star/ Two Star Quilt/ Variable Star/ Lone Star

This venerable design was first published in 1894, as Star, in Ohio Farmer. The block was named for two brothers who founded New Orleans in 1718, according to Yvonne Khin's Collector's Dictionary of Quilt Names and Patterns. English-speaking settlers renamed it Lemon Star.

For more LeMoyne variations, click here:

Hunter's Star





Hunter's Star
Hunter's Star
Hall & Kretsinger
1935
Two popular star blocks, Hunter's Star and Hunter Star, look like lattices when they're placed in groups.

Hunter's Star is the oldest and the hardest to make. Each corner of each quarter-block includes an inset diamond. To stitch a diamond into a whole piece of cloth takes significant skill, even made by hand.

The block was first published in 1935 (in Hall's and Kretsinger's The Romance of the Patchwork Quilt in America) but is doubtless much older.

The difference between the two blocks is clearest when you compare their quarter blocks. Hunter Star is on the left, Hunter's Star is in the center, and Gretchen, the next block on this page, is on the right.

Hunter's, Hunter, or Gretchen? Check a corner!
Hunter's Star has
inset points		 Hunter Star has
a pieced bar		 Gretchen turns the
pieces around

Hunter Star





Hunter Star
Hunter Star
Aunt Martha
1960


Indian Arrowhead

Hunter Star came along in 1960, in an Aunt Martha booklet.

If you look at the seams, you'll see that each quarter-block is made up of a three-part bar attached to a triangle.

Every corner in the block is made of two seams sewn together.

Hunter Star is well suited to strip-piecing, which is a quick way to cut out blocks using a rotary cutter, a tool much like the rolling blade used to cut a pizza.

We've posted diagrams for you to use to make either block. Just click on the purple icon.



Gretchen





Gretchen
Gretchen
Kansas City Star
1932
Gretchen came from the Kansas City Star's Evelyn Foland and was published in July 1932.

It's very similar to Hunter Star and Hunter's Star. All three create a lattice effect across a quilt top, but Gretchen has a windmill shape in the center instead of a star.

Virginia Star


Virginia Star


Virginia Star
ca. 1850
Star of the East/Eastern Star/Quilt of the Century/Combination Feathered Star/The Blazing Star of Minnesota/Patriotic Star/Little Star/Rising Star/Star of the Bluegrass Quilt/Morning Star/Unknown Star/The Blazing Star

This three-ring star block is so popular that it has at least 14 names. Star of LeMoyne (1850) seems to be the earliest. As most quilters do, we're calling it Virginia Star to distinguish it from the one-ring LeMoyne Star.

Blazing Star
Harvest Star

Blazing Star
LAC

Blazing Star

Blazing Star


An old, popular three-ring star adds triangles to the Virginia Star to form a thorny octagon. Blazing Star was the Ladies Art Company's name for the two-color version (1897, #372). The name Harvest Star only came along in 1981.


Sewing on the Bias



Diamond stars are among the most beloved quilt designs. They are also among the most difficult to make well.

At least two sides of each diamond-star piece are cut on the bias (diagonal to the threads in the fabric). Biased edges tend to stretch as they're sewn, and if they do, the seam won't lie flat.

Such imperfections multiply with each ring of diamonds, and they can turn the quilt top into a sheet of ripples. Fortunately, expert quilting can help mask the effect.


Blazing Star (LAC)



Blazing Star




Blazing Star


National Star

National Star
National Star
Phorr, Award Winning Designs, 1974
Progressive Farmer published National Star, according to Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia; she cites Award Winning Quilts by Effie C. Phorr, published by Progressive Farmer's parent company in 1974.

Blazing Star

Blazing Star (Eight Star Quilt Designs)
Blazing Star
Eight Star Quilt Designs, ca. 1935
On this Blazing Star, a line from point to point makes an octagon with unequal sides. That's because this blazing star is drawn up on a 12 by 12 grid. The other stars on this page are drawn up on a more elaborate star grid, a circular grid in which each point ends on a circle. Not many stars are drawn like this Blazing Star. Two are in the pinwheels section: Godey's Design (1858) and Fish Tails. Click here to see them:

This Blazing Star is from Eight Star Quilt Designs (ca. 1935), according to Jinny Beyer's Quilter's Album of Patchwork Patterns (2009).

Northumberland Star

Northumberland Star

Northumberland Star
Stone, 1906
Clara Stone's foursquare 8-point star was published in Practical Needlework in 1906.

We call it "foursquare" because while the better-known LeMoyne and Virginia stars are drawn up on on circle grids, the Northumberland is based on a simple grid of 12 squares by 12.

The result is that the sides of Northumberland Star's diamonds are pairs of different lengths. Whether you want to call them diamonds at all is up to you.

If the pattern seems familiar, it's because it looks very much like a Variable Star, a variation of the Ohio Star (click here):