LeMoyne Star

About this block

This eight-pointed star is built entirely from 45-degree diamonds meeting at set-in Y-seams, a construction detail that distinguishes it from other eight-point stars built with half-square or quarter-square triangles instead. Most sources trace the name to the LeMoyne brothers, Jean Baptiste and Pierre, who founded New Orleans, though the exact founding date cited varies between sources (1699 and 1718 both appear), and a competing theory ties the pattern to French tilework at Versailles that supposedly made its way onto the brothers' family coat of arms. Its earliest documented published date is 1911, according to Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns, though quilt historian Ruth Finley's 1929 book placed its origins earlier and noted regional naming differences, with the design becoming "Lemon Star" among non-French-speaking quilters further north.