Sparkling Sawtooth Star

Way back when I first envisioned this quilt-along (2011 seems so long ago..!!), I thought it would be fun to have some of my quilty friends stop by with a guest post now and again.  So I’m really excited that my friend Tong agreed to join me, and she has designed such a gorgeous block, too!  

I met Tong when I joined the Toronto Modern Quilt Guild in the fall of 2010, and it has been so much fun getting to know her better.  We share a serious love of fabric (ok, ok, it might border on obsession), so it’s hardly a surprise that we get along!  Tong is the author of ting tong and things, so please stop by over there to say hello and check out some of the wonderful things she’s made.  My personal favourites are all the lovely things she made for her wedding this past September, like the Dream On quilt for the photo booth and the Parisville ties for all the groomsmen.  Fabulous, right?!

Hello! My name is Tong, and Sheila invited me over for a guest post in her Oh My Stars! QAL series. Today I’m going to show you my variation of the much loved sawtooth star block, with a little wonky star in the center. I’m calling it the Sparkling Sawtooth.

So let’s get started!  You’ll need 5 different fabrics for my version: background for the sawtooth star, tips of the sawtooth star, background for the center wonky star, and 2 contrasting prints for the wonky star. You can always change the number of prints you want to use for your block, but this tutorial is based on the layout I have above. Here are the fabric requirements:

(OK, Sheila here with a few thoughts at this point.  The first is that while I have provided measurements for the parts required to make this block in smaller sizes, they are seriously tiny and not for the faint of heart.  So if you want to keep things simple, then just make the 12″ star, and substitute basic stars or stars from some of the other tutorials for the 8″ and the 4″ blocks.  The second is that Tong’s construction method is a bit different than mine with regards to the star points.  Do whichever is most comfortable for you.  You can find my method here.  Ok, as you were!)

To make the sawtooth tips you will make 8 HSTs. Take two 4.5” squares, one from the sawtooth background pile, and one from the sawtooth tips pile. Place them right sides together and draw a diagonal line from one corner to the opposite corner on the wrong side of your 4.5” square sawtooth background. Stitch your squares together by sewing a scant ¼” seam from both sides of the diagonal line.

Now cut your squares in half along that diagonal line.

Press your seams however way you want (I like to press mine open).

And trim your HSTs to 3.5” squares. Repeat using all the 4.5” squares of sawtooth background and sawtooth tips, and you should have eight 3.5” square HSTs.

Now we’ll make the little wonky star for the center. From the center tips piles, save two 2” squares from each print and set them aside. Cut the rest of the center tips squares in half along the diagonal so you’ll have 8 triangles in each of the center tips print.

Take 4 of the center background squares and 4 of the center tips triangles of the first print, stitch one triangle to the right side of each center background square. You should alter the angles at which the triangles are stitched so your star will come out wonky.

Trim the excess center background fabric.

Press the center tip triangle to the right with a hot iron.

Sew the remaining 4 center tip triangles from the same print to the left side of the center background blocks. Again varying the angles at which the triangles are placed to achieve more wonkiness.

Cut off the excess fabric on the bottom left corner.

And press the tip to the left with a hot iron.

Repeat with another 4 center background squares and the 2nd center tip print. Trim your center star tip pieces to 2” squares. Now you should have all the pieces you need to assemble your block. Lay out your pieces like below.

You can join the pieces together however way you like, or you can follow my example below. Join the pieces indicated by the arrows pointing towards one another and press seams.

Join the remaining pieces as shown below and press your seams.

Now join the middle pieces first, press the seams, and finally join the middle to the top and bottom pieces and press.

And ta-dah!

Now you have your Sparkling Sawtooth for your Oh-My-Star quilt! I hope you enjoy making your block!

Thanks again for having me!

Thank you so much, Tong, for such a gorgeous block!  I can’t wait to see it interpreted by everyone in the group!

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