How to Make a Sawtooth Star Quilt Block ~ Tutorial

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Today we are looking at the Sawtooth Star Quilt Block, the third part of putting together our Say it With Flowers Block…

What is a Sawtooth Star Quilt Block?

The Sawtooth Star Quilt Block is another traditional quilt block, used in many quilt patterns.  Its name comes from the sharp points that resemble the teeth of a saw. The block is characterized by a central square, typically a solid color or a focus fabric, surrounded by triangles that create the “star” points.

The Sawtooth Star Quilt block lends itself well to experimentation with color, fabric choices and designs within the block – such as the way we are using a square-in-a-square block in the center for our BOM this year. 

The block is basically made up of four flying geese units, one center square, and four smaller squares in the corner.

I have to say, that I think this is one of my favorite quilt blocks!

History of the Sawtooth Star Block

I did a bit of research on the history of this block, and apparently it dates back to the 1800s, and one of the first mentions was in 1884 where the pattern was published in the Farm and Fireside magazine. I ended up going on quite a rabbit hole looking at the history of this quilt block – it seems it was also used in underground railway quilts… do a google search and see what you can find out!

Other Names for the Sawtooth Star

As with many of the traditional quilt blocks, there is more than one name for the Sawtooth Star block including:

• Variable Star
• North Star
• Morning Star, and
• Evening Star

I wonder whether some of the names had to do with the colors of fabrics used in the block… or if it was just that different people decided to call it something else…. For example I would imagine a Morning Star block might be made from brighter fabric to resemble a sunrise, and perhaps the Evening Star block might have some darker fabric to resemble the end of the day… what do you think?

Variations of the Sawtooth Star Block

As I said above, one of the great thing about the Sawtooth Star is the versatilty it provides.. especially with the choice of fabric.

The block can be made with two fabrics, having a different look depending on which one is used as the background:

A dark background vs a light one, using a third fabric for the center block :

And finally… scrappy!

Lots of choices! I really want to try that last scrappy block – it would make a beautiful pattern, and instead of making flying geese units, you could do half square triangle blocks.

And today’s block is different again because of the center square…

On with the Tutorial!!

Requirements for a Single Block

• one center square 6 1/2″ x 6 1/2″
• four flying geese units 6 1/2″ x 3 1/2″
• four corner squares 3 1/2″ x 3 1/2″

Sawtooth Star Quilt Block Tutorial

For those of you who are doing our block of the month, grab your square- in-a square block, the four flying geese blocks, and cut four 3 1/2″ squares!

The construction of the quilt block is pretty straightforward, so you might wonder why I am even doing a separate post on it… after all, it is simply sewing these units together:

Yes, it is… but because our center square for the block of the month is a square-in-a-square block, I wanted to give you some pointers on how I try to get my points to match… Hopefully you will pick up some new tips in this tutorial!

Step 1 ~ Start on the top and bottom rows

We’ll be starting with the top and bottom rows.

Place the corner white squares right sides together on the flying geese units. 

Pin

and sew using a quarter inch seam allowance:

Step 2 ~ Set the seams

and press towards the flying geese units:

Do this with the top and bottom row:

Step 3 ~ Sew the center row together

Take one flying geese unit and the center square. Place right sides together.

Now this is where some problems arise because we don’t want to lose the tips of the triangles… so I use a pin to match the tops of the triangles together like this:

Sorry it is a bit blurry, but you can see that I have put the pin in at the top (on the wrong side) of the background triangle on the flying geese unit, and then I find the top of the other background triangle on the square-in-a-square block (on the right side):

Keeping the tops of the triangles in the right place, pin through both layers. I also pin at the beginning and end of the block – of course I forgot take a photo of that but I think (hope) you understand!

Sew!

You can see in the photo above that the pin is nice and flat and holding he tips of the background triangles where they should be.

Leave the pin in place as long as possible, getting as close to the pin as you can with the needle, without running over the pin:

Go Slow! Pull the pin out at the last minute

and sew a smidge to the right of the tip of the triangle:

It will look a little bit wonky:

But when you open it up and press it, it will be almost perfect:

Well, the flying geese part is pretty good, the square-in-a-square unit not quite… Keep in mind this is a very close up photo – most people are NOT going to be looking at your quilt with a magnifying glass!! Unless of course it is going in a show… perhaps… and this one is not!!

Set the seam and press away from the center block.

Do the same with the other flying geese unit and your middle row will be complete:

Step 4 ~ Sew the top and middle rows together

Now we are going to need to match up some more seams, so I want to share my favorite method of pinning seams!

Take the top row, place it right sides together on the middle row:

To get the first column to nest nicely with the second column I like to use a pin, and pin it diagonally:

You can see how the seams butt up against each other nicely:

And this holds it in place while sewing.

Once you match this first seam up, then match the center triangles up as we did above, and finally the last column with the pin on the diagonal:

As you can see, I also put a pin in at the beginning and the end…

Here is a close up of how the top left corner turned out:

Pretty good I think! I really do find that putting that pin in diagonally helps me match up the seams a lot better. Try it and let me know what you think!

(Hmmm.. looks like there is stain in the fabric above, but there isn’t – must be the lighting!)

Step 5 ~ Set and press seam

Set the seam:

and press away from the center block:

Step 6 ~ Sew the final rows together

Sew the bottom row to the block using the same method as in step 5,

and we have us a finished block!

For this year’s block of the month we will be making 9 of these Sawtooth Star Blocks.

In Conclusion

If you made it this far, I hope you picked up a few tips for when you are next making a Sawtooth Star! You can also use these tips in other blocks of course….

Share Your Tips!

Let us know in the comments if you have any other tips you use to make this block!

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