Star Quilt
How do you easily piece a sawtooth star quilt?
I’m trying to make a sawtooth star patterned quilt, but it seems like there must be a more efficient way to make the star blocks than cutting out all of the individual triangles and sewing them together one at a time. I tried to sew along the diagonals of squares and then cut them apart, but then I don’t have any seam allowance to work with when I’m connecting the points of the star to the square that forms the center of the star – I would have to cut off the point of the middle triangle in order to sew it to the next piece. Any advice on the best way to do this?
The great thing about quilting is there are many different ways to accomplish the same thing. It’s just a matter of trying them all until you find one that works for you.
The Sawtooth Star traditionally is made with a large center square that has a flying goose on each side, with a plain square in each corner. I assume you’re asking about the flying geese, since they are the triangles. There are several methods for making flying geese.
1. The original, traditional method involves cutting precise triangles for the geese and for the sky, and then sewing the sky pieces onto the goose piece. It’s a lot of work, but it wastes less fabric and looks nice. This is probably the first method you mentioned.
2. The easiest method is to create the goose using two half square triangle pieces sewn together. This is fine if your goose fabric is a solid, nearly solid, or busy print. It doesn’t work with directional prints, or ones that have a very evident pattern. If you are sewing a lot of these, you can use papers to create your half square triangles (Thangles, Triangle Paper, or Triangles on a Roll). It is MUCH easier, not to mention faster.
3. If you want to stay with the single piece of fabric for the goose, you can sew squares onto the corners of a rectangle, then trim the excess fabric. It’s easy because you just sew along the diagonal of the square, then trim the excess. However, you waste a lot of fabric this way. I think this is what you tried to do – the problem sounds like you were using squares that were too small. You should sew the first square, trim, press it back, then sew the second square so it overlaps the top of the first square, forming the point 1/4″ from the top center.
4. For less waste, try getting a special Square in a Square ruler. You sew strips onto the sides of a square, then trim the strips to form a square in a square. Depending on where you trim, you can then cut them in half to form two flying geese, or you can cut them in quarters to form four half square triangles. The down side to this method is the need for a special tool, and the need for some mildly complicated math. Instead of providing a chart showing sizes of squares and strips to create sizes of flying geese units, she gives you a mathematical equation. Kind of a pain.
5. Eleanor Burns has a flying geese method that’s pretty slick. This also uses a special tool, but it’s less expensive and easier to use. You can actually make these using her method and a regular ruler – see the link below for instructions. I’ve seen it demonstration, and it’s remarkably easy.
6. Finally, have you considered paper piecing? I paper piece some flying geese units using a freezer paper method. You fold the freezer paper back and sew along the folded edge rather than sewing through the paper. After trimming, you peel the paper off and reuse it. For the Sawtooth Star you would need to piece TWO small flying geese units, and ONE longer unit that has the center square and a flying goose on either side.
STAR QUILTS
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Easy Quilt Kit/Celebration Star/Pre-cut Fabric Ready To Sew/Red/White/Blue $25.95 |
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vintage 2064 little diamond pieces in star quilt top to finish hand pieced $57.57 |
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55051- Accuquilt GO! Fabric Cutter Blazing Star Eleanor Burns Quilt Applique Die $47.82 |
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The Pattern Basket VANILLA STARS Quilt Pattern $7.50 |
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Quilt Upon A Star 12 Designs Quilt Pattern Book Sue Harvey $4.99 |
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Tablecloth – Patriotic Patch – Primitive Country Rustic Plaid Star Linen Table Cloth $39.95 Patriotic Patch tablecloth is 100% cotton and measures 60″x80″. Beautiful patchwork with dark navy, white, red, tan, brown, and black colors. Great traditional prim and country accent piece…. |
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State Souvenir Tablecloths, 52 inch cotton … |
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Behold that Star! An American Song Quilt $3.48 All products are BRAND NEW and factory sealed. Fast shipping and 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed…. |
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Behold that Star! An American Song Quilt $8.99 … |
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Quilts – EP $5.94 … |
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A Star for All Seasons (Quilt in a Day) Eleanor Burns shares antique quilt blocks from her attic and discusses time honored approaches to piecing. Then she introduces the contemporary methods used by Wendy Gilbert in assembly-line sewing star blocks for a table runner or placemats….Eleanor discusses fabric choices for the different seasons and shows the complete assembly, including machine quilting…. |
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Star Log Cabin Quilt $11.99 … |
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The Great American Quilt Stars & Stripes #108 … |
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Stanley 77-188 S2 Laser Level Square $29.99 The New Stanley S2 laser level square gives you a simple-to-use layout tool that projects horizontal and vertical laser chalklines on a variety of surfaces up to 30 feet. It mounts to those surfaces using a reusable adhesive. The S2 is a perfect tool for a variety of uses, including flooring, tile layout, paneling, wallpapering, stenciling, wainscoting, finish carpentry, outlet and switch layout, … |
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