Medallion Quilt

A Sawtooth Star quilt block tutorial is the next step in my Medallion Quilt. I have to admit; the Sawtooth Star Quilt Block is one of my very favorite quilts blocks. I am excited to include it in my Medallion Quilt.

But, before we get to the Sawtooth Stars, here is a review of the Medallion Quilt up to this point.

A Medallion Quilt starts with a center quilt block, and then each subsequent round is a new quilt block. Think of it as many borders around a center, where each border is a different block design.

Each step of my Medallion Quilt will be its own block tutorial, with directions for both the size of block needed for the Medallion AND a tutorial for how to make an entire quilt of just that one block.

I started with a center block made up of Broken Dishes Quilt Blocks.

Today I am sharing Round Two with you – the Sawtooth Star Quilt Block Tutorial.

Now, I’ve never made a quilt of only sawtooth stars. But I have made a Double Stars Quilt in which half of the stars are sawtooth stars and the other half are a second star block.

Here is one example of that quilt. Making a quilt entirely from Sawtooth Stars is definitely on my to do list.

Now, how to make a Sawtooth Star Quilt Block. The directions given below are for both a 6” block for this Medallion Quilt as well as stars of any size imaginable, both larger and smaller.

How to Make a Sawtooth Star Quilt Block

A sawtooth star quilt block is made of a center square in star fabric, eight star points also in star fabric, four corner squares in background fabric and four triangles in-between the star points that is also background fabric.

The good news is that while that sounds like a lot of individual pieces of fabric, the construction of the quilt block is actually quite straight-forward. Each Sawtooth Star quilt block is made from one large and four small squares of star fabric and one large and four small squares of background fabric.

For this quilt, I am making 6” blocks which means my cutting measurements are as follows:

Star Fabric: one square 3½” and four squares 2 3/8”

Background Fabric: one square 4¼” and four squares 2”

For quilt blocks in other sizes, here is a handy reference chart of the sizes to cut your pieces. All sewing directions will be the same, only the cutting sizes will be different.

The Sawtooth Star quilt block is the second round of the medallion quilt; 12 star blocks are needed. This is my mix of fabrics of my stars. The background fabrics look like they are all white, but they are actually a bunch of different white on white prints.

Draw a line in pencil on the back of all of the smaller star fabric squares. This doesn’t show up at all since my star fabrics are dark purple so I’ve added a white line to this photo. Place two of the star fabric squares on the larger background fabric square, right sides together, so that the drawn line lines up from one corner to the other. The corners of the white squares will overlap in the center of the purple square, and the pencil lines will match up, to continue all the way from one corner across to the other. Pin in place.

Sew ¼” to the right of the pencil line. Turn the fabric pieces 180* and repeat, to sew down the other side of the pencil line. Because you’ve turned it, you will still be sewing to the right of the line.

Cut along the pencil line. Press the seam, pressing towards the purple triangles. It makes sort of a heart shape.

Pin your 3^rd and 4^th small purple squares, to the remaining white corner of each of your heart shaped pieces. The pencil line will go from the white corner, and should go right through the “V” of the heart.

Sew ¼ inch from the pencil line, turn and sew ¼ inch from the pencil line on the other side.

Cut along the pencil line, and press, again towards the purple.

Now you have 4 Flying Geese, although we’re actually going to turn them so that they are no longer white flying geese in a purple sky, but instead will be purple star points on a white background.

Trim away all of those yucky dog ears and then place the larger purple square in the center, and place the four flying geese units around the edge to make the star points. Fill in the four corners with the four smaller white squares.

Sew the nine pieces into three rows. Alternating the direction to sew, as shown in the black arrows, will allow for all seams to nest together.

Sew the three rows into the Sawtooth Star quilt block.

Can a Sawtooth Star Be Made with Directional Fabric?

You bet! This is a quilt block that works well with directional fabric.

Cut the fabric pieces according to the Sawtooth Star quilt block tutorial above.

When placing the smaller star squares onto the larger background square, orient the star squares so that the direction is the SAME for both. At this point, it doesn’t really matter what is up, down, left or right, you just want them both to be the same.

Draw a line from corner to corner, and sew ¼” on both sides of the line. After cutting the square apart and pressing towards the darker fabric, just like the directions above, play around with the small star squares.

When you have the squares in place, before sewing, you can lift up the corner to finger fold it into place to check if the pattern is facing the right direction.

All four star flying geese will have the pattern facing in a different direction. That’s exactly what you want, because when you move them around to make star points, the pattern will fall into place.