Eight pink points around a fuchsia center, set by brick and maroon corners. A sawtooth star that looks like the last half hour of daylight, worked out one square at a time.
What it is: A sawtooth star block, eight points around a center square
Finished size: 6 inches
Method: Eight half square triangles from a single pair of squares
The block that came out of one late evening at the machine. Magenta corners, orange points, a blush square holding the middle.This one started the way the good ones usually do, which is to say at an unreasonable hour. A color combination turned up in my head, warm and fully saturated, and it would not wait until morning. So the cutting mat came out at ten at night.
What follows is not a finished kit. It is a design still being worked out, and the working out is the interesting part.
Step 1: The picture comes first
Before anything gets cut, there is a decision about how big the finished thing should be and what it should look like. Six inches finished, in this case. Everything else follows from that number: how large the corner squares are, how large the HSTs are, how large the square in the middle needs to be so the eight points meet where they are supposed to.
That is where the quilt math lives, and it is not friendly at 10pm! A 6 inch block asks for squares at 5 inches, 3.5 inches, 2.6 inches and 2 inches. The 2.6" is the annoying one. Don't ask me how many times I had to recut pieces!
I made a few math mistakes on this pass and had to recut pieces. That is the honest version. The block on the right in the photo above is a practice run I trimmed too far.
Step 2: Eight triangles at a time
The points of a sawtooth star are half square triangles, and there is a much better way to make them than one at a time. You mark both diagonals on the backside of a square, sew alongside (.25") those lines, and cut on the lines which gives you eight matching HSTs instead of one. It is the same method our star kits are built on, and I have written it up properly in The Magic 8 Method if you want the step by step.
The reason it matters here is consistency. Eight HSTs that were made together behave the same way when you press and trim them, so the star closes up neatly at the center instead of wonk city.
Step 3: Lay it out before you sew it
A sawtooth star is nine units in a three by three grid: four corner squares, four point units (flying geese), one center(square in square). Laying them out on the mat is the last chance to change your mind about which purple goes where!
There is more on arranging and photographing a layout before you commit in Laying Out Your Stars.
Step 4: Then again, in another colorway
One block tells you whether the method works. It does not tell you whether the palette does. So the next few came out in oranges, pinks and plums, testing how far the warm range stretches before the star stops reading as a star.
Testing the warm range. Deep reds, fuchsia and plum, checking where the contrast holds and where two fabrics start to blur into one.This is the slow part of designing a kit, and it is the part that never shows up in the finished photograph. Every awkward number gets worked out here, on my cutting mat, so that it is not waiting for you on yours. (you're welcome)
"I made a few math mistakes, and I had to recut pieces. But hey, I'm doing it, so all of you don't have to do it."
Thanks for coming by my blog!
-Kris
Where to start today
The sunset colorway above is still in development, so there is nothing to buy yet. If the eight pointed star is the picture you want on your wall or across the end of your bed, the version that is ready now is Sherbet Sparkle, built on the same eight at a time method with the cutting already resolved.
Sherbet Sparkle Quilt Kit
A four block star piece in soft ombre brights, finishing at 22 by 22 inches as a mini quilt or 42 by 11 inches as a table runner. The panel comes pre printed: you sew on the dotted lines and cut on the solid ones.
Quilt top and binding materials, $54. Complete kit with batting and backing, $69.
Skill level: confident beginner.
Not quite ready? Join our email list at the bottom of this page and you'll be the first to know the moment the warm colorway drops.
Questions before you start
Do I need to be good at math to make a sawtooth star?
To design one from scratch, yes, and that is what the 2.6 inch square in the photos is doing. To make one from a kit, no. That calculation is done once, by us, and never again by you.
I have never pieced a star block. Is this out of reach?
It is more approachable than it looks, because a sawtooth star is only squares and half square triangles arranged in a grid. There are no curves, no set in corners and no Y seams. Sherbet Sparkle is rated for a confident beginner for exactly this reason.
Can I buy the sunset colorway shown here?
Not yet. These blocks are development samples, and a design goes through several rounds of testing before it becomes a kit. The email list at the bottom of this page is where it will be announced first.
Why eight triangles at a time instead of two?
Speed is the obvious reason and accuracy is the better one. HSTs made together from one square share the same seam and the same press, so their points will play well together.
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