Today I have a fun tutorial to share with you. The traditional quilt block featured here is called Sawtooth Star. Most traditional quilt blocks are composed of simple shapes, and this one is made from squares and flying geese. If you’ve purchased my block printed flowers you will use them as the center for each star. If not—no worries!—you can replace them with a fabric of your choice. I naturally dyed the happy yellow shade with my homegrown marigolds and I have an abundance of them available to purchase if you’re interested.
I added a fun scalloped border to my quilt that I printed with natural dyes. These instructions do not include how to print the scalloped border but I will explain how to make a solid yellow one. I encourage you to be bold and come up with a funky border of your own if you please!
FINISHED QUILT TOP SIZE:
30 X 39” without border or 33 x 42” with border
FINISHED STAR BLOCK SIZE:
6”
QUILT TOP FABRIC REQUIREMENTS:
1 yard natural undyed organic cotton muslin and 1/2 yard yellow
DYE
I won’t go into great detail about how to do the natural dyeing because I’ve already covered that in previous blog posts. Use the following links in the order they’re shared to guide you through these processes. You will need to dye 1/2 yard of fabric if you choose to add the yellow border. If you do not wish to add the border then 1/4 yard of dyed fabric will be sufficient. If you’re dyeing with marigolds I suggest using 30% WOF. After dyeing the fabric be sure to rinse it several times before using it in your patchwork.
CUT
If you did not purchase the block printed flower squares from me you will need to cut 12- 3.5” squares of your own. These squares could be undyed or any color or print you choose. The squares for the flying geese require cross cutting. To do this, first cut the squares to the size specified, then cut each square from corner to corner either once or twice as shown in the diagram.
MAKE THE FLYING GEESE
The flying geese blocks will be made with the triangle pieces from the squares that were cross cut in the previous step. After cross cutting you should have a total of 96 yellow triangles and 48 white triangles.
All seam allowances in this tutorial are 1/4”.
Place a yellow triangle on top of a white one and sew along the right edge.
Press the seam open.
Sew a yellow triangle to the left side.
Press the seam open.
5. The flying goose in its wonky state ready to be trimmed.
6. Trim the geese to 2 x 3.5” being sure to leave 1/4” above the tip of the white triangle. (If you have my book Farm & Folk Quilt Alchemy you can refer to the flying goose tutorial on page 152 for more detailed trimming instructions and process photos.)
7. Repeat steps 1-6 to make a total of 48 flying geese.
ASSEMBLE THE BLOCKS
Lay out the block pieces as shown with the 2” squares in the corners.
2. Sew the pieces together to form 3 horizontal rows.
3. Press all the seams open.
4. Sew the rows together to finish the block. If you don’t know how to pin and match seams check out my Nine-Patch Quilt Tutorial here or on page 142 of my book. Press all the seams open and repeat steps 1-4 to make a total of 12 sawtooth star blocks.
ASSEMBLE THE QUILT TOP
Use the undyed 3.5” squares and 3.5 x 6.5” rectangles to sew 5 rows as shown below and press all the seams open.
2. Use the remaining 3.5 x 6.5” undyed rectangles and your sawtooth blocks to create 4 rows as shown below. Press all the seams open.
3. Match the seams by pinning and sew the 9 rows together to form the quilt top. Press all the seams open.
4. Cut strips 2” wide from the remaining yellow fabric for the border if you wish to add one. Sew the vertical borders on first and then the horizontal borders. The vertical border should be cut to 2 x 39.5” and the horizontal 2 x 33.5” but you should measure your quilt top to double check before cutting. If your fabric isn’t long enough to cut the long pieces you can sew strips together to make it work. If you have my book Farm & Folk Quilt Alchemy I explain how to add borders in greater detail on page 159.
To finish your quilt you will need to make a back, combine the layers into a quilt sandwich, quilt the piece either by machine or hand, and then bind it. You can refer to my previously mentioned Nine-Patch Quilt Tutorial and my Quilt Binding Tutorial if you need help with these steps and my book Farm & Folk Quilt Alchemy contains very detailed tutorials for all these steps plus so much more. The book is handy to have all the tutorials right at your fingertips without having to search around on the internet.
If you have any questions please ask in the comment section below. Please remember to tag me if you share your work on Instagram.
Cheers!
