A Sneak Peek, Our Shoofly Challenge, and Let’s Design a Quilt: Playing with the Sawtooth Star Block

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

The forecast for today is sum-sum-summertime with a strong chance of quilting! SEW much to do today, so let’s get started.

Before we jump into this week’s Quilt Design adventure, though, I want to share a fun SNEAK PEEK with you from our friends over at QT Fabrics. You might recall that VRD has been working closely with QT to pair their new fabric collections with our patterns. Here is our latest collaboration:

You can check out the catalog HERE.

These upcoming fabric collections are being shown to quilt shops right now and will ship in late 2025/early 2026. If you see something you like — ask for the collection (and VRD patterns, of course) at you local quilt shop.

Churn Dash Challenge Winner

As part of my Quilt Design series last week, I offered up a challenge to you – see what you could do with the Churn Dash block.

First, I want to thank those of you who shared your ideas, creations, blocks, and quilts.

And the winner is………………………..

Lisa from KY

Lisa won with her charming Churn Dash quilt, below, featuring multiple sizes of her Churn Dash blocks with the added fun of novelty farm panels and prints inside each block. Way to go, Lisa!

Log Cabin Inspiration

Folks were really inspired by last week’s Courthouse Steps block quilt design party and suggested we stay in the Log Cabin zone. Thank you for those suggestions, but I want to keep addressing different kinds of blocks to maximize your inspiration when it comes to designing quilts. There are entire books written about Log Cabin blocks and quilts and a few blog posts just can’t do the topic justice, I am afraid.

In lieu of more Log Cabin blocks, here is a short list of Log Cabin books for you to explore. I tried to choose a variety to show you here on the blog, but believe me – there are tons more out there just waiting to inspire your next Log Cabin quilt.

After enjoying your Log Cabin comments and quilt photos, it occurred to me that I have not done a Star block yet……..so today’s the day!

The Sawtooth Star Block

I chose an oldie, but a goodie for today – the Sawtooth Star.

Sawtooth Star is known by many names and has a lot of different variations. Apparently, it first appeared in print in the 1880’s or 1890’s in popular publications such as Farm and Fireside Magazine as well as in the Ladies Art Company catalog in 1895. The Sawtooth Star block was block # 5. Like most quilt blocks, however; Sawtooth Star blocks were probably being made long before they ever appeared in print.

Here is our classic 2 color Sawtooth Star block.

So, let’s make a quilt. Here are 20 blocks set side by side. This makes a lovely classic 2 color quilt, but of course we’re not going to stop there.

Here it is with sashing in between the blocks. Again, super classic. I do like how the sashing gives the stars room to breathe, plus this layout would be a lot easier due to not having to match up all those points. Win, win….

Let’s go back to our block and tweak it a little bit, shall we? Let’s change the solid center block into an Hourglass.

Here are the blocks set side to side. I find it interesting that I’m not seeing the stars so much now, but rather, all the triangles seem to jump out at me now. And I see “V” shapes, too. Huh.

Let’s tweak the block again by adding Half Square Triangles (HSTs) in the 4 corners.

Okay, now let’s set the blocks side by side in a quilt. Wow! There is so much more movement – almost to the point of being distracting. Really cool, though.

Let’s add a 3rd color to the blocks now.

Here is the same layout as above, but with the added 3rd color. It looks totally different and not as dizzying.

What if we add sashing again? Cool – we now have a Shoofly block where the sashing square meets the blue HSTs – this adds a lot of interest to the design. Liking this, but not quite there yet. Let’s keep tweaking.

I think the blocks look a bit heavy, so I’m going to lighten them up a bit by changing the inner blue triangles back to white. Yep, liking this one more.

I’d call this a finished design, so let’s add some fabric. Here it is featuring fabrics from QT Fabrics’ American Tapestry collection.

It’s a bit too vertical for me, though, so let me make one more tweak by alternating the direction of the blocks. Yes, I think that does it. This one’s a wrap!

But wait – I’m not done yet. I’m having way too much fun to stop now. Let’s go back to our block and tweak it a bit more by adding blue triangles on the sides only.

Here’s our updated block set side to side in a quilt. You totally lose the star block, don’t you? I like the horizontal repetition of the triangles, too.

Let’s add fabric! Here it is using the QT fabrics from American Tapestry again. Love it, yet……

One more tweak……let’s rotate every other block. Yup, that’s the one. Finished. Great movement – I can’t even see the stars now, can you?

Do you remember where we started? A classic 2 color Sawtooth Star.

YAY! This has been another fun quilt design adventure! Sew glad you came along.

If you’ve missed any posts in our Quilt Design Series so far, you can catch up below:

Playing with Nine Patch Blocks

Playing with the Spool Block

Playing with the Courthouse Steps Block

Stay tuned for next week when we explore another block in our Let’s Design a Quilt series. Any thoughts on another great block to explore?

See you next time!

Until then –

Sew. Laugh. Design. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD