It's the little things

I should be finishing the top of the bear paw or pinwheels quilt, but since I had the fabric, I just couldn't resist starting my batik quilt.

A while back, Delighted Hands posted a Sawtooth star block she'd sewn. Next to paws, stars are my  favourite quilt block, and this one looked like something I could handle. When she told me it could be done with four charm squares, I knew I wanted to use my batiks!

 It took a little work, but I managed one. It's definitely more involved than anything I've done before so I'll be taking my time with this one. That said... I do still like some automation - and cutting all those little triangles for the stars rays just wasn't going to happen.

But just like my hourglass quilt, there's a way to make them out of charm squares.  To get eight (instead of two) from one charm square, you need to do things a little different.

Layer your fabrics together and draw a line from corner to corner

 Next, stitch a quarter inch from each side of both lines.

 Then cut along each line

 And cut each resulting triangle in half

 After a quick press... eight perfect little 2 inch squares.

It still takes time, but its much easier than cutting and sewing each tiny square.

My quilt will have 16 stars total, so I was able to chain sew and then cut all the little rays at once. It will just make assembly time that much smoother.