Eden – Sawtooth Star Quilt – Riley Blake Designs

Hi friends! It’s Alyssa from Hark Quilts. I have been looking forward to making this quilt for a long time and am so excited to finally share it with you.

This lovely collection, Eden, is designed by Gabrielle Neil and features geometric stripes, sprigs of flowers, scattered blossoms, adorable strawberries, and a leaf and grid design. I love the mixture of beautiful florals and bold geometrics.

Eden is one of my favorite collections of all time, with its use of many types of florals and of course the amazing saturated colors. I try to pick neutrals every now and then, but my heart just prefers bold colors. I wrote a blog post about another of Gabrielle Neil’s collections for Riley Blake about a year ago, her incredible collection The Waterhole. That quilt I made with The Waterhole is definitely one of my favorites I’ve ever made. Gabrielle Neil Design doesn’t miss! Check out her website or Instagram for more stunning designs.

Sometimes when I love a collection of fabric so much I tend to be paralyzed by indecision and the fabric sits unused for months, even years. With Eden, the decision was easy because I knew immediately I wanted to make a sawtooth star quilt with these gorgeous fabrics. Sawtooth star quilts are my favorite type of quilt because of their timeless look and quick assembly.

Note: the list of fabrics I used can be found at the end of this post.

Although the blocks assemble rather quickly, the flying geese do require some time and attention. I’ve found some great tutorials through the years and enjoy the no-waste method. A quick google search will reveal many awesome videos and tutorials.

Sawtooth star blocks are one of the most recognizable quilting blocks. It is made from a larger central square surrounded by four flying geese blocks and four smaller squares at the corners. There are countless quilt patterns containing sawtooth stars, but my introduction to them came from Then Came June’s Offset Star Quilt free pattern.

I’ve made a few baby quilts using this free pattern from Then Came June a few times and I think it turns out so darling each and every time.

This rocket-themed quilt above was made for my first baby from fabrics in my stash and I was so excited with how the bright colors all came together. A few years later and a million washes later it’s held up so well. The pink quilt below was such a fun fabric combo with the sage green, pinks, and caramel brown. As usual I had a sweet little companion wanting to get in on the photoshoot—he likes to sit down right on top of whatever I’m working on.

Now I know you’re just dying to know some brief history about the sawtooth star, so I’ve condensed my findings into some simple bullet points for your enjoyment:

It is theorized that the sawtooth star block got its name from the right angle triangles that resemble the teeth on the cutting edge of saws (source: Threadbare Creations).
The pattern for this block was first published in 1884 in the Farm & Fireside magazine when it became widely known as the sawtooth star (source: Suzy Quilts).
Other names for the block include Evening Star, Variable Star, Morning Star, and North Star (source: Loopy’s Place).
Below you’ll find a photo of a mid 19th century sawtooth star block. It’s fun to see the same exact quilt block from nearly 200 years ago. “1840 – 1860 “Evening Star” Pieced Quilt” (source: National Museum of American History)

I took this quilt with me on a recent trip to visit family and my angel mother-in-law pressed everything for me *insert a billion crying and heart emojis*. It was the sweetest act of service after a tiring day of sick kids and it meant so much to me because I really dislike the ironing/pressing steps. One step I LOVE, however, is deciding the layout of the blocks. My go-to method is to squint my eyes to blur the shapes and colors in order to tell where to move contrasting blocks around and catch awkward layouts before sewing. Another method (more reliable, in fact) is to take a photo of your block layout and then make the photo grayscale. I saw this on instagram years back and it’s quite clever. This helps to identify saturated/dark colors easily that otherwise might be tricky to spot.

These two blocks below ended up being some of my favorites. I laughed when I inserted the photos into this blog post upon realizing that they’re the exact same fabrics, just in different colorways.

I added 3 inch sashing around the star blocks to make the quilt a large throw (about 75″x75″) and am planning to back it with a cozy flannel or cuddly minky. I’m so thrilled with how it turned out and am excited to enjoy these happy, bright fabrics for years and years to come.