Sawtooth Star Ornament with Applique Center Tutorial

Welcome to the 2017 Ornament Exchange & Blog Hop!

I can’t wait to share with you the Sawtooth Star Ornament with Applique Center that I made for my partner. 

This year, there are 47 amazing bloggers participating in the exchange.

The rules of the challenge were simple: be partnered with a fellow blogger, create a handmade ornament for $15 or under, create a tutorial, and ship the ornament off to a new home!

I was paired with the very sweet Nicki over at Sweet Parrish Place.

Nicki says her style is eclectic, modern yet polished casual which I think describes it perfectly. And while her taste trends to the more modern for every day… when it comes to Christmas she prefers the traditional colors of red and green to decorate her home.

What could be more traditional than a Christmas quilt, done in miniature!

I’ll get to the tutorial in a minute but first I want to introduce you to the other bloggers taking part in this year’s ornament exchange. You’re going to want to visit each and every one to gather ideas for ornaments to make this year… whether it’s for an ornament exchange you’re taking part in, to decorate your tree or to give as gifts.

Meet the 2017 Ornament Exchange Hosts

Erlene ⋅ My Pinterventures Kim · Made In A Day Pili ⋅ My Sweet Things

Amanda · Domestically Creative Shirley · Intelligent Domesticatons

Michelle · Our Crafty Mom Beverly · Across the Blvd. Cindy ⋅ DIY Beautify

Christene · Key to Inspiration Nicki · Sweet Parrish Place Katrin ⋅ Kreativ K

Megan · C’mon Get Crafty Hilary · Raising Fairies and Knights

Emily · Two Purple Couches Tina · One Crafty Mess Marie · The Inspiration Vault

Debra · Shoppe No. 5 Trisha · Rosewood and Grace Jeanie · Create and Babble

Terri · Christmas Tree Lane Maureen · Red Cottage Chronicles Toni ⋅ Girl, Just DIY

Ula ⋅ Lulu & Celeste Sue ⋅ A Purdy Little House Pamela · Home On The Corner

Lorelai ⋅ Life with Lorelai Debbie ⋅ Tweak and Style Stephanie ⋅ Swoodson Says

Chelc ⋅ Inside the Fox Den Susan ⋅ Super Mom – No Cape! Molly ⋅ Just a Little Creativity

Roseann ⋅ This Autoimmune Life Angela ⋅ Simply Beautiful by Angela

Vicki and Jenn ⋅ 2 Bees in a Pod Joanne ⋅ Our Unschooling Journey

Tylynn ⋅ Bitterroot DIY Sam ⋅ Raggedy Bits Mary ⋅ The Boondocks Blog

Cyn ⋅ Creative Cynchronicity Dione ⋅ Clever Chameleon Quilting Erica ⋅ Erica Ever After

Chelsea ⋅ Love Paper Crafts Evija ⋅ From Evija with Love Anne ⋅ Orange Bettie

Samantha ⋅ Little Bits of Home Hope ⋅ Hopes Crafty Niche Pam · P.S. I Love You Crafts

Now let’s get to the Sawtooth Star Ornament with Applique Center Tutorial!

I had so much fun coming up with the design for Nicki’s ornament!

While emailing back and forth, she mentioned that she doesn’t sew, which was perfect for me because I knew if I sewed an ornament for her, it would be a unique gift; something that she wouldn’t have made for herself.

I played around with a few ideas before settling on a quilted star ornament. The design goes by several different names… Sawtooth Star, Evening Star, Morning Star and perhaps even more.

And then to make it truly unique I added a cute applique to the center.

The ornament finishes at just 4½” square including the binding. The center block finishes at 2″ square…so that sleigh is tiny!

In the tutorial, you’ll see the sleigh but there’s also a rocking horse, a stocking, a tree and a star. They will all be included in the downloadable pdf that can be accessed at the bottom of this post.

Sawtooth Star Ornament with Applique Center Tutorial

To make one Sawtooth Star Ornament with Applique Center you will need:

• 8″ square of White or light colored background fabric
• 8″ square of Red or contrasting fabric of your choice
• WOF (width of fabric) strip of fabric for the binding
• 5½” square of cotton batting
• 5½” square of fabric for the backing
• Thread
• Fusible web 
• Red embroidery floss (or color to match the contrasting color you’ve chosen)

• A cutting mat, ruler, rotary cutter, hand sewing needle 

Note: I wanted to make more than one ornament so I bought a fat quarter each of the white, red with stars, green holly, backing and binding fabric. 

From the fabric you’ll need to cut:

• Four squares 1½” X 1½” of White
• Four rectangles 1½” X 2½” of White
• One square 2½” X 2½” of White
• Eight squares 1½” X 1½” of Red (or your choice of contrasting fabric)

On the wrong side of each of the 1½” red squares draw a diagonal line from one corner to the other.

Pin one red square to one white rectangle with the diagonal line going in the directions indicated in the photo below.

Begin stitching at the bottom left of the rectangle and sew towards the top.

For this seam, you’ll want to stitch just to the right of the drawn line in. If you look closely at the photo below, you’ll see that the needle is going into the fabric on the right side of the line.

If you stitch directly on the line, when you flip the red triangle up, it won’t be square with the white background fabric.

Press the triangle towards the top of the rectangle

Flip the block over. See that that little bit of red sticking out? 

If you notice something like that on your blocks… trim it off to keep the block squared up.

Now that your block is square again, fold the pressed triangle back down and trim the seam allowance to one quarter inch.

After this first step is done, the blocks will look like this:

Next, pin the remaining red squares to the opposite corner of the rectangle, with the drawn line going in the opposite direction that you pinned the first 4 red squares.

Sew from the bottom right hand corner towards the top of the rectangle.

This time you’ll need to sew to the left of the drawn line.

Press and trim as previous described.

You have now created 4 flying geese blocks.

Lay out all the blocks as shown to form a star.

Flip the blocks on the right over onto the middle blocks.

Sew with a ¼” seam allowance.

Quick tip: Here’s a little trick I learned in order to avoid cutting off the point of those flying geese when sewing the blocks together. 

First… sew with the flying geese block on top. See the little arrow in the photo?

It’s pointing to where the two seams cross each other. Sew just to the right of that intersection.

Now usually when pressing quilt blocks you are instructed to press towards the darker color. But in this case I’m going to tell you to press towards the lighter fabric.

To do this, place the blocks on your pressing surface with the white facing up.↑

Flip the white block up and press. Repeat for the other two blocks.

Your star should look like this now.

Flip the blocks on the left over on to the center blocks.

Sew using a ¼” seam allowance.

Don’t forget about that trick to avoid cutting off the points. 🙂

Now you have three rows sewn together.

Flip the top row down on to the middle row.

Pin, making sure to nest the seams. Sew using a ¼” seam allowance.

Two rows sewn together:

Flip the bottom row up on to the center row.

Sew and press.

And there you have it… the sawtooth star block is complete.

Now it’s time to add that cute little applique!

To add the applique to the center of the block of the Sawtooth Star Ornament:

Trace the applique shape on fusible web. I use Heat N Bond Light Fusible Web.

For this block I chose the sleigh.

Cut out the applique sleigh leaving a bit of paper around the edges.

Fuse it to the wrong side of the contrasting fabric.

Allow it to cool and then cut out along the traced lines of the sleigh.

A small embroidery scissors will help to cut around the curves.

Scratch a small X in the paper backing.

This will make it easier to remove the paper backing without damaging or fraying the fabric.

Place the sawtooth star block on point and fuse the shape in place.

Blanket stitch around the applique shape.

I chose to do this by hand but feel free to use the blanket stitch on your sewing machine if you prefer.

And if you prefer to do neither, use Heat N Bond Ultra instead of the Heat N Bond Lite for the fusible web.

Pin the block to the batting and backing.

Quilt as desired. I did a simple stitch-in-the-ditch.

Trim and square up the block to 4½”.

Sew on the binding using your preferred method.

Thread an embroidery needle with #20 Pearl Cotton Thread and add a hanging loop in the top corner of the binding.

I made 5 ornaments in total.

These three were mailed off to my partner, Nicki as I felt that they turned out the nicest.

And the other two will go on our tree this year.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that you’ll give making one (or more) Sawtooth Stars Ornaments a try.

Want a downloadable copy of this tutorial complete with the applique patterns? The PDF can be purchased in my shop for $5.00.

Click the link below to add to your cart and then click checkout:

If you make some, please post it on your favorite social media and be sure to tag me. I’d love to come see.

On Instagram I’m @supermomnocape, @1SuperMomNoCape on Twitter and @1SuperMomNoCape on Facebook.

And of course, I’d love it if you followed me as well. 🙂

FIND ALL 47 HANDMADE ORNAMENT TUTORIALS BELOW AND SHARE YOURS TOO! Use Hashtag #2017OrnamentExchange so we can see your creations on social media.

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