The Sawtooth Star traditionally is made with a large center square that has a flying goose on each side, with a plain square in each corner. I assume you're asking about the flying geese, since they are the triangles. There are several methods for making flying geese.
1. The original, traditional method involves cutting precise triangles for the geese and for the sky, and then sewing the sky pieces onto the goose piece. It's a lot of work, but it wastes less fabric and looks nice. This is probably the first method you mentioned.
2. The easiest method is to create the goose using two half square triangle pieces sewn together. This is fine if your goose fabric is a solid, nearly solid, or busy print. It doesn't work with directional prints, or ones that have a very evident pattern. If you are sewing a lot of these, you can use papers to create your half square triangles (Thangles, Triangle Paper, or Triangles on a Roll). It is MUCH easier, not to mention faster.
3. If you want to stay with the single piece of fabric for the goose, you can sew squares onto the corners of a rectangle, then trim the excess fabric. It's easy because you just sew along the diagonal of the square, then trim the excess. However, you waste a lot of fabric this way. I think this is what you tried to do - the problem sounds like you were using squares that were too small. You should sew the first square, trim, press it back, then sew the second square so it overlaps the top of the first square, forming the point 1/4" from the top center.
4. For less waste, try getting a special Square in a Square ruler. You sew strips onto the sides of a square, then trim the strips to form a square in a square. Depending on where you trim, you can then cut them in half to form two flying geese, or you can cut them in quarters to form four half square triangles. The down side to this method is the need for a special tool, and the need for some mildly complicated math. Instead of providing a chart showing sizes of squares and strips to create sizes of flying geese units, she gives you a mathematical equation. Kind of a pain.
5. Eleanor Burns has a flying geese method that's pretty slick. This also uses a special tool, but it's less expensive and easier to use. You can actually make these using her method and a regular ruler - see the link below for instructions. I've seen it demonstration, and it's remarkably easy.
6. Finally, have you considered paper piecing? I paper piece some flying geese units using a freezer paper method. You fold the freezer paper back and sew along the folded edge rather than sewing through the paper. After trimming, you peel the paper off and reuse it. For the Sawtooth Star you would need to piece TWO small flying geese units, and ONE longer unit that has the center square and a flying goose on either side.How do you easily piece a sawtooth star quilt?Here are easy-to-follow instructions:
http://www.quilterscache.com/S/SawtoothB鈥?/a>
This one is slightly different: http://www.mccallsquilting.com/qb/patter鈥?/a>
And here is another variation: http://www.delawarequilts.com/BOMs/BlueS鈥?/a>How do you easily piece a sawtooth star quilt?hello i am joAnna new to quilting ,. I found a site that is a huge help . It has help me learn the nine patch. I read this and thought I would share this site with you .http://www.quilterscache.com/index.html I have no right to this site it just help me learn basic quilting in terms I understand lol hope this helps you .JoAnna from Texas
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