Goldilocks and the Eensy-Weensy Sawtooth Star

3" Sawtooth Star Sashing Post Block, Paper Pieced

1 1/2 hours of aggravation yields ONE 3" paper pieced star

Having finished my first pineapple log cabin block the other day, I decided to switch gears and go back to the bear paw quilt yesterday.  I had this great idea about setting the blocks with white sashing and 3" sawtooth star sashing posts, so I spent an hour and a half paper piecing a 3" sawtooth star.  I hated every minute of it.  First of all, I was experimenting with vellum for my foundation paper, and to my dismay, the vellum curled up immediately from the heat of my iron.  This made it really difficult to keep my itty bitty fabric pieces nice and flat.  The vellum didn't grip the fabric as nicely as regular foundation paper or copy paper, either -- the fabric was prone to slipping.  Also, the sawtooth star had to be paper pieced in four separate units, and I just felt like the foundation paper added too much bulk even though I trimmed my seam allowances to 1/8" and the 50/3 cotton thread and size 90 quilting needle were all just WAY TOO BIG for the scale of the block I was piecing.  And my thread shows in the seams, too.  Yuck.  So, if 3" sawtooth stars are what I want for my bear paw quilt, I think I'm going to piece them using traditional methods, following Sally Collins' construction techniques for piecing miniature blocks.

The thing is, once I got that star up on the design wall next to the 10 1/2" bear paw blocks, I just didn't love it like I thought I would.  I think the scale is off, and the sawtooth star is just too small.  Instead of enhancing the bear paw blocks, I feel like the tiny sawtooth star makes the bear paws look too oversized and clunky.  See what I mean?

10 1/2" Bear Paw Blocks with 3" Sawtooth Sashing Post Block

The half square triangle units (HSTs) in the bear paw blocks are 1 1/2" square, and the HSTs in the sawtooth star block are only half that size, finishing at 3/4" square.  That is just looking weird to me -- I feel like these blocks don't belong in the same quilt.  Also, I can't really see enough of the gorgeous hand marbled fabric when the sawtooth star is so small.

I happened to have a 6" sawtooth star orphan block leftover from an "oops" on my Jingle BOM quilt, so I tossed that up on the wall just to see how that size would look with the bear paw blocks.  In a 6" sawtooth star, the HST units are the same 1 1/2" as the ones in the bear paw blocks:

Auditioning for Scale, 6" versus 3" Sawtooth Stars

Ignoring the fabric, doesn't the size of the larger sawtooth block look a little better?  Actually, this Goldilocks thinks that the 3" sawtooth star is too small, the 6" sawtooth star is too big, and perhaps a 4" sawtooth block will be just the right size.  A 4" sawtooth star block would also have a ruler-friendly 1" grid.  That's what I'll try next.

Meanwhile, I think it's time to start another pineapple log cabin block!  Since it's Wednesday, I'm joining up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced and WOW WIPs on Wednesday at Esther's blog.  I'm looking forward to seeing how everyone else's Love Entwined quilts are coming along.  Happy stitching, everyone!