How to Create a Sawtooth Star Quilt Block in Affinity Designer
Part 3 of the Affinity for Quilters Series
I’m Kelly, and if you’re designing quilt patterns and want to use Affinity Designer instead of Adobe, you’re in the right place. This post is part of my Affinity for Quilters series, where we learn step by step how to design quilt blocks and layouts in Affinity Designer.
Affinity Designer is now free with a Canva login, so you can use professional‑level tools without a subscription.
In this tutorial, we’ll build a classic sawtooth star block using simple shapes and tools like the rectangle tool, pen tool, and shape builder tool. Once you understand these basics, you’ll be able to create flying geese, quarter‑square triangles, and many other blocks.
If you haven’t set up your workspace yet, check out
Watch the Video: Sawtooth Star Block Tutorial
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Tools We’ll Use
Rectangle Tool
Pen Tool
Shape Builder Tool
Move and Align Tools
Step‑by‑Step Sawtooth Star Block
1. Start with a New Document
Open Affinity Designer and choose your saved template (for example, a 12‑inch block setup from Part 1). If the tool panels don’t show automatically, go to Window > Studio > Quilt Studio to bring them up.
2. Adjust Your Artboard
You should see a 12‑inch art board. If you created an unfinished 12.5‑inch setup earlier, change it to a finished 12‑inch art oard so your blocks divide evenly later.
3. Prepare the Grid
Ensure your grid and snapping are on so shapes snap to the correct positions as you draw. A 4×4 grid will let you divide the art board into 3‑inch sections, which is perfect for constructing the sawtooth star.
4. Create the First Squares
Select the Rectangle Tool and draw a 3×3 square. Because snapping is enabled, it should snap exactly to the grid. This will be one of the core shapes in your block.
Use the Option (Mac) / Alt (Windows) key while dragging to duplicate the square. Place duplicates as needed to start building the shape layout for your sawtooth star.
5. Make Half‑Square Triangles
Select the Pen Tool and click on one corner of your square, then click on the opposite corner to draw a diagonal line. Switch to the Move Tool, select both the diagonal line and the square, and then choose the Shape Builder Tool
With Shape Builder, choose “Create a new shape from the selected area and remove used areas from the original objects” (the plus option). Click the top triangle and then the bottom triangle to form two half‑square triangles. Delete the extra line.
Repeat with another square to make a second pair of triangles.
6. Assemble the Block
Arrange your six shapes (four squares and two half‑square triangles) into the top of the sawtooth star layout. Duplicate and flip shapes using the Option (Alt) key and the align tools to the bottom of the screen.
Flip shapes as needed (vertical and horizontal) to complete the full sawtooth edges around your centre square.
7. Add the Center Square
Use the Rectangle Tool to draw a 6×6 square in the centre of your block.
8. Fine‑Tune Your Block
To focus on the block details, you can turn off the grid with View > Show Grid. Select all outer corner pieces and change their colour using the colour panel. Use your colour picker to match colours similar to any reference you’re working with.
9. Add Additional Half‑Square Triangles
Duplicate the two sets of half‑square triangles from the top of the star, drag to the side position and flip shapes using the align tools to fill the gap.
Use the same technique to create the additional half‑square triangles needed on the sides of your block. Drag and snap each piece into place using the grid and snapping settings.
Final Block and What You’ve Learned
Your sawtooth star block is complete. You’ve just used the rectangle tool, pen tool, shape builder tool, grid snapping, and alignment tools to build a traditional block entirely inside Affinity Designer. These same techniques will apply when you build other blocks and quilt designs.
If this has been helpful, please like the video and subscribe on YouTube to get notified when new tutorials in this series are released. Each video will build on the tools you’ve learned and show you more ways to design quilts digitally.
Resources and Next Steps
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