HOW TO MAKE A LOG CABIN QUILT PANEL

WHAT YOU NEED

 A ruler, I just use my large 24 x 6 in ruler, but other sizes are available. If they are comfortable for you then that is what matters.

 A rotary cutter, I use an Olfa 45mm soft grip retractable blade. This is primarily because I leave blades out and cut myself. The Olfa blades are, I believe, made in the same way that the Samurai swords.

A Cutting Mat. Again, I use Olfa cutting mats because they are made with the cutters in mind and I get more use out of the blades this way.

The fabric of your choice.

For this log cabin design, I have used 8 different fat quarters of Liberty’s Summer House Collection. It is so sumptuous and beautiful to work with and I truly believe it has made this project a dream to do.

From the fabric, you will need to cut your pieces as detailed below. I say I used 8 different fabric fat quarters, but it could be a waste if you use a FQ for one 4.5” x 4.5” square for this panel. Obviously, if you make a full-size quilt from a baby cot quilt up to a super king-size quilt then you will use all the FQ, and more but you will probably need more for the bigger cuts. I will try to work out the minimum fabric needed at the end of this post.  

For this one panel, you will need to cut the following from each different fabric. All measurements are in inches and any seam allowance is 1/4″.

1 X 4.5² Central Square Fabric 1

1 X 2.5 X 4.5 strip 1, Fabric 2

2 X 2.5 X 6.5 strip 3&4 Fabrics 3 & 4

2 X 2.5 X 8.5 Strip 5&6 Fabrics 5&6

2 X 2.5 X 10.5 Strip 7&8 Fabrics 7&8

1 X 2.5 X 12.5 Strip 9 from Fabric design 9

METHOD.

After cutting your material start with the 4.5” square and place it on your sewing desk.  I have started with a simple square from one material, but it is up to you how you start with this square. It could be a plain piece as here or it could be 4 smaller squares stitched together, two triangles, 4 triangles or a mix of all designs. The point of this is that with a basic log cabin design you can have virtually infinite fun at you sewing machine.

So, I have started with this initial square. To this place the next piece of fabric, which will be the 2.5” x 4.5” piece, to one side of the square with the fabric face to face. Stitch a ¼” seam all along the two fabrics. Turn the fabrics flat and iron the crease towards the darker fabric. This is just a precaution as the seams might show through later with the quilt.

Turn the initial square and the first fabric strip 90 degrees anti clockwise. Take your next piece of fabric and sew this with a ¼ inch seam as you did in the first sew. Press, turn and sew, press turn and sew until you have used all nine pieces of fabric.

That’s it. You have made your first Log Cabin panel.

Now all you need to do is repeat this 3,6,9,12 times or as many as you want to make your quilt.

Each panel is then stitched together in the same manner as above by putting two blocks or panels, fabric face side to face side then doing a 1/4 “seam down one side.

Repeat this a second time and you will have 3 panels stitched together in a row.

Repeat this again with another row of 3 then stitch this 3 to the three along the long side.

This will then give you a big block of 6 12” log cabin panels which should be close to a cot quilt size.

Next post.

Using a border to get the right size quilt.