Saturday School: Log Cabin PIn (p.88)

Log Cabin quilt blocks are studies in light and shadow. The fun comes when they are combined. Here are a few variations to try with your dark and light Stripe Blends.

Weekend Extra Exercises

1.  Play with the Spiral. Here’s the diagram showing the order to put the strips for a spiral effect. The construction is a little bit different than what you would expect.

Step One: Cut  a 1/4″ dark square for the center.

Step Two: Cut a 1/4″  light square and stack on top of the dark square.

Step Three and Four: Cut 1/4″ dark and light strips. Place the dark strip to the left of the squares and the light strip to the right and cut to line up with the stacked squares.  Rotate 90 degrees counterclockwise.

Step Five and Six: Repeat.

Step Seven though 16. Continue adding dark and light strips two at a time to either side until you have the size square you want.

2. Play with multiples of the Standard pattern. Quilters arrange log cabin blocks in many different traditional designs. If you want to try the standard pattern here’s a pdf version of the log-cabin-quilt-block-1 that is easy to follow.

3. The Spiral Log Cabin resembles the Greek Key motif. See if you can figure out the pattern.

TIPS

Work on an index card to make it easy to rotate your clay as you work.

Cut all the strips at the same time and have them ready to go.

Sometimes the yellow in the dark strip is lighter than the colors in the light strip. Squint so you can see the value contrast. Be sure to keep the dark strips dark in value and the light strips light in value to get the full effect of the pattern.

You don’t have to be precise with the width of your strips. A little variation adds interest!

The Standard Log Cabin.