Sunday, December 21, 2014

A Quilt Block a Day: Winter Edition

Happy Solstice! Today we celebrate the return of the sun, and the days will begin to get longer. Plus, it's the first day of Winter. So we get to start a new "Quilt Block a Day."

The idea behind "A Quilt Block a Day" comes from Karen Snyder of Anna Lena Land. Karen writes, "So you don't have time to make a quilt? But you can make one block a day!"

For Winter, I think the perfect block is the Log Cabin. Cozy, easy, and a great scrap-buster! Here is my tutorial for my favorite method of making lob cabin blocks. As the season unfolds, I'll share different methods and different styles of log cabins.

The very first quilt I ever made was a Log Cabin quilt made from blue and mauve cotton polyester -- it was 1976, everyone was using blue and mauve, and 100% cotton was almost nonexistent.  This was long before rotary cutters, so we snipped the selvedge and tore across the width of each fabric to make 2 1/2" wide strips.  As the strips were sewn together, the excess fabric was cut off.  When all the blocks were made, their sizes sometimes varied as much as an inch.  Thirty years later, Marti Michell designed a ruler just for log cabin quilts.  Using her technique, every block comes out square and the same size.  I've been saving 1 1/2" strips to "someday" make a scrappy log cabin quilt.  And today is "someday."

I wanted a larger center, so it is cut 3 1/2" square.


The ruler is designed so the only markings are what you need to cut each "log" for your quilt. 


I began with size "c" and cut enough "logs" to have three lights and three darks on each block.


Here are the first two finished blocks.  My blocks are 9 1/2" raw edge-to-raw edge.  That means the 90 blocks we make for the Winter BaD season will be perfect for a full-size bed quilt.


I hope you'll share your Autumn Maple Leaves blocks on the
"A Quilt Block a Day" Facebook page!



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