Log Cabin Quilt Block Patterns

Here we have our traditional log cabin block. And the reason it's called a traditional log cabin block is because it has a square in the center, half the logs are light and half the logs are dark. We'll talk about other variations of log cabin blocks in a while. I also wanted to show you a couple different blocks that I've made that are also traditional log cabin blocks. As you'll notice, it still has the half side that's light and half dark but all of my light logs are the same.

They're just an unbleached muslin. And every log on the dark side is a different color, different fabric. And I'll just flip through a couple of these for you. Again, this is just a traditional log cabin block where I've used different fabrics for each of the logs. One little note that I'd like to add about log cabin blocks in general, you'll notice that there's a red square in the center.

And log cabin blocks have a lot of symbolism, dating back to the early days of making log cabin blocks. The red in the center of your block symbolizes the hearth in the center of the home. And if there's a yellow center it symbolizes a light in the window for travelers when they're coming home. I mentioned that there's a lot of different quilt layouts that you can make using these blocks. I've designed several quilt layouts in Electric Quilt Software.

And I've exported JPEG's on to my computer just so that you could see it in a larger view. So if you have Electric Quilt on your computer at home, it's not going to look just like this. So the first one that I've got here, is just where the blocks are set in a normal, just all in the same orientation. Now the second one, you can see the arrangement of the logs and the blocks forms a star. You can see a star in the center here with some radiating logs around them.

This third one is typically referred to as a streak of lightening. So the bands of color form zig zags down the quilt. This arrangement is typically referred to as sunshine and shadows, where the lights come together in four blocks and it forms the sunshine and the darks come together in four blocks and form the shadows. I'm not sure that this one actually has a name of it's own, but it's just an X that's formed by the arrangement of the blocks. This one is typically referred to as the barn raising arrangement.

And you can think of it as starting to build a barn in the center and working your way out. And that's how the logs in these blocks are arranged. And this one has been referred to as the fields and furrows arrangement. So the dark logs and light logs all form diagonal bands of color going down the quilt. This is just one that I was playing with, rotating the blocks in different directions.

I thought it formed a very interesting design. And this is another X but this time, the light logs come together in the center but still forms an X design. So there's lots of different ways you can play with your Electric Quilt Software to make these different quilt arrangements just by rotating blocks, trying different things. But if you don't have Electric Quilt or any other kind of design software on your computer, you can also use paper and make little paper blocks. So what we've got here is a piece of paper that has a plain square, plain log cabin block and a colored one.

And this is a PDF that's included on your DVD so you can print these and play with your own arrangements. You can color your own block, if you have fabrics that you'd like to use. Or you can just use our colorings here. So the other thing you can do is take blocks, and I've made several copies of these colored blocks, and work with some different arrangements. So one thing that I thought of that I didn't do in Electric Quilt is to arrange the blocks in like a pinwheel design.

And you can do this with all of your blocks. And then you can get an idea of what your quilt would look like with this arrangement. So you can see some radiating pinwheels here. Another thing you could do is arrange them so they form like little peaks. And have all the rows be the same.

Something like this. I printed lots of copies of these, so I mean, you could do the same. You can play with lots of different block variations and come up with some really fun quilt designs. Now again, you could even turn these blocks upside down. So there's lots of different arrangements.

And the idea is just to play with something until you come up with something that you like. So again, you can alternate every other row, rotate them any direction. So many different possibilities. So what I'd like to do is show you just a few of my quilts. Some different variations that I've made.

So we'll get these out of the way. So one of these arrangements that I've made with my traditional log cabin blocks. Not sure there really is any pattern to this. It was just a fun arrangement that I came up with where I've turned them different directions. I've got these here and then more of like a little point here.

Some of these going the other direction. Just kind of a random orientation of the different blocks to come up with some fun zig zag lines in different places on the quilt. Again, it was fun to take these blocks, lay them out, find something that I liked and then sew them together. So let me show you a few others that I have. Okay now I'm gonna give you a little warning, don't try this at home, these are very tiny logs.

I think I must have been crazy when I was sewing these. I did these for a period of a few years and then I got over it. But if you look at these, these are little tiny log cabins here and you can see the arrangement that I've made was similar to something I showed you on the Electric Quilt Software. Where there's a star that's formed right here, different color forms a band here. And then different colors that form a band here.

One thing you might notice in this one, most of the blocks are the traditional coloring, where there's half light and half dark logs. But once in a while, I made them, still different colors on both sides, but they have more of a dark effect. And that's something you can try too. Like I said the traditional log cabin has half light and half dark. This one is all light.

And that's something that I needed to do for this design just to make the arrangement that I wanted. So another one that I have, again using these crazy tiny logs, that my kids would probably say was a phase I was going through, is to make a star design. Another type of star design, almost looks like a little Christmas poinsettia with some leaves coming out. Just the traditional log cabin block with a different arrangement. This one is just a little bit different in that I have some solid log cabins in the middle But it forms a Christmas tree, where I colored some brown log cabin blocks to make the trunk and then just some green ones to make the tree.

And then one more that I have this one I arranged the traditional blocks to form a basket. Here's the top with this kind of medium purple shade. And then in the center is a solid colored log cabin block that's colored all with the same color logs. Now you'll notice that the frame is half of a log cabin block. And what I did was sew a log cabin where each round was the same color.

So all four sides were the same instead of half light and half dark. And once I got a large log cabin, then I cut in half and used it to make the frame. So I made two of these large log cabin blocks, cut it in half and then used that for the frame. So you can see there's lots of different variations and ways you could arrange these blocks and play with them and come up with some really fun designs.