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Here is a prime favorite of quilt makers for using silk scraps, and really for
a slumber robe or fancy counterpane, a Log Cabin, properly shaded in light
and dark is a thing worth cherishing. Old neckties, bits of sturdy ribbon,
soft wool with silks and velvets, come into a glorified reincarnation when
cut into inch or inch and a half wide strips varying from one to nine, eleven
or even thirteen inches in length, and sewed together as shown into blocks.
There is one center square of light, the very lightest, to two dark squares,
each 2 inches longer than the one preceding, and the two longest ones of
light to finish every block. Contrast between light and dark should be marked
with the lightest values for the smaller pieces toward the center. Long dark
strips may end with black each time, but should start with wine color, cinnamon
brown or such.
This pattern gives the first four "Logs" in the Log Cabin block. To make a
block 13 inches square as the small diagram indicates, extend the three
additional light and two additional dark logs 2 inches in length each time.
Another and perhaps more common way to build the "Logs" of color into blocks is
to start with one square each of dark and light sewed together into a little
oblong. Onto this sew a light oblong making a square. Onto this a dark oblong
of the same size, 1x2, so that it goes across the end of the square formed by
the little dark square and the end of the oblong.
From here on it is easy, alternating light and dark stripes of equal size but
each pair one square longer than the pair before. These additions rotate around
the center, right, bottom, left, top, right, etc., until a desired size block
is built. The light finishes all across one side diagonally and the dark across
the opposite.
Any Log Cabin quilt sets together entirely of pieced blocks, but there are at
least four ways of doing this. After you have unit blocks completed it is well
to experiment by laying them together for a plan you like best. With all dark
corners - say at the upper right - so rows of dark and light triangles stair-step
in even rows across the entire top, it is called "Straight Furrow."
A complete plan which backs four dark corners together for the quilt center,
with a surrounding square of twelve turned in light ones, this having 20 dark
halves around it, etc., is called the "Barn-Raising" - that is, if the whole is
diagonally placed.
Where light alternates with dark in twos or fours, it is just Log Cabin, and
all are lovely where the colors are rich.
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