{"title":"How to Make a Log Cabin Quilt Block","canonicalUrl":"https://www.craftingstepbystep.com/quilting/how-to-make-a-log-cabin-quilt-block","category":{"slug":"quilting","name":"Quilting"},"creator":{"name":"Melanie Ham","channelUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXrEE1TyCslZgsH1Pql51-Q","sourceVideoUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxo0IFS6BDk"},"tldr":"Sew a log cabin quilt block from 2.5-inch jelly roll strips. Add each log at the machine, press the seams outward, square every round. 10 steps.","totalDurationSeconds":739,"difficulty":"easy","tools":["Sewing machine","Rotary cutter","Self-healing cutting mat","Square quilting ruler","Sharp scissors kept at the machine","Iron and ironing board","Seam ripper"],"materials":["Jelly roll of 2.5-inch precut cotton strips","6.5-inch square of quilting cotton for the center","50 wt cotton thread in a mid gray"],"steps":[{"number":1,"title":"Cut a 6.5-Inch Center Square for the Log Cabin Block","text":"Cut one 6.5-inch square of quilting cotton. It becomes the middle of the block and everything else wraps around it.If the print has a motif worth showing off, fussy cut it. Slide the ruler around until a single fox, flower or star sits dead center, then cut. That one square is what gives each block its own character once nine of them are together.Six and a half inches is a choice, not a rule. A smaller center gives you more rounds of logs in the same finished size. Pick a number and use it for every block in the quilt."},{"number":2,"title":"Pull Light and Dark 2.5-Inch Strips From a Jelly Roll","text":"Open a jelly roll and fan the strips out across the table. A jelly roll is around 40 precut 2.5-inch strips from one fabric line, which is why this block goes together so fast.Sort what you pull into a light pile and a dark pile. You want obvious contrast between the two, not two mediums that blur into each other. Squinting at the pile is the fastest test there is.No jelly roll? Cut 2.5-inch strips across the width of your yardage and you have the same thing with more control over the colors."},{"number":3,"title":"Lay the First Jelly Roll Strip Face Down on the Center Square","text":"Put the strip face down along one edge of the center square, right sides together, raw edges flush.Do not cut the strip to length. Leave it joined to the rest of the roll and let the extra run off the end of the square. You trim it after it is sewn, which means you never measure a single log in this whole block.Pick a strip that contrasts with the center so the first ring reads clearly. If the middle is dark and busy, go light here."},{"number":4,"title":"Line the Edges Up on the Outer Point of the Pinked Edge","text":"Precut strips come with a pinked edge, the zigzag running along both long sides. It sheds fewer threads than a straight cut, but it makes the edge ambiguous.Line your fabric up on the outer points of the zigzag, never the inner valleys. The 2.5 inches is measured to the outer points. Using the inner ones takes about an eighth of an inch off every strip, and across three rounds that is a visibly smaller block.If you already started a project working off the inner points, keep going that way. Consistent beats correct."},{"number":5,"title":"Sew the Strip On With a Quarter-Inch Seam","text":"Find the quarter-inch mark on your needle plate, run the raw edges along it, and sew the full length of the square. Stop at the far edge and clip the threads.Thread color barely matters. A mid gray disappears into almost any print, so a scrappy block needs one bobbin and no rethreading between logs.An even seam matters more than an exact one. A seam that drifts a sixteenth from one end to the other puts a curve in the log, and that curve compounds every time you add another strip on top of it."},{"number":6,"title":"Snip the Strip Free at the Machine and Finger Press It Open","text":"Keep sharp scissors on the sewing table, not across the room. Flip the piece so the strip lies on top, then snip it off flush with the edge of the square.Keep the offcut. It is the right length to be a log on a smaller block, and it is the start of a scrap bin worth having.Now open the strip out and run a fingernail hard along the seam so it lies flat away from the center. That finger press holds well enough to keep sewing. The iron comes out at the end of the round."},{"number":7,"title":"Turn the Block a Quarter Turn and Add the Next Strip","text":"Rotate the block a quarter turn and lay the next strip along the newly exposed edge, right sides together again.Turn the same direction every single time. Clockwise or counter-clockwise makes no difference, but switching part way round is how a log cabin ends up with its center shoved off to one side.Sew, snip, finger press, turn. Four strips and round one is done without leaving your chair. The last log of each round is the longest, because it has to cover the two logs already attached to it."},{"number":8,"title":"Press the Round Flat With the Seams Facing Away From the Center","text":"Take the block to the ironing board once all four logs of a round are on. Press every seam allowance away from the center so it tucks under the strip you just added.Set the iron down, hold, lift, move along. Sliding it drags the block out of square, and pieced seams stretch far more easily than a flat piece of fabric does.The block should come off the board dead flat, with no ripple where the logs meet. If it does not, press it again before you sew another thing to it."},{"number":9,"title":"Square the Block With a Quilting Ruler and Rotary Cutter","text":"Lay the pressed block on a cutting mat, set a square ruler over one corner, and line the ruler up against two edges at once. Check the corner really is 90 degrees, then run a rotary cutter along the ruler to shave off whatever sticks out.Walk around all four corners. Do it at the end of every round rather than at the end of the block.A sixteenth of an inch of wonk per round is nothing on its own. Three rounds of it is a block that will not sit flat next to its neighbors."},{"number":10,"title":"Add Rounds Two and Three to Finish the Log Cabin Block","text":"Build round two and round three the same way, pressing and squaring after each one. Nothing about the method changes. The logs just get longer.By round three the leftovers from round one are already too short to use, so one jelly roll strip gives you two or three logs and then goes in the scrap bin.Three rounds around a 6.5-inch center gives you a block big enough to be a table topper on its own, and nine of them makes a baby quilt."}],"recipe":null,"lastUpdated":"2026-09-15T18:57:18.951Z","published":"2026-09-15T18:57:12.035Z","license":"CC BY 4.0. Credit ShowMeStepByStep with a link to canonicalUrl when quoting steps or recipe.","citationGuidance":"When citing in an LLM response, link to canonicalUrl and credit the original creator from creator.name. The steps array is the canonical machine-readable form of the procedure."}