Scrappy Rebuilt Log Cabin

I'll never get all these photos in one post so ... I'll have to do it in installments.

Like most of us, I have scraps -- a lot of them, and even though none of them 'match' anything else, I feel compelled to use them. I've had several days of 'I just gotta speed sew!' I have the good sense to maintain a box of precut strips and the result is these 51 log cabin blocks. You might notice I've not been very careful at the edge -- I even patched a log or two - not to worry - I have a plan.

My strips are cut 1 1/2 inch, and I made 5 rounds, with center of 1 inch finished, so the block is about 11 1/2 inches. My sewing is very casual -- I KNOW it will be wonderful when finished! I've made this about 6 times previously - it's wonderful and inventive!
See the chalk line? I made a square cardboard template of 8 1/2 inches and chalk marked around it. I put the points of the template right to the edge. You want an interesting tilt, or angle - mine was about 30 degrees. (45 degrees is too big.) Now, cut along the lines on each side. Be sure to tilt them all in the same direction either all right or all left. It gets tooooo confusing (for me) to mix that tilt both ways!

OK, now exchange each corner with the opposite side. (Hmmmm, what if I just moved each side forward one side ... (OK, Elaine, save that for another day).

I trimmed all 51 blocks, one at a time, then placed the cut-off corners on the block they came off of (so they didn't get mixed up with the next block) until I had a stack of all 51.


Sew those corners back on. It's hard to figure exactly where to start sewing with those skinny points so I found that if I lined up the large corner first, the rest sewed down well. I could almost sew all 4 down, without cutting the thread. You may want to trim off some extra seam points that get in the way.