For many of us I bet the Traditional Log Cabin is one of the first quilts we made. I know some of you must still own Eleanor Burn's Log Cabin Quilt In A Day book! The Log Cabin is such a versatile block, colors can be planned or scrappy and there are just so many layout design possibilities.
I found myself intrigued when I started to see the Curved Log Cabin quilts, so I started exploring how they were made. It is quite simple actually. The curved look is simply achieved by cutting the light fabric strips thinner than the dark strips. Or you could reverse that and cut the dark fabric smaller and the light larger. As simple as that! In the examples below I show a traditional block compared to the curved block. In the curved block the dark was cut at 2.5" and the light at 1.5". You can see curve that is formed.
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| Traditional Log Cabin Block |
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Curved Log Cabin Block
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Well, now I needed to sew something for real, not just a block! I found a very pretty free pattern for a
Curved Log Cabin Table Runner from Jordan Fabrics. I made mine a bit smaller to fit my table. There is also a nice video to watch that I will put in a separate post below. It was so much fun to make and I just love it! It's fun that you are sewing all straight seams but end up with a circle!
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| My Curved Log Cabin Table Runner |
I found another free pattern called the
Curvy Jelly Roll Log Cabin from Jordan Fabrics. I made 36 of these blocks, but I made my blocks one round smaller as I wanted a smaller block. I wanted to make more blocks so I could show you some layout options, which is really the fun part! Jordan Fabrics also has a great video for the Curvy Jelly Roll Log Cabin if you are interested in that, I will put that in a separate posting below as well.
Now for some fun design options. I really don't know what I would do without my design wall, as I always am playing with different ways to lay things out. I found some designs for traditional log cabin layout options, and did those same layouts using my 36 pieced curved log cabin blocks.
Now I will show you how each design layout looks using the traditional block compared to the curved block.
Fields and Furrows
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| Traditional Fields and Furrows |
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| Curved Fields and Furrows |
Barn Raising
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| Traditional Barn Raising |
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Curved Barn Raising
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Below is what happens when you make a Curved Barn Raising Quilt but reverse the position of the light and dark fabrics. Quite a difference!
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Curved Barn Raising with lights and dark colors reversed
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Zig Zag and Streak of Lightening
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| Traditional Zig Zag |
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| Curved Zig Zag |
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Flip it the other way and call it Streak of Lightening
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Dark With Light
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| Traditional Dark With Light |
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| Curved Dark With Light |
So do you wonder what will happen if I reverse the dark and light colors? I thought you'd never ask! Well I will show you!
Light With Dark
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| Traditional Light With Dark |
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| Curved Light With Dark...a bit crooked! |
Arrow
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| Traditional Arrow |
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| Curved Arrow |
Star Burst
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| Traditional Star Burst |
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| Curved Star Burst |
And what if I reverse the colors on the Star Burst? I will show you!
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| Star Burst with Colors Reversed |
Stained Glass
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| Traditional Stained Glass |
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| Curved Stained Glass |
Navajo
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| Traditional Navajo |
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| Curved Navajo |
Whirligig
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| Traditional Whirligig |
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| Curved Whirligig |
Mountains
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| Traditional Mountains |
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| Curved Mountains |
And now I am going to show you what you get if you reverse the dark and light colors....do you suppose you will still get Mountains? I will show you! ;o)
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Curved Mountains with Colors Reversed
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No! You do not get Mountains at all, just BIG HILLS! Ha! Ha! I hope you have enjoyed my demonstration and the many fun design layouts that I have shown using the Curved Log Cabin Block.
There are many more Curved Log Cabin ideas out there if you search for them. I hope you will take the time to check out the two videos below that I mentioned, as well as one more from the Missouri Star Quilt Company. I hope you will be inspired as I was to give this fun and versatile block a try.
Laurie
