GramMER

When I first started quilting many years ago, one of my first quilts was a Log Cabin. Actually I got carried away cutting the strips and had way more than necessary to make one, but it is probably a good thing. That was during the days before roller cutters and hard plastic rulers. I used a wooden yardstick, a pencil and a pair of scissors to make my strips. You probably could finish telling the story from here, but my pencil became dull over the course of a few cuttings and then the pencil lines I used to cut my strips grew wider and my strips grew more and more uneven and... I eventually got enough good, standard sized blocks to make a queen sized quilt, but I had to cull out so many other strips because they were of ever growing widhts. Cutting on a pencil line is not an exact science anyway and a pencil line that grew wider as the pencil become duller was a nightmare! As most of you know, yardsticks can warp and become curved too. I had gone to a lot of trouble to find a good straight one, but my kids probably played with it and so it was useless too.

I say all that to say that one finished block has to be the same size as every other finished block for a Log Cabin to look nice. I finally made mine match all the seams and finished it and even hand quilted it, but it was a nightmare to make all the corrections.