2” squares
 

I’m starting a log cabin quilt with scraps from my moms sewing. She has some fabric already cut into 2” squares. The pattern I have calls for 2 1/2” for center. Also I have a 8” log cabin trim tool which the 2” squares I have so fit in the squares, but so I need the extra 1/2” for trimming?

Hello and welcome. Your strips can be used but it will make a smaller block, or maybe you will want to add an extra round.

Your logs will finish at 1.5" instead of 2".

Here's one site that you might find useful:
https://www.generations-quilt-patter...ilt-block.html

Just realized you might be starting with just the 2" squares and be cutting different sized strips -- yes, you can still use those in the center even with a different sized log. Usually the center most log is the same size or larger than the logs around it, but it doesn't have to be. Can be smaller too. It will still end up square.

The only problem I can foresee is that your blocks won't match your ruler -- but people were making log cabin blocks for a long time without much in terms of a ruler at all.

Thank you!!

Welcome to the QB from SE Michigan! Log cabin blocks have been made in different sizes for what now is centuries. You may want to make your logs cut at 2" so they come out at 1 12" logs is all Or you could still make them cut to use your original plan but your center will just be smaller. Nothing is set in stone. Just trim to the sides evenly and keep adding the logs as you go. Jump right in and join the fun here. I would love to hear more about you. Again Welcome to the QB.

I live north of Atlanta. We have friends who own a place in Northern Michigan in Glen Arbor. Its really pretty up there. I am a little concerned that the 2" squares my mom have already precut aren't completly even. Looks like she used a square pattern and cut them with a scissors. Looks like she traced them on the fabric and then cut them out. Do you think it will be ok after I sew them together with the logs? Or maybe I should just cut new one?

Gigi, hi & welcome! A little over two years ago, in a box of my mom's, I found several diamond shapes cut & pinned together. She also traced & cut with scissors. They weren't perfect or even, but I used them anyway to make a quilt & 2 pillows. Due to the uneven pieces, I lost some points when I sewed them together & the quilt wasn't flat, but I still love it. I made a lot of quilts that year, all because I started with her pieces. So I say, go ahead & use your mom's squares. You'll love having this memory of working with her pieces & it doesn't matter if it's perfect. I've read on the board "finished is better than perfect" & I agree!

Make a plastic or sandpaper template the finished size (1 1/2 ") and mark the actual stitching lines on the back of the wonkiest squares.

Log cabin quilt
 

I'm attempting to make a log cabin quilt using the 2" squares and scraps from my mom and only the second quilt I'll have made. I am almost done with the first block from the website I'm following: https://www.generations-quilt-patter...ilt-block.html
I just completed the 2"x14" log and it is 1/4" too long. Not sure if I should trim it or do I need to start over. I did noticed some of the material is thinner and is harder to match up and thought I should not use it. Just didn't know if I should scrap this block or will it be ok?

Unfortunately, some of what we learn while quilting is when to learn to listen to our hearts and minds and that's the hardest to do over the internet. I work mostly in scrap projects and think I'm willing to use some fabrics other people wouldn't.

So for me, I try to analyze what I am doing because that's the way my mind works. If the scraps are precious reminders of my mother and I don't think my skill set is high enough to do them justice, I put them away until I am ready for them. If they are just a useful object waiting to be used, then I use them up.

If the project I'm working on is a learning project, well -- as I had to say about one of my recent projects, I'll attempt perfection next time! Sometimes we find on a learning project that we learned everything we wanted to know without a final quilt at the end...

Sometimes I am doing some pretty well thought out arty things in my fabrics, other times I'm just slapping them together willy nilly. Typically I sew a bit every day, but I've been in a funk over being in lock down in Seattle and moped around the last couple of weeks, but now I'm sewing partly because it gives me a purpose.

It can be really confusing sometimes with our 1/4" seam allowance on whether our pieces are too big or not -- if it looks right it probably is even if the measurement isn't what you expect. But, if you've got a 1/4" nub sticking out, those would be trimmed off. While other people barely use them, I'm a pinner and pin about every 2", but well down below the foot of the sewing machine.

So I'm big on learning and starting and getting used to that 1/4" seam. Some people do jump right into quilting and get amazing results -- but most of us have to start somewhere and end up somewhere else. Try and keep your corners square and when you are at the size you wanted, trim them all to the same size, even if that means you have to add a log to some. Have fun and take deep breaths.

I have progressive vision issues and think at 60 and 40 years of quilting I only have maybe have only 10 years left. I'm re-learning to knit now without my contacts. It's honestly pretty awful but getting better all the time and I am so impressed with myself that I am doing it -- and that you are learning to quilt too. We do the best with what we have in materials and skills and we get better.