I have found that heavily starching your fabric also helps, it tends to stretch out of shape less, the other is to finger press and use a dry iron or very very light steam only. Make sure you sew them all on the same machine, a minute difference using a different machine part way through, becomes larger with each round.

I want to second the comment on starching the fabric well before you start cutting. I learned that from someone here on QB and it has saved my quilts many times. I'm currently making a log cabin quilt using QAUG and it's easy to keep square using the basting stitches for the backing and batting. I was typing the same time as Squires and I second the other comments too!

I just watched Rose Ludlow's quick piecing log cabin quilt on her latest video. It was fantastic and well worth trying to find.
Her site is ludlowquiltandsew.co.uk. Love her she has a new video every month, free, and I save them all.

I read somewhere that when you cut fabric for Log Cabin Quilts it is best to cut the fabric along the length not the width of the fabric as there is less stretch.

I have used paper piecing for a log cabin quilt, but this time around I am just cutting 2.5 strips from each fabric, then sub-cutting after I sew each round. It's a little more work, however, by squaring the block up after adding one round, one black and one white, I keep the blocks from becoming "wonky" and I wind up with a nearly "perfect" 12" block, 11.5" finished. I hope this makes sense, but sewing this way, the strips don't get stretched, and I'm only trimming slivers off each round. I'll try to post a picture when the quilt is finished.

Whether you chain piece or not, I'd make the first block first. And I wouldn't cut all the pieces at once, but that's just me. I get bored cutting, then I get bored piecing, so I alternate it. It's probably not very efficient but it works for me and also gives me a chance to see if I'm doing something wrong before cutting all that fabric.

Jan,

Loved your post - so very informative! :)

Question: Do you cut your fabric WOF or LOF?

I recently read somewhere that LOF would alleviate wonky LC squares.

Actually, I cut my fabric from selvage to selvage - or WOF.......because: though I have up to 100 values of, say, blue or red or yellow in my stash, there may be less than 1/2 yard left of some of those fabrics in the particular value/print I need. I'd have too many 1/2 yard or 1/3 yard short strips if I cut on the LOF.

To make this log cabin, for instance, I had many different fabrics to cut, but only 2-3 strips of some of them. So I used less than 4" of some of those fabrics and was able to cut 42" long strips from that. To cut long strips otherwise, you'd have to have yardage. And I don't often DO yardage!

That's just my stash-building personality; if I'm out of one print, I have the opportunity for the creative challenge of finding another that will work and add texture to the quilt, but often the viewer's eye isn't aware of the *detail* of that in my finished quilt; they just know they "like it"!

Jan in VA

Jan,

Thanks for the logical reasoning - I need that sometimes! :)

Beautiful quilt BTW!

I've started my log cabin. I'm not cutting out all the pieces, but am sewing them on strips, then cutting them. I'm also trimming them as I go. I'm amazed at how "off" some of the pieces are even though I'm being careful. I think this is what caused my dilemma with the first log cabin I made. All my squares are now the same dimension and I'm not trying to make the fabric fit. It is taking longer to get through all 120 squares, but not frustrating at all. Thank you all for your help!