Log Cabin oops....can I fix this?
 

I am in process of making 42 log cabin squares for a quilt featuring the logo of Indiana University. The pattern is kind of confusing, and in mostly black and white. I am chain piecing, having all 42 blocks done up to the 4th log.....at least I thought. As I was starting the 5th log, I discovered my mistake....the 4th log is positioned on the wrong side of the cream center. My question is this....can I continue to place the logs (in the correct positions)? And how obvious will the misplaced logs be? Each block finishes at 5 inches, so they are relatively small. I could just kick myself for not realizing the error quicker and really dont want to rip them all out if I don't have to.

What this will do is make the red square the center, and the cream one will be off center. If you can live with that, go ahead. If you want the cream to be in the center, it is frog time. There may be a way to add more red on one side to make the cream the center, but your blocks will be larger than your pattern calls for, and may need adjustment to other elements.

Personally, if all the blocks are pieced the same, I would say it's a design element. SInce it's near the center it's less noticeable. If you're not convinced, I would completely piece one or two of your blocks and see what the finished product will be.

On a correct block, there are 9 logs, with 2 on each side of the cream center....so I could still add pieces to finish the block, but they won't be in true log cabin order.

It would bother me , so I would be ripping them all out, and saying a few choice words.

Maybe do a spiral instead of a log cabin? I do not even know if that is a quilting term- but if you look at your block you will notice that you can begin in the center and spiral out to the two medium reds to the one longer red. If you put a longer red on the bottom of the white and then a longer red going around - it maybe would look okay.

I don't know enough about log cabin blocks....having only made one block as part of a guild project...but I know I wouldn't want to rip out one "log" from 42 blocks. I would just figure out a way to like what I had. Or, I would "Stay calm and carry on" (my new favorite saying) and get my ripper out.

Not much help, am I? :)

Dina

Are the blocks going to make up the logo of the university? If so, the misplaced log might make it more difficult to see the logo. Can you color in some of it on graph paper, (or do you have the quilt design computer program)? That might help you determine how big of a problem this is.

I really really REALLY hate to tell you this, but IF you are going for a traditional log cabin block with a red in the center, you need to rip more than one block off. The two shortest blocks are fine, but the next block should be light where you have the red on the left bottom. The first picture is what a traditional log cabin block looks like, the second is what you would have built if you had put a light on the right instead of a dark, and the third picture (if they all show up in the right order) is what you're building now.

Personally, I would start ripping. I've made so many piecing mistakes in my quilting life that unsewing 46 little blocks seems like nothing (that says a lot for my piecing, doesn't it?), and really it will go very quickly. But if you decide to go ahead, you will have a block that resembles a log cabin - it just won't have the crisp staircase of lights and darks on each side. You can always say you did it on purpose.

The blocks are all red around a cream center