Barn Raising
A Log Cabin Design

Photo courtesy of Martin Lindstrom

The barn raising design is made using the basic log cabin block. The placement of these blocks creates a square within a square design.

Using a design wall, large bed or clear floor space, lay out your blocks before you sew them together to make sure you have them all aligned properly. It also helps to ensure you have sewn enough blocks to complete your quilt. It's too easy to get a block or two positioned in the wrong direction if you don't lay them out and inspect your layout.

When you are happy with your design then sew the blocks into rows first, next join the rows together into a complete quilt top.

This design is probably the most popular log cabin design. It is balanced with out being repetitive. The quilt in the photo above starts with a dark square in the centre but you can also reverse this and have a light square in the centre.

When considering what border to add to your quilt remember that the log cabin quilt looks stunning with a self border added. To do this you make more blocks exactly the same as those in the rest of the quilt but you make their placement distinctive from the rest of the quilt.

To do this you will need to have a play with your border blocks as the options are huge. Border blocks look good both when made from a single block width or from a double block width. This really needs to be thought out before you have joined any of your blocks into rows. The time to add your border is when assembling the quilt - much less fuss!

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