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Log Cabin

Log Cabin blocks are built from rectangles that meet end to side around a center square.

	In a traditional Log Cabin block, different shades of similar colors meet end to side. The center square is often in a contrasting color.
	In a Straight Furrow/Barn Raising/Light & Dark block, shades of two different colors are in opposite corners. Similar colors meet end to side.
	In a Courthouse Steps block, the colors are mirrored on opposite sides. Different colors meet end to side.

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Straight Furrow and Light & Dark are the basis of some of Log Cabins' best-known whole-quilt patterns.

Straight Furrow

Barn Raising quiltStraight FurrowStraight Furrow quiltBarn Raising/ Light & Dark

In a Straight Furrow, shades of two different colors are in opposite corners.

A furrow is the line of broken-up soil made by a plow—a little continuous ditch.

Barn raising was a rural custom in which neighbors got together to construct a building too big for a single farm family to manage.

Light & Dark

Log Cabin SpiralLight & Dark
Streak o' Lightnin'A Light & Dark block is the same thing as a Straight Furrow, a Sunshine & Shadow, or Barn Raising; it's just that dark shades and light shades (instead of different colors) are in opposite corners.

From a distance, it looks like a half-square triangle in dark & light colors.Zig Zag quiltSunshine & ShadowsLog Cabin PinwheelsLog Cabin Star

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Traditional Log Cabin

Traditional Log Cabin quiltTraditional Log Cabin In a traditional log cabin block, the colors are different for side by side rectangles, or at least different enough to make each rectangle distinct from the next.

The center circle is traditionally red or yellow to symbolize either the hearth (fireplace) or candlelight, motifs that meant "home" for frontier settlers.

The earthy colors of antique log-cabin blocks are an accident of 19th century dyes made from the roots of madder plants. The colors tended to fade into ruddy browns and tans.

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Courthouse Steps

Courthouse Steps
In a Courthouse Steps block, the colors are mirrored on opposite sides and contrasting on neighboring sides.

From a distance, a Courthouse Steps block looks almost like a bowtie or hourglass, particularly if the center square is small.

The center square size in all Log Cabin blocks may differ from the width of a log to as large as, say, half the block. Or more, depending.

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White House Steps

White House StepsWhite House Steps
Ladies Art Company
#221, 1897
The Ladies Art Company published its #221, left, in 1897.

White House Steps is a straightforward Log Cabin with three rows that look like concentric squares, and its center is a third the width of the block.

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Log Patch

Log Patch (LAC)Log Patch
Ladies Art Company
#168, 1889 The Ladies Art Company came up with Log Patch in 1897. As far as we know, it was the first time a log cabin block was published, although Barbara Brackman's blog, Material Culture, cites the year 1889, when the LAC was founded.

The pattern itself runs back into antiquity; it has been found on objects in Egyptian burial tombs. A wonderful post on Material Culture has more to say: http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2010/03/log-cabin-how-old-is-name.html

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Log Cabin

Log Cabin
Grandma Clark
1931


Log Cabin (Grandma Clark)In 1931, a Grandma Clark booklet included a similar block, called Log Cabin, with three dark rows instead of four.

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Greek Key

Greek Key



Greek Key Although it can be made with any number of rows, the Greek Key look is clearer in a block with only a few rows, as it is shown here.

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American Log Patchwork

American Log Patchwork
LAC #374, 1897



American Log Patchwork


American Log Patchwork (original) The Ladies Art Company's #374, American Log Cabin, is an arrangement of four log cabin blocks in two variations with one oddity: The center colors are reversed in the upper right and lower left quarter-blocks.

Although this fillip makes an interesting quilt, it's tempting to think that the color placement is just a goof.

One of the LAC's colored diagrams would be helpful — if some thrifty quilter squirreled away a copy 100-plus years ago, and if we knew where it was, and if we could see it.

In the meantime, we've posted mockups of both.

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Twisted Log Cabin

Twisted Log CabinTwisted Log CabinTwisted Log Cabin/ Spiral Log Cabin

Twisted Log Cabin blocks, in general, look as if squares of graduating sizes were laid one on top of the other with each turned at a different angle.

We're not sure where the name came from; it has been used widely without citation, and it is also used for an entire series of blocks in quilt-design software from the Electric Quilt Company of Bowling Green, OH.

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Pineapple Hexagon

Pineapple HexagonPineapple HexagonPineapple Hexagon Pineapple Hexagon is named for its resemblance to a classic, square block design with a similar construction:

Pineapples were symbols of hospitality in the colonial era because they were the sort of fancy food you would offer guests.

The color placement brings out the jagged edges of successive rows. Their asymmetry is more obvious with fewer rows, such as the example with blue and pink.

Because the pineapple hexagon has colors set asymmetrically in the block, you'll have to add one tiny triangle to every block to make the pineapple shapes fit together in a whole quilt. We've shown those triangles in blue in the lower right quarter of the whole-quilt mockup.

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Swirling Hexagon

Swirling Hexagon (Parfait Cafe)Swirling Hexagon
theparfaitcafe.com A clever discovery of the log cabins' potential, this log cabin-plus-triangles block is the work of thepartfaitcafe.com, which includes a free tutorial on its blog.

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Log Cabin Hexagon

Log Cabin HexagonLog Cabin Hexagon If you search for a log cabin hexagon on line, this is the block you'll find. You'll note the blue triangles near center; these triangles are what makes the block differ from Pineapple Hexagon. You make it like a log cabin, by adding bar to bar, but you have to start with a parallelogram in the middle. Check out the tutorial linked to the "Make It!" icon, above right. After that, you add two bars at a time. You could almost call it a Courthouse Steps hexagon.

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Wonky Log Cabin

Wonky Log Cabin Wonky Log CabinMake a Log Cabin with irregular rectangles and you have a Wonky Log Cabin. It makes a very attractive quilt.

The style owes a lot to the Gee's Bend quilts made by African-American quilters living on a back-country bend of the Alabama River. Beginning in the mid-19th century, this community developed a joyous, colorful tradition that flouts the precise lines and angles that bedevil mainstream quilters.

We can't do the style justice on this site, but here's an introduction: https://www.soulsgrowndeep.org/gees-bend-quiltmakers

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Crazy Courthouse Steps

Crazy Courthouse Steps
Heidi Pridemore,
TheWhimsicalWorkshop.com Crazy Courthouse Steps is from desiger Heidi Pridemore of TheWhimsicalWorkshop.com. Clicking on "Make it!" will take you to the American Quilter's Society web site page where a free pattern is posted.