9. Learn how to cut the centers for a crazy log cabin block. This video goes over both rotary cutting and scissor cuts. Unlike most quilt projects, your centers do not all have to be the same size. Try to cut “squares” (four sided figures) about 4″.
Video transcript: CRAZY LOG CABIN QUILT – Cutting Centers (9 of 22 videos)
To rotary cut the center, I place the fabric on the mat with my ruler over the section I want to cut out. Since I want to a square that is about 4” big, I need to find 4” on my ruler OR use a 4” (square) ruler.
I open the blade and cut away from my body. To make the next cut, I need to turn the piece or move my body or a little bit of both, so that I can continue cutting away from me. I make sure that I shut my blade after the cut.
Since this is a crazy quilt, these pieces do not have to be exactly 4” square because you don’t have to worry about precision on a crazy quilt.
Also you want to make sure that you stay that away from the selvage. You can cut it off now or later.
I can fold my fabric a number of times and cut out a lot of pieces at once. There’s 4”; cut away from my body. I often will fold so that there is about 8; 6 to 8 thicknesses of fabric in here. You can get away with doing this more often but 6 to 8 is usually my max.
I’m going to turn that around so that I am cutting away from my body making sure that I am following 4” by 4” so that each piece is about that size.
If you do not have rotary cutting tools, then you will need to mark your fabric first before cutting. Mark a shape about 4” big (and then use your scissors to cut this).
Remember this does not have to be a perfect 4 inch square although you do need to have some straight lines.
If you want to cut more than 1 piece at a time, then you need to use a pin to pin your fabric together and then cut. I don’t like to cut more than 2 pieces at a time as sometimes the fabric will move.
Once again, I want to make sure that I don’t use the selvage in my quilt when I am sewing. I am going to cut this off now but I could wait till later. Just draw a straight line and cut.
So now I have 2 pieces that are 4 sided about 4” to use in my quilt for my centers.
In the next segment, I will go over how to cut the logs.
