Hey Everyone, welcome back to Stash Blasting Wednesday.

A couple of weeks ago I started this series on the log cabin block and it’s variations. The first block was how to make a basic log cabin block and today is how to make a courthouse steps block. I made another 3 blocks and put them together. This is one of the layouts I came up with.

4 basic log cabin blocks put together

The difference between these two blocks is that the basic log cabin is built going around the centre of the block whereas this block is built from top and bottom and side by side of the centre with the two different colours. Once again I am using a complementary colour scheme. This time one of my favourites, blue and orange.

The block is 12 inches finished.

I decided to use 3 fabrics from each colour with black in the centre. From each colour I chose a light, medium and dark valued fabric.

Cutting Instructions

Piece A – cut 2 – 2″ x 12 ½″ rectangles from the dark orange fabric

Piece B – cut 4 – 2″ x 9 ½″  rectangles – 2 from the medium orange and 2 from the dark blue fabrics

Piece C – cut 4 – 2″ x 6 ½″  rectangles –  2 from the light orange and 2 from the medium blue fabrics

Piece D – cut 2 – 2″ x 3 ½″  rectangles from the light blue fabric

Piece E – cut 1 – 3 ½″  square from the black fabric

Pieces cut and ready to sew

Block Layout

Layout the pieces in the block as per the picture above. Each piece is labelled with its corresponding letter.

Pieces lettered.

Building the Block

All seams are a ¼″ and all seams are pressed towards the piece just sewn onto the block. Make sure to press with a dry iron so as not to warp the pieces.

1. Sew piece D (light blue) to the top and bottom of piece E (black).

Piece D from blue palette sewn to black centre

2. Sew piece C (light orange) to each side of the unit from step 1.

Light orange pieces sewn in place

3. Sew piece C (medium blue) to the top and bottom of the unit from step 2.

Medium blue pieces added

4. Sew piece B (medium orange) to each side of the unit from step 3.

Medium orange piece in place

5. Sew piece B (dark blue) to the top and bottom of the unit from step 4.

Dark blue pieces sewn in place

6. Sew piece A (dark orange) to each side of the unit from step 5 to complete the block. The block will measure 12 ½″.

Dark orange pieces added to complete block

I made four of the blocks and put them into a couple of different configurations.

Which one do you like best? The blue section of each layout remind me of spools of thread.

Layout #1

Layout #2

I really like the colours. It is too bad that this is all I have of most of the fabrics since I took them from the scrap bin. I think I might be able to find some other oranges and blues in my stash to make some more – the same but different.

See you next week – yes that’s right I have decided to bring Stash Blasting Wednesdays back weekly as I really need to use up the scraps and stash.

Happy Quilting!