Sew Cute Runner Series - June

Published May 2026

Learn how to make the Sew Cute Runner for June in this step-by-step tutorial with Jen at Shabby Fabrics! This video teaches you how to create precise Log Cabin blocks and beautifully fused strawberry appliqué, perfect for a charming summer table runner. Join Jen as she shares essential tips for accurate cutting, perfect quarter-inch seams, and working with pre-fused, laser-cut appliqué.

In this video, you'll learn:

• How to achieve precise cuts for perfect Log Cabin quilt blocks
• Jen's technique for accurate quarter-inch seams and pressing tips
• How to easily assemble pre-fused, laser-cut appliqué designs

Check the links for everything you need.

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Introduction

June is berry season. Those first strawberries feel like the beginning of summer, and picking fruit with family is one of those traditions worth celebrating in fabric.

This month pairs strawberry applique with a classic log cabin block, a block that's been around far longer than any of us. The applique is the fun part, and the log cabin is where the precision lives.

Your kit includes those exact fabrics, pre-fused and laser-cut applique, backing, binding, and a tested full color pattern.

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What You'll Need

From your kit

• Tested full color pattern with cutting instructions
• Fabrics for the log cabin blocks and borders
• Pre-fused, laser-cut strawberry applique and scallops
• Backing and binding fabric

From your sewing room

• Creative Grids 1.5" x 12.5" ruler. This is the most important ruler for this block, and it's what makes the sub cuts land exactly.
• Creative Grids 2.5" x 24.5" ruler, for the initial width of fabric cuts
• Rotary cutter with a fresh blade
• Seam guide for your machine. A full .25", not a scant one.
• Diagonal seam tape, optional, for a straight runway into the needle
• Patchwork pins
• Iron and a wool pressing mat or ironing board
• Light pad or light box
• Gypsy Quilter Appli-Fuse Mat
• Callie Del fusible fleece, plus 505 spray or your preferred basting method
• Coordinating thread set

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What Makes a Log Cabin Block Work

Worth saying plainly at the start, because it shapes everything that follows.

A log cabin is not a trim up block. Plenty of blocks are built slightly oversized so you can square them up afterward, and those are wonderfully forgiving. This isn't one of them. The logs building out around the center square have to be cut precisely to the measurements in the pattern. That's simply how this block works, and knowing it up front changes how you approach the cutting.

Success comes down to two things: precise cutting and an accurate .25" seam allowance. That's the whole list.

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Cutting Accurately

Look at the pattern and you'll notice a pattern of its own. The center square is 2" x 2", and every other cut is 1.5" wide. Only the lengths change as the logs work outward.

You'll also see that each fabric appears twice, bracketing the center square, and this block is made twice for the runner.

The width of fabric cut

Since every sub cut comes off it, that initial 1.5" cut across the width of fabric has to be right.

1. Press your fabric flat and make a clean first cut, since every piece of fabric has some jaggedness along the edge.
2. Take your 2.5" x 24.5" ruler and lay the 1.5" line directly on that clean cut edge. Stop looking at the mat and look at the ruler against your fabric.
3. Make your cut.

There's real intelligence in how these rulers are marked. The white dots read 1" and 2", and turning the ruler around, the black dots read .5" and 1.5". The grip means it stays put as you apply pressure rather than sliding away from you mid cut.

That 2.5" x 24.5" is a workhorse well beyond this project. It's the right ruler for 2.5" binding strips, and it's what you'd use to cut your own jelly roll strips from yardage.

The sub cuts

Now the 1.5" x 12.5" ruler earns its place, and this is where the block is won or lost.

1. Square up the end of your strip first, laying the cut along a line on your mat so you make a truly perpendicular cut.
2. Lay the ruler along the strip and read your measurement straight off it. For a 7" log, line up on the 7".
3. Cut, then label the piece. Stickers are worth using if you have them.
4. Move to the next measurement and repeat.

Because the ruler is exactly 1.5" wide, it sits on the strip and gives you the length in one move. That's not approximately 1.5" by 7". It's exactly that.

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Sewing the Block

The block works in a clockwise rotation out from the center square, adding logs one round at a time.

Set a full .25" seam guide on your machine before you start. Not a scant quarter. Everything that comes next depends on it.

Always press away from the center. That single instruction covers every seam in the block, which is one of the pleasures of a log cabin.

Avoiding a rolled seam

This one took a long time to click, and it makes a real difference.

Sew from the side where the seam allowance runs downward. Your feed dogs are constantly moving fabric along underneath, and if the seam allowance is facing up into the presser foot it can fold back on itself. That's a rolled seam, and no block will lie flat with one in it. Flip the piece so the seam runs the direction of travel and there's simply no chance of it happening.

It feels natural to sew from the side without seams on it. Turning the work over and sewing from the back is what keeps an eye on those seams instead.

Orientation matters

Set the finished round down on your table and look at it. It's square, which means the next log would fit on any of the four sides.

Reorient your block to match the pattern before every round. Nothing about the block will stop you from adding the next log to the wrong side, because it fits perfectly well there. Putting it down in the pattern's orientation each time is what keeps the sequence honest.

Pin the beginning, pin the end, and pin the middle. Then keep going through your second and third rounds.

Make two log cabin blocks for the runner.

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The Strawberry Applique

Bring your iron back down to medium heat. Full heat was for the patchwork, and fusible webbing prefers medium.

Removing the paper backing

Be firm with it. Turn the shape paper side up and give it a good hard pinch. It releases immediately. Picking at the edge or reaching for tweezers is what frays a shape or puts a hole in it, so a confident crease is genuinely the gentler approach.

When you need the Appli-Fuse Mat

A question that comes up often, and the answer is simple.

Use the mat when shapes are layered, one sitting on top of another, and they need to merge into a single unit before they go on the block. The strawberries qualify, so those get pre-assembled.

Skip the mat when nothing is stacked. The scallops go straight onto the background, so there's no need for it.

Assembling the strawberry units

1. Set up your light pad, lay the applique diagram on top, then the Appli-Fuse Mat over that.
2. Move that whole setup away from your wool pressing mat. The light source can't take iron heat, so the pressing happens somewhere else.
3. Place your shapes and press down. The mat has a grip to it, so nothing shifts while you position the next piece.
4. Press for six to eight seconds at medium heat, then let go of the iron.
5. Let it cool completely. That's what merges the separate shapes into one.

Letting go of the iron matters more than it sounds. Keeping a hand on it invites the instinct to actually iron, sliding it back and forth, and that's what smears a shape out of position. Set it down, count out your seconds, and take your hand away.

While your units cool, cut your background pieces to the exact size in the pattern. Cut correctly, they sit right in the footprint of the applique diagram.

Placing your strawberries

Arrange them however you like. There's no wrong answer, and yours will land differently from ours, which is part of the fun.

Your pattern makes a handy tray for carrying the arranged pieces to the iron, since it gives them some rigidity. Slide it away, then press for six or seven seconds.

Roll the Appli-Fuse Mat up when you're finished with it. There's never any residue left on it, and rolled up it stays clean and takes up almost no space. Slap and wrap peels from the Gypsy Quilter are made for exactly this, and they work just as well on rolls of stabilizer if you do machine embroidery.

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Assembling and Quilting the Runner

Hold off on your thread set until the very end. It has a job to do that comes later.

1. Sew your log cabin blocks and applique sections together in a row.
2. Add your side borders, then your end borders.
3. Iron Callie Del fusible fleece to the back of the top.
4. Apply 505 spray or your preferred basting method and add your backing to make the quilt sandwich.
5. Now bring out the thread set.
6. Trim the excess fleece and backing, then bind.

Quilting at this stage does the machine applique and the top quilting in one pass, which is what gives the shapes their embossed look and lets all that beautiful thread show.

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There's something lovely about a log cabin. These are turn of the century blocks, made in the 1800s from feed sacks and whatever women could get their hands on. Connecting today's fabrics back to that heritage is a real pleasure, and with today's tools we get to be far more accurate than they could be!