One Groovy Quilt

Since the age of 14 I've been a quilter; the biggest and best thing I can make anyone is a quilt.  So, when I signed up for the Invite Your Partner Swap on Craftster, with the amazing onegroovyday as my partner, a quilt seemed like the obvious thing to make for her.  That thought was confirmed with just a quick glance at her Pinterest--she has a lot of quilts pinned--so I knew she would truly love and appreciate a hand-quilted quilt.  Here it is:

Anyone who knows quilts will recognize this as a Log Cabin quilt.  It has "logs", or strips of fabric pieced into a square shape to make each block; the key is the placement of darker colors on one side and lighter colors on the other side of the block.  I had a lot of bold prints and bright colors, but fewer lighter, quieter fabrics, so I sewed some of the fabrics with the "wrong" side up (which is a lighter than the right side) to get good contrast between the lights and darks.

I didn't want the back to be boring, so I sewed together larger panels of the fabrics I used on the front.

To commemorate the occasion, I made this label (below) and sewed it to the back.

I pieced the top on the machine, then did all the quilting by hand.  I LOVE hand quilting!  There are 48 log cabin blocks, and each one took about 45 minutes to quilt, so that part took about 36 hours.  The boarder quilting was probably another 8-10 hours, plus a few hours for the binding--for a total of about 48-50 hours of hand-sewing time.  It's hard to calculate the time I spent piecing the top together, but I would guess somewhere in the 8-10 hour range.  Each log cabin block is approximately 7 1/4" square, and the whole quilt measures 50" x 64".  It's a bit big for a lap quilt, but it's better too big than too small!

I loved making this quilt because the colors are so fresh and pretty!  Enjoy it, onegroovyday!  (And to all you future swap partners--sorry, I don't think I'm going to make another quilt like this for a swap!  I'm keeping the rest for myself!!!)