Red and White Log Cabin Star

I had a brainwave to make a log cabin quilt from my red and white fabrics.  My gorgeous friend Sue was turning 50 and she loves red.  She also has a white leather couch that looks fabulous.  

An afternoon of planning with Electric Quilt 8 (EQ8) software and a quilt pattern was born.  Then came the cutting.  It felt like I was cutting into my fabrics for a very long time - when I added it all up, this quilt used a whopping 7.75m in the blocks alone.  Add to that the backing and binding and it totaled 12.25m used in the entire quilt!  

I put all the individual components into little ziploc bags with labels and took then to sewing days and set them up for chain piecing.  At one point I stood up and looked over the back of my machine to take a photo (below).  I'm glad I knew what I was doing, even if others looking at it didn't!

Even though I had designed the quilt in EQ8, the layout still took quite a bit of time to get the final placement of the blocks to look good.  It was my 16yr old son who decided to turn a couple of blocks around to make the star really stand out.  I had been staring at the quilt for  a really long time trying to make the star look more obvious and he nailed it in about 2 seconds flat!

In the photo below, I was trying to get a close up of the quilting detail while my "quilt holders" were mucking around and moving the quilt.  I quilted the quilt on my domestic sewing machine with a 40wt YLI variegated pastel thread in a swirling heart/leaf design. 

A backing onto the front peak.  The colour combos are gorgeous.

Finishing at 64in x 80in (1.6m x 2m) it's a good size for a bed or for wrapping up in on the couch when the weather is wintry.  An aborignal print fabric makes for a great backing, especially when the name of my friends property acknowledges the 'traditional owners' of the land upon which they live.

Red and White Log Cabin Star was gifted to Sue-Ann on 13th March at her 50th Birthday Party.  A beautiful night of cocktails, sumptuous food, 'after 5' dressing up and girlfriends held in a stunning venue.  Pure bliss. xxx