New Holiday Traditions: Crafty Exchange!

By the time you're reading this, my good friend L will have received her new quilt that I based off of  Susan Beal's "Bright Furrows" design in Modern Log Cabin Quilting. This, after a long facebook exchange where a former student of Zips' posted a link to the "Bigger on the Inside" shawl pattern with the note "if anyone can do this, you can!" Being a huge new Doctor Who fan, and not a knitter, I knew when to call for help. So I appealed to L, who is a knitter, and we struck a deal (after much enthusiastic "really!?" and many excited exclamation marks): I quilt her a lap quilt, and she knit me a cool TARDIS shawl!

Zips helps me iron the seam allowances away from the center square.

L gave me her fave colors: robin's egg blue, sable brown, and maybe some red-orange. I ran with it, and got a stack of quarters to work with.

And after piecing the quilt top, was left with several spare log cabin squares and a ton of leftover 1 3/4" strips, mostly in the blue and brown (it's one of those cut-as-you-chain-sew kind of patterns). So I went nuts with these in improvising the back of the quilt. I was really happy with how it turned out-- it turned into a kind of reversible quilt! 

 Here's the finished back (most of it, with Zipper patrolling the perimeter).

And the finished front of it too. Much more logic to the arrangement. Look at 'em furrows! 

I sent it off yesterday, and L should receive it tomorrow, just in time for Christmas. I can't wait to hear from her when she does get it, and I'm holding off publishing this particular post until I know she's already laid eyes on it. And you can bet I'll be posting pics when I get my hands on the shawl she's knitting for me. I can't wait! I'm really excited that someone other than my immediate family will be (hopefully) enjoying the fruits of my labors. I hope I have another crafty exchange with someone else soon. This was really fun!