Staycation - A Finished Log Cabin Quilt

My second fully finished quilt of 2020 is Staycation.  It is 80 inches square so my quilt holder is struggling to hold it up.

If I had to choose a favorite quilt block, I'd have a hard time deciding between sawtooth star and log cabin.  This must be the 5th or 6th log cabin quilt I've made.  It was a good stash buster as most of the fabric came from stash, leftovers from a few other quilts I made in the same colors.

My blocks are based on the Sweet Escape pattern by Thimbleblossoms but I chose a different setting from that in the pattern directions.

Karen Thompson, my longtime longarm quilting collaborator, did the quilting and I love the open, lacy feather design.  It looks especially good in the lighter areas.  

I designated 2020 as my year for stash busting and this quilt helped because even the backing came from my stash.  This is a wideback fabric I bought some time ago with no particular use in mind.  But when I see widebacks I like, I usually buy some, particularly if the price is right, because they are easier than trying to piece the back for the a large quilt.  The design on the fabric is a greatly enlarged post mark, like you see on the stamps on postcards.

I did "splurge" on new fabric for the binding.  I had an idea in mind but didn't have the perfect fabric in my stash.  This lime green and white stripe fabric went perfectly with the blocks.  It is cut selvage to selvage, on the straight of grain, because I wanted that look with the stripes straight.  This is a big departure for me as I almost always cut my binding fabric on the bias.   

Mr. Main Street and I had a major vacation planned for this spring, two weeks in Europe including a 9-night cruise from Athens to Venice by way of some of the Greek islands.  The trip had to be cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic.  While we are re-booked for next year, 2020 will likely be the year of the staycation, and that's how I came up with the name for this quilt.