Washing a Quilt: From disappointing to awesome

If you read my post on June 28, Scrappy "Plus Surround" Quilt, you'll know I wasn't thrilled with the quilting in the negative space. Even though I choose the quilting design, the free motion loops just didn't do much for me.

With nothing to loose, I tossed it into the washer and then the drier. (I have to admit, I do that to most of the quilts I make--IF I'm not planning to put them in a local quilt show),  When I took it out of the drier, the quilting had a lovely nubby texture, the loopy design had essentially disappeared and the quilt was soft and cuddly! 

I was suddenly in love!!  I actually do prefer my quilts to have that antique-like soft puckering that occurs when the quilt is washed and dried. But I can't think of another quilt I've made where washing and drying made such a big difference in how I felt about the quilt!

Detail of the washed quilting

Here's a photo of the quilt prior to washing.  I think the change is much more noticeable when you can feel the quilt. It's harder to see the change from the photos.

Here's a photo of the quilt before washing.

Scrappy "Plus Surround" Quilt from 'Modern Plus Signs Quilts'

This is my completed "Plus Surround" quilt from the book, Modern Plus Sign Quilts.  There is review of the book on my March 29, 2018 blog post and discussion about making the quilt on the two subsequent posts.

There is straight line quilting on each of the plus signs which I really like. But I really struggled with how to quilt all of the negative space in this quilt (the yellow background). The quilt in the book has quilting radiating from the center of the quilt. I knew I didn't want to try to copy that. 

Because of the circular design, I decided to quilt the negative space with free motion circular loops. About half way done, I wished I'd done a misty soft linear/loopy fog-like design instead.  But it was way to late to do that!  The circular loops feel a bit too traditional for my taste, but it's growing on me! 

What's the best thing about this quilt? The great design of this quilt. It captures the viewer's attention!

Work in Progress: Scrappy "Plus Surround" Quilt with Cutting Instructions for Scrap Plus blocks

Isn't this scrappy version of "Plus Surround" from the new book, Modern Plus Sign Quilts by Cheryl Brickey and Paige Alexander, a great quilt top?  I had so much fun making it!

The pattern calls for all solid fabrics.  I had the solids, but looking at my stash I realized I had enough small/subtle fabrics  of similar color and shades to make a scrappy quilt. I thought it might be more interesting to see some slight color gradations in the finished quilt.  But that made the quilt significantly harder to make!  Fortunately, only one of my fabrics had clearly directional design.  I chose to turn that directional fabric 3 ways intentionally so it wouldn't matter which way this square quilt is used.

The plus signs directions in the book are all strip pieced. Obviously that won't work if you chose to make a scrappy quilt.  I'm sharing the cutting instructions to make a scrappy quilt but you will need a copy of the book to make the quilt. You need to really pay attention when piecing this quilt. I was really trying to be careful but I still to do a bit of un-sewing!

These cutting instructions are only for the plus signs, not the finished blocks.

Each of the middle size blue plus signs in my quilt are a different fabric so the plus signs will be pieced individually, not strip pieced.

• for the colored portion plus sign, cut one strip 3 1/2 x 7 inches and two 3 1/2 inch squares
• for the background of the midsize plus sign, cut 3 WOF strips and divide that into 3 1/2 inch squares

I made two identical small plus signs from each of the blue green fabrics in the quilt. These can be strip pieced.

• for each pair of plus signs, cut cut 1 strip of colored fabric 2 x 16 inches and two 2 x 5 inch strips
• for the background, cut 3 WOF* 2 inch strips. Cut those into 2 x 16 inch strips to make a strip pieced set with the colored fabric.
• Strip piece the 2 x 16 inch colored strip with two 2 x 16 inch background strips.
• Cut the strip pieced sets into 2 x 5 inch segments as shown in the book's diagram

Assemble the blocks per the instructions in the book.

Hope these cutting instructions are helpful if you make your own scrappy "Plus Surround" quilt!

* WOF is width of fabric