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

Work in Progress: "Plus Surround" and a Color Study

I've been working on the "Plus Surround" quilt, a pattern in the book I reviewed last week, Modern Plus Sign Quilts. The instructions for the quilt are excellent and it's really exciting to sew this project.

Check out the situation above:  Can you see what is coming?  Pictured are 2 straight rows of square blocks...but the pattern is circular!  That's so great!

The pale yellow background fabric is Kona® cotton "meringue" and the plus signs in the photo are an assortment of mostly small pattered blues and blue greens.

There is a central plus sign in this quilt. I have a beautiful marbled blue and yellow fabric that is a perfect match with this soft yellow and the blues. But when I made the block the sameness was okay but frankly, boring.

Quilt with the blue and yellow central marbled block

So I went looking through my stash for an orange which is the complement color to the blues and an analogous color to the yellow background. I found a hand-dyed cotton that adds just the right pop. The design went from flat to fun!

"Plus Surround" with complementary orange central block

The quilt pattern calls for solid colors.  I chose a scrappy look. That made both cutting and assembling the quilt significantly more complicated. I'll show the finished top next week and will share cutting instructions for making scrappy plus signs like the ones in my quilt. 

Book Review: "Modern Plus Sign Quilts"

It's been a while since I've seen a new quilt book with really exciting patterns, so today I want to share a bit about this great new C&T Publishing stashBOOKS, Modern Plus Sign Quilts by Cheryl Brickley and Plaige Alexander.

This book has something for everyone.  There are pieced quilts, appliqued patterns and foundation pieced patterns. They range from a simple table runner which would be great for a new quilter to complex geometric designs.

There are 3 quilt patterns in this book that I really want to make. My favorite is "Plus Surround", a quilt with concentric circles of plus signs. Because of the circular design, it looks complicated but all the but all the blocks are square!  It's a really fun quilt!

Another of my favorites is "Celestial", the navy an white quilt shown above on the cover of the book. This pattern makes a queen size quilt, using large blocks, so it go together quickly.

My other favorite quilt is "Transparency Chains".  It uses a single Irish change with pieced plus signs that appear to float inside the chains.

These are modern quilts with deep roots in classic patterns. They have lots of negative space with many of them using 3 to 7 plus yards of background fabric. I often guesstimate yardage when purchasing fabric but I recommend you make a list to take to the store if you are going to make these quilts!

I can't wait to start sewing...but first, a shopping trip!

Back cover

Another Quilt made with a Quarter Square Triangle Block Variation.

Here is the other quilt I made using the quarter square triangle variation blocks I made at this years New Year's Day quilt party. It's the quilt the four of us designed together that I showed in the process in my post on January 11, 2018.

We thought it looked like streamers!  So appropriate for a New Year's Day Quilt!

Here are some photos of the back, a flannel with woodland animals, and the quilting mostly a leaf motif and straight lines.  There are also a few flowers in the quilting (not shown below) that look a bit like the flowers printed the background material seen on the right side below.

I really enjoy sitting in my upstairs workroom quilting on these January days. The white and blue grey light from the snow outside is so lovely.  I wish the screen wasn't visible in this photo, but it was about 5 degrees F. the day I snapped the picture--opening the window wasn't an option!!

Quilting on a January day

I have 4 blocks left!  A big pillow cover is in the works!!  A stack of blocks sewed together in a few hours on New Years Day has kept me busy quilting all month!

Quilt Design Using a Variatrion of the Quarter Square Block

As promised last week, here's one of the two quilts I designed using the blocks from a New Year's Day Mystery quilt which I didn't end up making.

This is the second of the two quilts I made. I had a stack of blocks left over after completing the first quilt (to be shown at a later date) so had to come up with a design with what I had. It took a while to get the design balanced but I really like the end result!

This quilt has all the fabrics I had put together as a collection.  They have probably been in my stash for at least 5 years. At the time, I'd just made a quilt using similar colors and didn't choose to make another like it then. But I've always liked the fabrics.

The quilt backing is another vintage stash fabric--a very soft fabric, grey with little white polka dots. Altogether a very satisfying project!

The breeze conveniently flipped over an edge to reveal the backing.  Note the snow drift in front of the fence!!

Bear Paw Modern Low Volume Quilt: "Bears in the Meadow"

Here's my completed "Bears in the Meadow" low volume quilt with a modern setting using the classic Bears Paw block. I love how the bear paws are wandering to and fro off the margins of the quilt!

Along with swirls and several tiny hearts, there are 16 bears done with free motion quilting. (See my last post).  I initially thought I'd only stitch 5 or 6 bears into the quilting but I had so much fun that there are 16! You have to really look hard to find them! Even my count might not be accurate!

The quilt backing is a flower print with a large block of bear fabric in the middle. So, it's bears all round!!

I did try to get a photo of the quilt in a meadow but because the quilt is so large, that turned out to be rather difficult. Here is my best shot, taken from the top of the slide in my neighborhood playground!

in dappled sunlight in the park.

This quilt is so me!  It's a keeper!