Monday, September 17, 2018

Plusses


When Cotton + Steel first started out, I fell hard, indulging myself with a monthly subscription that eventually left me with an over-abundance of fat-quarters. Summer is usually the season where you'll find me trying to sew through my scrap basket, you know, kind of a clearing out before fall begins. This year, I had a hard time settling on a scrappy quilt plan, so I did the next best thing - sew through my C + S stash.


I knew from experience that Leanne/she can quilt's Giant Plus Quilt tutorial would show off those prints as well as make use of a good number of those fat-quarters. It's a fun design to build as you go, which is exactly what I did, using one of Alexia Abegg's Mesa prints [that bottom one in the photo above] to build a palette.


One element in Leanne's design is to remove the center block of a few of the pluses and replace it with a square of 'background' fabric. Can you find where I did that three times? It's a detail that I think makes this pattern.


I did purchase a couple of yards of Daisies in Aqua from Melody Miller's Mustang collection for the backing, bringing it to size with various stash prints, including a big piece of my inspiration fabric.


Quilting was done with a simple grid.



Both 'background' and binding were Paint Dot Cloud Pearl Pigment from Alexia Abegg's Paper Bandana collection. Other than purchasing that one piece for the backing, every inch of his quilt is from my C + S stash, and that feels really good.



The quilt finished at 68" square, though this pattern is easily modified to any size. So what little scrap-sewing I did this summer evolved into box pouches, but I feel good to have at least sewn from stash. So all is good!


This last shot is included mainly as an opportunity to give a shout-out to my photo location for this quilt - Heritage Park in Lynnwood, WA. Even though our city is now a busy, pretty unspectacular place, this park is a wonderful site where history has been preserved in a beautiful setting. Yup, that's a trolley car, which went out of service in 1939, has been restored, and now lives in a handsome garage at the park. There are several restored buildings on the site as well, which now house historic resources and our local genealogical society. Plus there are beautiful old trees and plenty of room to wander and be. I like it alot.

11 comments:

  1. beautiful quilt and gorgeous photos! the C&S prints are perfect for this pattern!

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  2. It took me a moment, but I did find all 3 background centers. I like that you were able to put the inspiration fabric in the backing as well.

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  3. I really like this. I have a bunch of random FQs that I'd like to use. Maybe this would do the trick.

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  4. That is a gorgeous quilt and your photo shoot does a good job showing it in its glory. My favorite photo is the third photo down, the one taken at an angle so you can see the beautiful quilting. Yes I do see the one with the background showing. It does make it look like the pluses are layered.

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  5. Hey, who said it had to be scrap busting, stash sewing sounds also "cleaning". I am glad you finally enjoyed your precious fabrics. And congrats on the finish! Great pictures btw.

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  6. I think this is the perfect quilt to showcase those hoarded pieces of C+S! I haven't made a giant plus quilt, but love the idea of using your stash in this way!

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  7. The giant plus is a good pattern to show off all those prints. It looks great. I never fell for much of the Cotton and Steel but I do like the quilts I see made from the line.

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  8. This is awesome! Leanne’s pattern has been on my to do list for so long - I really love a good Plus quilt.

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  9. This is a beautiful quilt, and I love that it was primarily sewn from stash! On behalf of the entire FAL crew, thanks for participating in FAL this quarter!

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  10. What a fun way to showcase (and use) some great fabric! You're right; those center substitutions make it much more interesting. Love the streetcar photo.

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