Plus Playtime QAL Fabric Requirements and Tips

Here we go with the first post about the actual quilt for the Plus Playtime Quilt Along! You may want to hop over to the sponsors post, as three more have been added, two PDF patterns from Cindy at Stitchin' At Home, a 6-month subscription to Make Modern, and a beautiful handmade wooden bowl and frog pencil/tools holder by Jean's husband. Jean's blog is All Points of the Compass. I do hope you will take a little time to check all three out!

Now, let's talk fabric. This post will give some tips and advice when choosing your fabrics. If you didn't already know, you will find three kits available for the small pluses, one from Mad About Patchwork and two options from Clinton Modern Creative.

You will find the fabric requirements in the ezine on the Benartex blog, Sew in Love With Fabric. Note that there are 28 plus blocks, three of which are partial blocks. Here are a few things to consider:

• You can choose to go scrappy and use 28 fabrics from your stash for the plus blocks.
• Perhaps you choose to repeat some. Fourteen fat eighths will allow two pluses out of each fabric.
• You may like to consider cutting a plus or two from your binding fabric; the yardage allows for that.
• The large shadow plus requires one yard; you may choose to cut a small plus or a partial one, as I did, out of this fabric as well. If you do this, note that this plus block would have to float on the background, not the shadow plus.
• If your mind works like mine, several of you will notice on the quilt layout that there are places in the background (the yellow in the ezine) where you could use one 9.5" square instead of three 3.5X9.5" strips. Feel free to make that call, and alter the cutting directions accordingly. Your piecing for those blocks will differ from the column construction method that is given, however.

I may be getting a little ahead of the game plan for this week, cutting being next week, but once you've cut all the pieces, this quilt is best organized by laying it out in its entirety on a design wall before starting to sew. Both times I've made it, I've been too excited to see what a couple of blocks look like, and I've started the piecing. Then, when I do lay out the rest of the quilt, in both cases, I have gone back and ripped and switched placement of a few plus blocks. So, resist the temptation! 

The more adult version of the quilt, in progress on the design wall

Make sure there is good contrast between your background and large plus shadow, and be sure that all your small plus blocks will show up well on both. Sometimes, you may choose to have that little 'aha!' moment for the viewer when a plus block or two almost blend in. You can see the navy does that against the black in the top right corner block of mine. It's not as dark as in the photo though.

One eager beaver, or maybe I should say, dive-right-in dolphin, on a boat in the Turks and Caicos as I type, has completed her hot, hot, spicy top, so I have another example to show you. (Tish posted her EQ drawing of what she's thinking, for yet another example, think sexy and classy together.) I first referred to the one in the photo below as Red Hot Chili Peppers...

Just look at that pristine water; makes the red even more vibrant!

Right now Louise, of Quilt Odyssey, to whom it belongs, is calling it 'Five Alarm Chili' quilt. Love that! When I asked if I could use her photo, she sent me five more! Five... two with feet!

So much to love about this photo.

Isn't that name and the fabric, just SO à propos for having been pieced in the Caribbean? (I feel like I need to add a 'mon' after that.) Thank you Louise! Incidentally, if you're looking for a fabulous book, actually two, to read about a basically year-long sailing voyage a couple took to the Caribbean islands, and which I think Louise and Sean are pretty much living, you must read An Embarrassment of Mangoes by Ann Vanderhoof (that's the first one). My sister Linda recommended it to me, and it is such an excellent read. Louise made a red cross in honour of the Red Cross, which is the original name of my quilt which I designed in last year's 30 Quilt Designs Challenge...

When I designed it, I was just so impressed by the efforts of the Red Cross, how they just go in and help, unconditionally, and without a hidden agenda. Louise and her husband volunteered with the American Red Cross, so this is her nod to that...or perhaps something else as well, but you'll just have to head over to her blog to find out what! Isn't it marvellous that she didn't know the symbolism behind my design when she made her quilt! Ah, synchronicity, I know and love and appreciate you well.

Let's show off our fabric selection in the linky below! Instagram, Flickr, blog post, all acceptable. This is a good time to visit each other, and if you have questions, ask! It's usually 'protocol' to visit the link before and after your own; this helps keep Quilting BlogLand as rosy a place as always.😍💕

An InLinkz Link-up