Greek Plus Puss Quilt

This quilt came about because I bought a fat-eighth bundle of Peppered Cottons and wanted to play with them all at once and in a way that brought out the colors in the fabrics.  Peppered Cottons belong to the same category as Oakshotts, shot cottons, and cross weaves — they are woven from dyed thread and the threads of the weft are a different color from the weave. It’s so cool and complicated and shimmery.

When I brought the fabrics into my studio, I immediately started pairing them up with printed fabrics from my stash.  It was so much fun to find prints that made the woven fabrics sing.  The absolute best fun.

I started to contemplate how I could put together a quilt where the pairs could all be seen and enjoyed.  And I ended up designing a block that is a remix of two traditional blocks–The Greek Cross and Puss in the Corner.

Here’s a Greek Cross block:

You can find a great tutorial for piecing this block here: Summer Sampler series by Fresh Lemons

I really love the fat plus in the middle of this block, so that’s what I borrowed from this traditional block. I refer to that as a “Greek Plus.”

I’m far from alone in loving that fat plus, you can find a bunch of quilters online that have taken that plus and switched out the half-square triangle component in the corners of the block for a plain patch.  Holly at Bijou Lovely made a very pretty version that ended up on the cover of the first issue of Love Patchwork and Quilting and Kelly from Kelby Sews posted her pretty version with a tutorial!

As much as I loved those quilts, I wanted to add a bit of ugly interest to my quilt and also interrupt the repeated blockness of the plusses, so instead of switching out the half-square-triangle in favor of a plain patch, I switched it out for a “Puss in the Corner” four-patch.

There are a bunch of different block designs called “Puss in the Corner,”  I’m referring to this one from Early Women Masters.

Apparently the name comes from a children’s game…a game that sounds similar to musical chairs or pickle to me…there’s information at the link.  I love quilt history.

I wasn’t sure if what I wanted to do would work, so I made a test block just to see, pulling fabrics from my scrap bin.

I ended up loving the mix of vintage sheets and red-purples so much that I made an entire quilt of them!

In making these test blocks, I realized that the block was much more pleasing to me if I kept the directional fabrics flowing the same way.  To make that easier on myself, I sat down and drew some cutting diagrams.  And then I realized I could make the final assembly of my blocks much more straightforward if I came up with a plan for pressing, so I drew that out, too.  Having puzzled these out, I thought to myself: hey!  this is worth something! I’m totally going to write this pattern and sell it!

So, for those of you who are experienced quilters, if you can tell from these pictures how to make this block, then please feel free to go ahead and make the quilt without buying my pattern, but do credit me if my quilt is your design source (just by saying your quilt is based on mine and linking back!)  You can also leave me a tip by clicking on the donate button on my blog’s main page (in the sidebar on the upper-right)

But here’s why you might want the pattern:

• FABRIC REQUIREMENTS
• I calculated the amount of fabric you need for 6 sizes of this quilt!  All the way from a stroller (37″x37″) to King size (97″x109″).  And for each size, you can choose to make it from a variety of fabric cuts–scraps, fat eighths, fat quarters, or yardage. There are fabric requirements and cutting instructions for each options.

• CUTTING INSTRUCTIONS:  
• I include cutting instructions for both solids or blender fabrics and for directional fabrics.

• Want to cut this on an Accuquilt?  I include those cutting instructions as well. (Sorry, Sizzix doesn’t appear to have the correct sizes of dies.)

It really is a happy quilt.  And I think it makes people happy to make it…I’ll be back with another post showcasing the pattern tester’s creations in the next few days.  In the mean time, pop over to Etsy or Craftsy and buy a copy of the pattern!