Simple Plus Block – with tutorial

A plus quilt. Simple, attractive, and timeless.  I recently whipped up this quilt for a loved one who was diagnosed with cancer. I wanted her to have something made with love to take with her to chemo (I hear it is ALWAYS cold.) I wanted the quilt to be simple enough that I could finish it quickly and she’d have it with her from day one, with zero qualms about truly using it and washing it as much as she needs.  I like the plus symbol for its links to positivity and as a symbol of health.

I was on a quilting retreat last weekend and took with me a pile of fabrics and a loose plan for a comfort quilt. The fabrics I used are mostly Anna Maria Horner prints from a variety of lines, but especially Mod Corsage (which I just spotted at Craftsy’s 60% Off Supply sale). My pile of fabrics was mostly warm tones (red, orange, brown, purple) and a few cool turquoise prints. (Color nerds: I realize purple isn’t always considered a warm color, but that’s how I used it.) I cut the prints into 3.5″ squares and made blocks using the following diagram:

This quilt goes together very quickly. I completed this quilt top, from cutting to piecing, in one evening.  As you can see, I did not include the right-hand strip of squares on the right-hand column of blocks.

Once back home, I loaded the quilt top onto my Baby Lock Coronet. I used a pink thread and quilted using a variation of Leah Day’s Square Spiral Design (find her tutorial through the link). This design works well for both long-arm and domestic machine quilting.

The back of the quilt is a Heather Ross lawn fabric. I thought the extra softness and silkiness might be especially nice for a comfort quilt.

I made the binding from extra strips of the lovely “wink” print from Birch fabrics; those fabrics are included in the quilt and echo the “plus” motif. I washed and dried the quilt before giving it.

And I gave the quilt to my loved one on Tuesday. I think 5 days from start to finish might be a quilting record for me!  Below, you will find a PDF with the steps I used to efficiently make this quilt so that you might follow them when you are in need of a quick quilt for any reason.  Use a scant 1/4-inch seam and press seams between each step.

The block works well for scraps, since you just need 3.5″ squares of all fabrics except the white.

Simple Plus Block Instructions

**This post contains affiliate links. Some tools and fabrics were provided to me at no charge in exchange for publicity. All opinions are genuine.