ellyn's place: english paper pieced plus quilt

A while ago I hinted at a little project I was working on, using Mollie (Wild Olive)'s tutorial for English paper piecing plus blocks. This is genius! Those of us who love to have a hand work project going at all times salute you Mollie!

What started off as a collection of Aqua/gray/low volume pluses evolved into this sweet mini that will forever hang on my studio wall.

Here are my 21 original plus blocks all sewn together....

When I got to this point I was perplexed. What to do next? Appliqué the funky shape to a solid? hmm no that didn't seem quite right. Then I decided to make some partial plus blocks to fill in the edges....

ah yes! Much better. This did require creating a little triangle piece to fill in the four corners. Take a peak at the back! I was so proud of myself when I saw how nicely everything laid into place. This is what happens when you take the time to be consistent in your gluing and piecing...

I pressed all of the edges out flat (see above) and then I trimmed it up into a 17 inch square...

I also ironed a square of shape flex 101 on the back to give it some stability. Added some 2 1/2 inch borders (yummy grunge in ocean)....

And set it aside for a day or two while I mulled over my quilting options. Eventually I decided on a simple crosshatch, which was easy to do with perfectly squared up pluses!