free plus quilt pattern & tutorial

I've been meaning to share these photos of this "plus" baby quilt I made for an old friend months ago. This couple has very clean, modern taste, so I was afraid to pick fabrics with any sort of pattern, fearing it would be too baby or too busy for them. Instead I went with all solids, mostly Kona cottons (all fabrics are from JoAnn Fabrics). The plus quilt is a perfect way to show off solids. And it makes a great baby boy quilt (my big boys even requested I make them one--they said it looks like Tetris!).

I'd love to say I figured this out on my own, but I really didn't have time to do that if I wanted the quilt to be done before the kid was 10. I found an awesome tutorial and pattern from For the Love of George. What I love about her version of the plus quilt is that the middle of the plus is a long rectangle rather than three squares that you have to cut and then sew back together. More cutting? More piecing? No thank you!

 If you use a straight line quilting on either side of the seams, no one will ever notice that the middle of the plus isn't pieced. And it saves loads of time.

I quilted with gray thread to match the plain gray backing and binding. It didn't stand out too much on the colors--it's a nice neutral. I chose two shades of orange and three shades of blue, plus green, brown, white, and gray. Look for colors that will make the other colors pop when using all solids, like my white and turquoise do.

The plus quilt tutorial shows you how to make a "cot" or queen size quilt (the cot size was perfect for a crib size quilt). Once I figured out the pattern needed to make the plus signs, I didn't need to use her diagram to lay the whole thing out. But it was so nice to have to get started. And how awesome is it that she offers the pattern for free? Be sure to go give For the Love of George some love from me!

Now to make a quilt for this little guy. He's almost 18 months and still doesn't have a real quilt from his mama. Seriously tragic. But I finally painted his room last week, so now I have no excuses to get going on his bedding. If you follow me on Instagram, you already saw a sneak peak of the color (Revere Pewter by Benjamin Moore). I'm so happy with the way it turned out! Watch for my nursery before and after pics soon. . .