Portobello Market Plus Quilt

A few weeks ago when I made the pilgrimage to Texas to spend some time with my mom, much of it  was spent in her office, buried in paperwork and all things tax related. Since my Daddy passed away, I have learned more about real estate corporations than I ever wanted to know. I miss him for countless reasons every day, but thankfully, with the Lord's help, I am able to help mom navigate the details.

I always take a quilt to bind when I make the trip. Our days are spent crunching numbers, but when we sit down in the evenings, I can decompress with needle and thread.

This little quilt is my first finish for 2015.

                                                     
 I bought this fabric probably 7 years ago from a vendor at the local quilt show. I wasn't even a quilter then, but I wanted to be and I was at my very first quilt show with a dear friend who just happened to be...the divine Miz. M, and she was a quilter. I wanted to be a quilter.

I fell in love with this Portabello Market line by Moda. I bought a layer cake and a few 1/2 yard cuts and through the years, I would pick up a piece or two when I saw it. I sketched out what I thought would make a pretty quilt and began cutting...and piecing...and I did not love it. Not even a little bit. So it sat. For years. It just wasn't working, but I still loved the fabric.

I never seemed to be able to settle on a pattern until I started noticing the Plus quilts popping up and I knew these fabrics were a good fit so I cut apart my lost cause quilt top.

 I didn't use a pattern. I just cut  things in order to make the best use of my layer cake which meant that I cut everything into 3" widths:

And the laying out of pluses began:

Lots of trotting down the hall into and out of bedrooms and back again ensued as this top came together and I love the end result:

                                                   

I didn't have enough of the brown paisley fabric and I really wanted to use that for the backing so I just chose one of the other prints and pieced a strip on each side of the brown paisley:
                                   

Jackie quilted a fun overall design called Cherries and Leaves across it and I dug into my stash until I found a suitable fabric for the binding:
                                   

It measures  52 x 60  and yes, I wish like anything it was bigger. I just love the way this pattern showcases an entire line and I will definitely be making more Plus quilts.

When I pulled this out to bind, my Mom fell in love with it, so even though she's seen it, she doesn't know that she will be getting it for her Birthday.

I've still got an un-opened fat quarter bundle of Countdown to Christmas from a few years ago and if I can bear to open it, it may be the next Plus Quilt.