Puss in Buttermilk

Twenty Puss in the Corner blocks, each ten inches, sit four by five with their edges touching, so this Barn Red and Buttermilk top finishes at 49 by 59 inches — a generous cot quilt or a small lap. Leave the sashing off on purpose: the two-by-two red corners of neighbouring blocks join into bigger red squares, and the buttermilk plus in each block lines up into a cream lattice with a little red square sitting at every crossing. A block is twenty-five two-inch squares, five rows of five, red in the four corners and the middle, cream in the rest; twenty blocks make five hundred squares for the whole centre. Strip-piece the rows, press the seams toward the red, and watch the plus stay smooth. Two borders finish it: two inches of Buttercup inside, two and a half inches of Cornflower outside, so yellow and blue sit with the red. Aimed at a first or second quilt if you like counting squares more than points, and at anyone who wants a bright folk grid that still lets you swap the red for another dark. The pack has the yardage, the strip cuts, the row order for one block, and a layout you can print.