Christmas Gilt Plus

Christmas Gilt Plus is a Christmas queen of Plus blocks (also called Cross) in candle cream and ribbon gold, with a two-and-a-half-inch berry inner border and a four-inch plum outer. Eight ten-inch pluses sit across and nine down, butted with no sashing, so neighbouring gold arms meet and the field becomes one gilt lattice. Finished size is 93 by 103 inches.

Each Plus is nine squares: five gold for the cross, four cream in the corners. Cut the squares, sew three rows of three, then join the rows, nesting at the centre so the plus stays square. Press toward the gold so the arms lock when the next block sits beside it.

The berry band is holly around the gilt; plum is the Christmas dark outside it. This is for a sewist who likes nine-patch rhythm at bed scale and will keep the gold arms in line. It would live on a queen bed through Twelfth Night, or across a sofa-back in the sitting room on Christmas Eve. The file includes yardage for the four solids, cutting for the ten-inch Plus, piecing order, and the 8-by-9 layout.