Egg Money Quilts By Eleanor Burns

Working with the Egg Money block

Eleanor Burns designed the Egg Money quilt block as part of her broader collection of beginner-friendly patchwork blocks. It is a nine-patch style layout where the center unit becomes a stylized egg or oval shape, surrounded by solid and printed squares that create a framing effect. The block reads as clean and graphic when cut and sewn accurately. That accuracy is where most people lose patience. I have made this block at least a dozen times across different fabric collections. The math is straightforward — 2½ inch pieces for a finished 9 inch block, or 3 inch pieces if you are working at a larger scale. The trick is handling the rounded center element without it looking like a lopsided oval by the time the seams are pressed.

Egg Money Quilts By Eleanor Burns

Here is how I approach the construction without fighting the fabric the whole way through. Start with your background solids and cut them first. Lay out the block on your design wall or table and confirm the placement before you cut the center shape. Eleanor's original pattern calls for a specific print or contrasting square in the corners around the egg unit. If you skip the layout check and jump straight to sewing, you will end up with the wrong fabric in the wrong spot and a block that does not match the others in your quilt top. The center egg shape is usually created by sewing two half-square triangles together from light and dark fabrics, or sometimes by using a rounded template method depending on which version of the pattern you are working from. In the version I prefer, you cut a 4½ inch square, draw a diagonal, sew a quarter inch away from that line on both sides, then trim and press to create a rectangle with a rounded visual center once the surrounding squares are attached. Some quilters use a dedicated template. I do not. It works fine freehand as long as your seam allowance is consistent. One thing the instructions do not always make obvious: pressing direction matters more than you think with this block. Because the egg unit sits in the middle of surrounding squares, the seam allowances of the adjacent patches create a small mound of bulk right at the center intersection. If you press everything toward the dark fabric, that bulk shifts and the block distorts slightly. I press the center unit's seams open whenever possible and press the outer seam allowances toward the lighter background fabric. The result is flatter and the point alignment stays sharper.

I ran into a specific problem on a batch where I was using a cotton sateen print for the center element instead of the percaline Eleanor recommended. Sateen is smoother and thinner, so the seam allowance wanted to slide when I pressed. My egg shapes turned out narrower at the top and wider at the bottom. The fix was simple enough — I switched to a steam iron and a pressing cloth, and I used fewer stitching lines in the seam allowance by trimming it to a scant eighth after sewing. The shapes stayed consistent after that. Worth noting: this issue does not happen with standard quilting cotton, so if you are cutting from anything other than a standard 100 percent cotton, expect to adjust your pressing technique rather than your cutting. The block itself is useful beyond just making a quilt. I have seen quilters use it as a standalone pillow front, or mix it into a larger patchwork project where the rest of the blocks are simpler so the Egg Money block serves as a focal point. The design works well in a scrappy configuration too. You do not need matching prints for the surrounding squares. The block reads clearly even with random solids, which is one reason it stayed popular through the online tutorial format Eleanor developed. There are a couple of pitfalls I would rather you avoid than learn the hard way. First, do not use a seam allowance wider than a quarter inch unless you recalculate your piece sizes. A full half inch on every seam will eat your block dimensions fast and you will end up with blocks that measure 8 inches instead of 9, and the quilt top will not square up. Second, the center unit creates a four-seam intersection in the middle of the block. That is a lot of fabric layers stacked at one point. If you do not clip the corners of the seam allowances on the center unit before turning and pressing, you will get a bulky ridge that refuses to lay flat. Trim the corners diagonally, press carefully, and move on.

If you want the original pattern documentation, Eleanor Burns has hosted her tutorials through her own website and various quilt pattern vendors over the years. The block has also appeared in her published books and video series. I would check eleanorburns.com for the most current available versions, or look for the block pattern through major quilting pattern retailers if her site does not have it listed directly. Some PDF versions circulate on quilt forums, but those are third-party uploads and I cannot vouch for their accuracy. The main downside to this block is that it demands consistent cutting. Unlike a strip pieced block where slight measurement errors get distributed across the length, the Egg Money block's visual impact relies on the center egg sitting squarely in a grid of four surrounding units. Cut one piece a sixteenth of an inch off and the whole center shape looks tilted when the block is complete. It is not a difficult problem to solve — just use a sharp rotary blade and check your ruler markings before every cut — but it does mean this is not the kind of block you can rush through without thinking about measurements. For a quicker alternative if you need many blocks done fast, you could simplify the center unit into a plain square instead of the oval. The block would lose some of its character, but the construction time drops significantly and the accuracy issues disappear almost entirely. I have done that on project quilts where the deadline mattered more than precision. The original design is worth the extra effort if you can spare it.