Welcome to my day on the X-BLOCK Blog Hop!
Amy, of Sew Incredibly Crazy, posted on Instagram that she was hosting a hop for her friend Doris, of Quilting Queen Online, who is the new owner of the X-Block Templates.
The simple requirement was that we had to use the Xblock Rulers/Templates. I purchased the 6 inch X-Block template about 8 years ago and hadn't used it yet. This would force me to use it. I emailed Amy right away to tell her I wanted to participate!
I chose to work with some bright fabrics that coordinated with a stripe. I wanted the striped fabric to be prominent and form a zig-zag on the quilt top. The pamphlet that came with the template gave the directions for cutting strip widths and seam allowances (not a scant 1/4" but a full 1/4"). There was a coloring sheet that could be copied for designing one's quilt.
I chose to use what was the simpler block. All strips were cut the same width. Three strips were sewn together on the long edges. (These are some leftovers.)
These were subcut into units using the same cut width as the strips. The units were sewn into 9 patches.
The designs of the quilts are created when the grid on the template is aligned with the seam lines of the 9 patches. The trimming of the 9 patches creates skewed blocks. When half of the 9 patches are cut with the template facing up and half with the template facing down, more quilt designs become possible. I used my revolving cutting mat which made it much easier to cut.
I definitely recommend coloring the design patterns. I placed the striped fabric in the corners which only gave me a bit of that fabric in the quilt design.
I played with the block placements. Glad I took photos of the arrangements. I referred to them for the design I would make. Believe me, one can get in a real tangle to remember which arrangement was the favorite.
I even thought about making matching table runners for my 2 daughters and myself.
And the backing is the stripe fabric that I wanted more of on the front.
The pamphlet suggested keeping the cut offs as they can be used for borders or other projects. I can't toss usable pieces. I sewed the triangular cut offs into rectangles. Trimmed them all to 2-1/2" x 5" and played with a layout.
sewn together:
I had fun with the template and will use it again. I have many ideas to try using striped fabrics. And what if I use 4 different 9 patches? What about surrounding solid 6 inch blocks with the X-Blocks? I am sure there are nearly endless possibilities!
A GIVEAWAY!
X-Blocks is offering this great prize package
and who wouldn't like this great prize?
Enter through the Rafflecopter found after
this list of blog hop participants:
May 7th
May 8th
May 9th
May 10th
Thank you for visiting. Leave a message, I would love to know what you think about the X-Block template.
65 comments:
I have the ruler about 5 years, and will have to get it out and use it ! Great ideas ! Looks like fun to mix up colours and angles.
Just beautiful, Nancy. I love that you used the scraps as a table runner. Amazing how the fabrics can look totally different in both projects.
Love how you used all the scraps. Colors are great.
Your baby quilt is adorable, the fabrics work so well together! It is great that the cut-offs can be used to make a secondary project.
What a neat quilt! It's cool you got the leftover pieces in there also! Have a great day! angielovesgary2 atgmail dotcom
The ruler seems to be easy to work with.
Neat quilt! I have got to try these!
I love that table runner!
Very pretty project! Love your colors :)
The color choices are so pretty!
Nancy, I love your project and the colors are just AWESOME!! My faves!
Very nice quilt project, also glad you could use leftovers for a table runner.
Wow! Both are so colorful.
Great little quilt, I like the layout you chose. This would make very cute runners!
Beautiful quilt Nancy. I love it that you can use the cutoffs to make something different. Great job! Thank you for sharing.
Wow. Beautiful quilts. I love the ideas of extras. Thanks for sharing
Inventive! Very cute!
It is so cool to see how this ruler is used. So many different patterns can come out of it. Thanks for sharing your ideas!
I love the layout you chose for your beautiful quilt and using those leftovers made an amazing runner. It's interesting how different the quilt can look with the rotation of the blocks. Nice job, Nancy!
I am really enjoying seeing all the quilts people are making with this tool. Nancy A: rangerer@sbcglobal.net
Hi Nancy,
How fun this is, and what a decision you had to make with all the different layout choices. I love the finished product! I've already been convinced the I NEED this ruler, and you are confirming that!
~smile~ Roseanne
I sure hope I win one of these !! Very wonderful quilts in this hop !!
I liked all of your layouts and was a little disappointed you didn't make the three table runners. Then, I read on and saw your final quilt - beautiful, and your runner with the cast offs. Love it.
Oh my goodness Nancy, I love your bright and cheery fabrics. Especially the leftover project. It's wild and I love it!!!!!
So many fun options with this template.
Lovely quilt. Thanks for reminding me to take photos of "in progress" to avoid placement confusion!
beautiful choice for the quilt, love the photos!!
Love your color choice.
I love your quilt! There are so many possibilities with this tool. Thanks!
Please click on the delaineelliott above for my email link.
Wow I love the colors of your quilt and I think it was very lucky at the end, that the stripe fabric ended up in the corners. I like the look of the green and grey diamonds- beautiful!
Bente
I love your quilt! I like that the cutoffs can be used in another project too.
It's lovely to see all the different layout options. Thank you
Thanks for the detailed explanation. I appreciate you showing the amount of "waste" fabric and what it's possible to do with it. The block/quilts that results from using the tool have so many possibilities that i'm intrigued.
Thank you so much for the how-to's. Love your choice of colors and the hard work it is to share with the rest of us!
Oh my goodness, love the fabrics and especially love all the layout choices. The possibilities really are endless for this template.
Love the quilt and the table runner.
I love how you showed the various layout choices in this post. I like the quilt, but I love the table runner. I get that the stripe is the more dominant, but to me in the quilt, you don't see that stripe as much as you do in the table runner and I'd want to see that stripe if I had used it in a quilt. I love how the little hints of color come thru in the table runner, whereas with the quilt, the matching coordinating fabrics are dominant. I didn't even try doing different layouts with mine, but I did see as I was creating it that it was possible to do different things with it. I was intent on making sure the x's and the diamonds were shown as part of my pattern. I love how you can take the extras of these patterns and make something else with them and I'm not sure why we never thought to just do that before. Beautiful job Nancy.
Your projects look wonderful, they have such great movement! The striped fabric adds an interesting dimension.
What a fun quilt!
Loos like a fun ruler. Makes great quilts
I like the layout you chose. Thanks for sharing.
Wonderful quilt and I like how you used the leftovers and made something else.
The striped fabric is my favorite part of this project! It is so eye-catching and really adds color! I'm a lover of color and this one does it for me! Great work!
Awesome quilts. I need to get to work making an x-block quilt!
Your quilt makes me think of dancing cartoon legs! Love the playful color.
Great use of fabric and color and design! Thank you for sharing in the hop ... :) Pat
I like the interesting designs the ruler makes. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for showing a variety of layouts. I liked the one you picked the best, but with other colors, one of the others might be more appealing. The table runner look-alikes also appealed to me a lot. I do like the table runner you made with the leftovers, though. What fun!
I love how versatile the design is. Those are so pretty.
Thank you all for the lovely comments. If I was able to reply to your email, I have or will send you one. If there was no email, I want to say thank you here in this comment.
So many different layouts for this ruler. Amazing!
Wow great layout ideas. Love the fabrics you used. I too had purchased an X block ruler many years ago, and joined to force me to use the tool.
Great quilt!
I liked both your quilts. The second one looks like you created fabric. Thanks.
Nancy - what beuatiful projects. I have a ruler somewhere in my stash of quilting items. I bought it a few years ago at a quilt show in Oklahoma City. I brought it home and put it in a safe place and you know the rest of the story. When I saw this hop, I thought the X-block sounded familiar and it wasn't until someone posted a closeup of the book that I realized that some where (again for save keeping), I have that book, too. Seeing all the wonderful projects makes me what to do something with my ruler. I am thrilled to see what you did with the striped fabric. Thanks for participating and the wonderful inspiration.
Neat projects! How neat to be able to use leftovers in another quilt! I've had one of these rulers for awhile--time to make something with it. Thanks for sharing!
Your table runner is beautiful!
Love your project and fabric choices.
i like your use of the stripes. by the way the rafelcopter link didn't work for your blog, I had to find it manually. also love how you used the leftovers, I hate to waste.
Happy Dancing blocks!
I love your stripes and wondered about using them. Thanks for the inspiration !
I like both of your layouts! What a fun ruler! I'd love to try one.
nikilsend(at)outlook(dot)com
Wow great colors and love the diffrent ways to use this ruler... happyness04431@yahoo.com
Those are beautiful quilts. I think I'm in love with this ruler.
I love that you used the scraps for a table runner. :)
Love this tool
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