Disclosure: *items are affiliate links

If you purchase from that link, it does not affect your price,

I earn a small commission to help defray the costs of blogging.

Today I am thrilled to be a member of the X-Block Hop (and there is a giveaway!). I found out about this hop from Amy at Sew Incredibly Crazy A friend of hers, Doris Rice, is the new owner of the X-block and so, to help her friend, a blog hop was born. I was excited to join as I did have a lovely quilt that I made using that technique.

I love the X-block tool and the intricate designs you can make by trimming a 9 patch. Yup - that's the basic gist of it. First you make a lot of nine patches, then you cut them up. Sometimes that feels wasteful, but here's the thing - you are not piecing wonky angles BUT buy cutting a block differently you get the effect of the odd angles.

I loved, loved, loved this pattern. I thought it would be perfect to use up some batiks I had collected. The ones I was using up were the more solid/light fabrics in the quilt. I had collected them for my Whitby Abby quilt - it appears in the beginning of my blog, but I actually never wrote an entire blog on it. You can even see some of these batiks in the link above, in the second picture.

These are the two tools I used, the 6.5" X block template* and the BellyButton 6.5*. I think the way the colors play off of one another and that the design is so interesting. I was looking for a colorful sky so all these light batiks have blues and some pinks in them. It is such a cheery quilt and perfect for a summer quilt. The guest room in our cottage is dark and it really livens up the room.

Here are a couple of hints for making this quilt:

Starch your fabric (bias edges behave better when starched)
Pay attention to the directions (I know - simple but true! there are Right and Left facing cuts)

right facing block

left facing block

Teal square shows the Right Block, Orange is Left Block and
Dotted Line Square shows 4 blocks making the diamond.

The pieces for the sides and top are made from some leftovers, if I remember correctly. They were totally worth doing. I wanted to use this on a queen size bed, so a few borders and it works! Notice, the top and bottom borders are smaller so it will fit my platform beds easily. Finally, I quilted this on a longarm and loved doing it.