Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Hello friends and fellow quilters! Sorry that I’ve been MIA … a few client projects have kept me pretty busy the past few weeks. But I’m back, and this weekend I was able to finally do some “me” sewing. Let me tell you  – IT FELT SO GOOD! One of the projects I was finally able to start on this weekend was one I have been dreaming about for a long time. It is a scrappy “X Plus” quilt which is made, oddly enough, from the – you guessed it – X Plus Quilt Block.

Before I get into the meat of this post, I should tell you that another thing I did this weekend was some serious cleaning in my studio. Most of you probably know that I consider myself first and foremost a scrappy quilter. I love my scraps, and I tend to keep every piece that’s at least an inch square. But I’ve been so overrun with fabric scraps that lately that I’ve felt a bit claustrophobic. I finally came to the conclusion that it was time for me and some of these scraps to part ways. So, I’ve bundled a bunch of them up and have put them for sale in my Etsy shop along with a few fabrics that need to find a new home, too. I’ve also bundled up my string collection. If you’re not familiar with strings, these are basically narrow strips, which I used to wrap rope to make coiled bowls or I sometimes used when making small log cabins.  So, if you’re looking for some scraps, strings or some very reasonably priced fabrics to add to your stash, you should check them out. You might find something you could put to good use.

So, back to the X Plus Quilt

The X Plus Quilt has been a very popular quilt around the internet for the past 6-7 years. It’s based on a block that was designed by Nancy Cabot back in 1938, and it came to notoriety when a Japanese Quilter, Setsuko Inawaga, entered a scrappy quilt based on the block into the Tokyo Quilt Show.

This quilt has been on my bucket list for quite a while, but as I’ve eyed this design, I’ve sort of felt like Goldilocks. Here’s what I mean:

I saw a quilt made up in 7″ blocks and thought to myself. “Pretty, but this X Plus Quilt block is too small. Besides, those are some weird measurements for a 5 patch…”

Then I saw an X Plus Quilt made up of 12.5″ blocks and I thought, “That’s nice, but those blocks are too large.”

I wanted to make my Scrappy X Plus Blocks in a size small enough that I would need to make enough blocks so I could showcase lots of different fabrics. But I also wanted the block to be large enough to showcase some larger scale prints. I finally decided that a 10″ block would be just right for me. So, I drafted it up in Adobe Illustrator, calculated the measurements and made a test block.

And here is my test block:

When I finished that first test block, all I could think was “This is just right!”

Since I had drawn up the blocks, I also created an entry for the X Plus Quilt Block in my Quilt Block Library.

I’m super excited to work on this X Plus Quilt project, but it’s going to have to wait.

I’ve decided this will be my main project to take with me to quilt retreat next month. So, I’ve been busy cutting out the pieces, which has put a small dent in my Art Gallery Fabric stash!

Yep, I was itching to cut into some fresh fabrics, and since that’s going to generate more scraps, that was why I had to clean out my scrap bins.

Now, if you’re interested in my cutting chart with the measurements for how to make an X Plus Quilt block in a 10″ size, sign up for my newsletter because it’s very possible that my subscribers are going to get that information in an email very soon!

Now, I just need to get busy sketching out some ideas for an Xtra special border.

So, what about you? Have you been thinking about making an X Plus Quilt?  Wanna make one with me?