A Little X+ Progress

Since my X+ Quilt is being made from my scrap pile, it's taken a bit of a back seat for a while so I could build up a few more scraps -- especially the neutral/white/cream triangle pieces. I had enough of my original neutral for one more block -- not quite enough to complete my top plans. These aren't the kinds of fabrics that I regularly use, so building up a few more scraps took a while -- and some creative cutting.

After finishing the top of the wonky star sampler I had a little bit of white with dots left over -- enough for two blocks, if all goes as planned. Finishing up the Christmas Quilt provided me with some 4 inch strips of neutral-ish fabric -- as long as I was careful to cut out the most obvious of the words.

I couldn't quite avoid all of the letters, but I did my best to orient my 3inch squares so that the words would fall near an edge or as much in one of the triangles as possible. Anything near the edge is going to be partly lost to the seam allowance, so I think it won't be too loud or noticeable. If one of the half-triangles had a great deal of lettering, particularly in the red 'Merry Christmas' print, I set is aside for use in something else. I think I have just enough to make this work, even setting aside some of them.

My initial goal was to make three more blocks, ending the top with a total of 12 X+ blocks. After completing three extra blocks -- all using the leftover Christmas fabric -- I ultimately decided that I need to make 4 more. In addition to bringing my total up to 16 blocks, and a square quilt, this will increase the number of 'different' neutral blocks -- rather than 3 vs 9 it'll be 6 vs 10. I think this greater number total, and greater number of different neutrals, will make the variety of neutrals look more like a plan and less like I ran out of fabric!

So, I have a few more blocks to make before I get to start playing around with a top layout. Since I'm doing these a little on the free-hand / slightly wonky side, these are going together quite easily. I imagine working with 3 inch squares instead of half-triangles would decrease the slight imperfections and wonky bits I know I'm creating, but I have enough projects where perfection matters -- this one is about fun!

Not that perfection isn't fun in its own way, but I like to take a break from being so precise and just work on something that flows without too much effort. I can't wait to see how all the blocks play together -- but it could be a real challenge to block this out with so many different fabrics, and some repeats in different areas. I'm looking forward to the challenge.