How I made my
Amazing "Water World" Quilt...
It was green and blue and gold and looked like "water world" to me... that is why...

Then I cut the strip set apart making "strip blocks" the same size as the width of the strips. (The blocks will be square)
 

3) This is what the "X" blocks looked  like when I  opened the sewn set. Remember, I called these X blocks.   The four basic blocks I got when I stacked, sew around all four sides of  the block then cut on the diagonals from corner to corner. Doesn't look like much here but we discovered the "magic" happens when you put the matching blocks together.

4) The two  blocks I got when I sewed my * X blocks * together.  I got two different * finished * blocks.  I called them: Finished block Y Finished block Z  More detailed pictures of how I sewed my quilt follow on another page!

I found it was really easy if I took it one step at a time. I made one set of blocks first to see how it all went together and was pleased with it, so went on to  make a whole set.

I went to my stash shelves and looked for a "focal fabric". For me this would be a print with a lot of action in it. From my focal fabric, I usually pick the colors for my quilt.

My focal fabric in this case is a very old black floral with pink, periwinkle blue, white and of course green leaves.  It also has smaller amounts of gold flowers.

 As in any quilt you make, don't over match your fabrics!!  You want a lot of contrast, a variety of textures in your prints, and you need one "sparkle" fabric. Every quilt you make needs a spark of bright or light that will bring your quilt alive.

The "sparkle" fabric will be something unrelated to the other fabrics that will catch your eye.  You need it to carry the other colors throughout your quilt. In all of my teaching over the years, the biggest mistake of first time students is "over matching".  If you "overmatch" you get a real good case of the "blah's". 

So In my quilt here, my sparkles the lighter white.  It is lighter than the others and catches your eye first.

I have my floral print "focal fabric"

I pulled a white with pink flowers (also well aged on the shelf)

A green leaf print that I swiped from another project

A deep gold leaf tone on tone...

and a really pretty swirly periwinkle blue/purplish fabric that I had bought for another project but didn't use ... but here it is prefect!

So basically how I figured the size of my finished X block  was to take the width of the strip set, divide the height of the strip set by 1.414 and it will give you the size of your unfinished "X block".

Double that number of your X block, take away 1/2" for seam allowance,  and you will get the size of your "finished" block.

Example: strip set is 12" high.  Divide 12 by 1.414 and you get 8.48... I just round it up to 8.50

For the finished blocks that are made up of 4 "X" blocks,  take 8.5 X 2 = 17... take off 1/2 inch for the seam allowances when sewing the blocks together and you have the finished blocks size.... 16 1/2". 

It just takes a calculator or computer program capable of calculations to figure this out, it is not really hard to do.

Note:  These may seem like larger than normal quilt block sizes, but that is correct for this quilt.

This is a quilt using 8 blocks across by 10 down.  These are the X blocks... remember that four X blocks make one whole pattern block, or one of design's that forms the O rings.

This is a big quilt.  With 10 inch X blocks (from a 14" strips set)  and a 2", 3", and 4" border it is 98" X 118". 

If the same quilt was made from a 12 inch strip set which makes 8.5 inch X blocks and the same size borders, it would measure 86" X 103" .  It is the same amount of blocks only smaller in size, which of course makes a smaller quilt.

This is a version of the same quilt at left  "cropped down" to three diamond motifs across, using 6 blocks across and  8  blocks down. Depending on the size of your X blocks three across and four down of the diamond designs could make a good size quilt top and I think it looks nicely balanced, so that is what I will make.

This is a smaller size quilt than the one on the left. With 10 inch X blocks (from a 14" strips set) and a 2", 3", and 4" border it is 78" X 98".

If the same quilt was made from using the 12 inch strip set that makes 8.5" X blocks, it would measure 69" x 86" with the same size borders. It is the same amount of blocks only smaller in size, which of course makes a smaller quilt.

Here is a graphic that I made to help me understand the layout of  the quilt. 

Each different color square equals one X block. The gold or the purple four shaded square forms one diamond design motif.

If you think of each four color block as one of the diamond designs in the quilt and see that it is made up of four smaller blocks... that is the way the design is formed. 

This quilt has 48 X blocks... which in turn will make 12 of the finished blocks that from the diamond design.  (48 divided by 4 = 12)

So when figuring how many X blocks that I needed to make for my quilt, I had to figure that two of my strip blocks before layering and sewing all around will  be needed to make one finished diamond motif (or one four shaded square) at left.

..

You need two of these "strip blocks" above to make one of the diamond design elements. (Or one of the four shaded squares in the shaded quilt graphic)
 

Look at the shaded sample again.  I need 12 of the four shaded squares or finished diamond motif blocks. 

It takes two "strip squares"  at left to make one whole diamond block or shaded square in step 10. 

So you take 2 times 12 = 24
(12 blocks and you need 2 "strip squares" to make a block)

If  you get three "strip block" cuts per strip set...
divide 24 by 3 and you get  8.

(You divide by three because that is how many cuts you get per strip set)

I need to cut 8 of each fabric for my quilt. 

To determine the amount of X blocks you will need for the size of  a quilt, you can follow the standard measurements below. These are standard mattress area sizes. The "finished size" assumes you will add the standard 12" for the drop on all four sides. The border can be several smaller borders . Adjust as needed, this is only a guideline! 

Twin matters size: 40" x 75" 

Full matters size: 54" x 75" 

Queen Matters size: 60" x 80" 

King matters size: 72" x 84" 

Crib matters size: 27" x 50"

You may not want 12" drops on a crib quilt, so adjust borders to your liking. 

Cot matters size: 30" x 75" 

 Here again, you may not want a 12 inch drop on this quilt, so adjust borders to your liking. 

For the first quilt, I decided to go a 12" or 13" strip set. 

9 inches and 10 inches give you narrow strips to try to match up... very narrow and they just seam to disappear.  This is a bold quilt... so I figured to be a bold and graphic quilt... you have big hearty strip widths ~

I figured I could go 14", but determined you must have at least 43" of fabric from selvage to selvage for each fabric, and line up one edge very carefully!  If you don't have this, you will end up  short on one of the strips. (Because I did it!) I ended up taking out the gold strips that where too short and sewing in new ones. Very frustrating!

If  I multiply 3 x 14" (the strip width size) you get 42"... I wanted some extra for selvage marks... so I needed at least 43" of fabric from selvage to selvage for the 14" size of strip set.   If you don't have 43" of fabric from selvage to selvage, you will only  get 2 blocks across the strip set.  That will waste a lot of fabric. 

The other option I thought of when planning my quilt was to cut the strips lengthwise on the fabric and you can make the length of the strips any size you need them to be. 

.....I drew the size block I wanted and divided it up in strip widths the way I found pleasing.  This sample is a 12 inch block. 

From Margie that has made a lot of these quilts, she says that five to seven strips seems to be the best... less than five and you loose the design, more than seven and you overpower the quilt.

If you have a quilt design program this is very nice to use for this. That is how I did a lot of my graphics. 

Look at the samples below see what strip set widths I come up with. Which do you like best? 

These two fabric strips on the top and bottom of the "strip set"  will form the main  "on point" diamond motif  of the two different blocks. 

See the two samples below.  Notice the top and bottom strip colors, then look see where they end up at in the finished block. 

Also I decided that you should not put a seam line right through the center.

And I figured  that if I have a very narrow strip in the center, the little triangles will be very small and I WILL have to try to match them later on!! 

So, if  the strip in my quilt block I drafted is 3 inches in the draft,  I had to cut it 3 1/2 inches wide because I needed to add two seam allowances of 1/4 inch each.

After I figured that out, I was now ready to cut the fabric.

After I figure out how many strips I needed to cut and the width of each strip, it was easy to figure out how much fabric I need. Since all the strips are different widths, I couldn't make up a chart for myself give me any  definite  fabric requirements as the strips will be very different sizes for each block I designed.

So I figured the math like this:

I multiplied the width of the strip by the number of strips  needed for my quilt, and that is how much fabric I needed. 

I always buy a little extra in case of crooked cuts or shrinkage when you pre wash.

If my strip is 3 1/2 inches and I needed 8 strips,  multiply 3.5 times 8 and you need 28 inches of fabric. 

Like I said, get more!!
 

Also note the top and bottom strip colors and sizes in the X sample. I have a narrow deep purple band on top and that makes a narrow band around the pink in the finished block.

The green band on the bottom is much wider and it forms a wide green band around the narrow blue band.

The coral color strip in the X block sample has a wider amount of coral on top of the center and less below the center.  See what it does in the centers of the main diamond designs.  The coral fabric area is larger in the center of the purple banded  finished block and  there is a smaller amount of coral in the green banded block. 

The black band is much narrower, and notice what all of those strips do in the block.

In this block, the main design diamonds are basically the same size in both blocks in the outer band. The narrow black band, however tends to set the spark in the whole quilt. 

Remember I mentioned that you always need one "sparkle" fabric in your quilt.  Something that you may consider *I doesn't match* or  is too bright, or just a lot different!  YOU NEED THIS SPARKLE to set off a quilt design.

A quilt is NOT the place for "itty-bitty-matchy-uppy". 

If your fabrics blend too much and too nicely, you will loose the whole design in any quilt.  You need a lot of contrast and different textures.  Get some big prints, small geometric's, some tone on tones, etc. 

Notice that the floral and the purple end up forming the main design pattern in your finished blocks.

Notice where my fabrics are in the strip set and where they end up in the finished blocks at right. 

The gold strip ended up framing the main purple fabric, and the light fabric forms large X's over the background where the green is predominate.

Whatever is in the center of your strip set will end up in the middle of the O design element and forms the X pattern in the background.