This guy is another in my series of 2.5″ scrap quilts.  Actually it is a partner to my Big Blue Plus quilt, which I talked about here.  With that one I used the 2.5″ scrap pieces to make a plus, and here I used them to make a big X.  So creative!!  🙂  I really make these quilts from scraps to practice quilting techniques and with Big Blue Plus I did a lot of graffiti, or very organic quilting.  However, I took several classes from Jodi Robinson and then Judi Madsen and really wanted to try out some of those ideas, so with one this I decided to go in a much more structured direction.

Both Jodi and Judi do a lot of marking on their quilts.  I usually don’t do a lot of marking, and really HATED marking quilts when I did it more often for quilting on my sit down machine, but I went with the process and did the work.  I used mostly chalk and I was pleasantly surprised how well the marks stayed visible throughout the quilting.  

Here is the finished Big Purple X:

I started with the filled in piano key borders, then added in the on point squares that run around the edges.  All of that was marked before I started, as were the diagonal channels that help accentuate the X design.

I went with a pretty simple orange peel with back and forth line design in the X pattern to keep the focus on all the quilting in the background.

This is the back.  I pieced together the border from a few solids and a very old purple flower patterned piece from my stash.  I think the back looks pretty cool!

Final Details:

• Finished 56″x64″
• Quilters Dream Wool (this was actually funny.  I bought this batting for our QuiltCon charity quilt in 2019, but my corgi Maggie chewed a hole in the corner of the package, leaving a large hole in the batting and I couldn’t use the batting on that quilt.  The hole was far enough down on the batting that I could use the rest of it for this quilt, so I loaded it up.  While working on the first section I heard my new corgi puppy, Tico, chewing on something at my feet – which I assumed was a toy.  It turns out he was CHEWING YET ANOTHER HOLE IN THIS BATTING!  AARGH!  I wound up having to cut the batting and rejoin it to get rid of the hole.  I think this batting was cursed!)
• Isacord 2810 (dark purple) and Glide 40428 (Mulberry, a medium purple in the background.   Isacord 3040 (kind of a light grey/purple) in the 2″ squares.  Bottom Line #623 (light grey) in the bobbin
• 397,132 total quilting stitches.