Finished BasiX Quilt Top and Ruler Tutorial!!

I am so excited to have finished my BasiX quilt top!!!   I have had one of these quilts on my to make list for so long and I am just thrilled to get to cross it off, although I suppose I should wait until I quilt and bind it before I cross it off.  But ya know, super close ;)      You might recall from back here,  that there was a BasiX Ruler in the October Sew Sampler box.   Well, here is is the first of November, and my quilt top is done.   Yippee!!!    Several of you emailed asking how the ruler worked, so I took a few pics along the way so I could share a little Ruler Tutorial. 

So to start, you need to cut your 2 1/2" strips.  You need 3 strips in each strip set and you can cut 7 units, that each measure 5" unfinished, from each strip set.   So for my quilt top, where I wanted my blocks laid out 6 x 7 or 42 blocks and 4 units per block, that equals 168 units divided by 7 per strip is 24 strip sets.   So for a 3 color quilt like mine,  1 3/4 yard of fabric from each of your 3 fabrics.   The center strip is what makes the outline, and the two outside strips are what make the stars ;)   So sew your strips together and I pressed mine towards the center.  And remember, it is helpful to use a slightly smaller stitch length when strip piecing ;)

Then, it's time to start cutting your units.  Place the BasiX ruler on the strip set taking care that the BasiX logo is facing up.  There are some patterns where you flip, flop the ruler, but this BasiX one you always want the logo facing up.   Then align the horizontal markings on the ruler with the seams of your strip set.   There can be a little overhang on the top and bottom, no worries, it will be in the seam allowance ;)    Then cut around all 4 sides of the ruler to cut out your first unit.

Now, we are going to continue across the Strip Set.   Again, align your BasiX ruler with the logo facing up, and the horizontal markings aligned with the seams, and the raw edge of the previous cut, aligned with the edge of the ruler.  After a few cuts, I found the following little trick to be very helpful.  When you make the first cut (yellow line),  cut a little past the ruler, making sure to cut straight in a line.  You don't need a lot, just start your cut a little below the edge of the ruler.

Then you can fold the rest of the strip set back and out of the way.  Then cut the remaining 3 sides around the ruler.  By folding the strip set out of the way, it makes it so that that bottom cut doesn't cut into the next unit.  You just have to keep that first cut straight, as you will be aligning the ruler along that cut.  Keep doing this until you have cut across the strip which will give you 7 units.  Then repeat for all 24 strip sets ;)

Then, once you have all 168 units cut, you can sew them together.   I used two layouts for my blocks, making 21 blocks of each layout.  This just adds a lot of visual interest and some fun secondary designs when the blocks are sewn together.

The blocks are sewn just like a 4 patch.  Sew the top two units together and the bottom two units together. I pressed my seams open.   Then just sew the top row onto the bottom row, aligning the center seam, and again pressing open.   And just like that, fun BasiX Blocks.  They will measure 9 1/2" unifinished and finish at 9" square.

Lay the blocks out in 7 rows with 6 blocks per row, alternating the 2 blocks as shown below.  Then it is just sewing the blocks into rows and the rows into the quilt top.   The quilt top measured 54 1/2" x 63 1/2" when all the blocks were sewn together.  I wanted it a bit larger and wanted to provide a little resting point for the eyes, so I added a 3 1/2" border.     I hope that helps you all on using a BasiX ruler and hopefully making some of your own BasiX Quilts ;)

And now I can't wait to get it quilted up and bound.   Isn't it just so fun!!!  I love all of those sparkling stars, and I especially love the black and white ones that were created in the secondary design.  So cool!!!   I can see myself making lots more of these BasiX quilts going forward.  They really are super fun and super fast!!!  My two favorites ;)

I hope you all have a very Happy Quilting Weekend!!!!

Linking up this quilt top finish to Sarah's and Myra's ;)

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