I posted photos the other day of a project I did using the X-Blocks rulers. (You can find that thread here
http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...n-t188699.html)
Several people had not heard of these rulers and wanted to know more about them. These are rulers and patterns designed by Patricia Pepe of Quilt Queen Designs. I took a quick photo of one of the techniques - you first sew a nine-patch block, then cut it using the ruler. (For other patterns, you would start with a strip set instead of the nine-patch.) Yes, it's similar to Twister, but I believe these rulers were around before the Twister ruler. And with X-Blocks the 'leftover' pieces are not wasted - they either get used in the border of the main project, or get sewn into another project like a table runner.
There are probably 20 individual patterns plus 2 books of patterns that use these rulers. The rulers come in two sizes, 6-1/2" and 7-1/2". You can make most of the patterns in either size. There are also Mini rulers and BellyButton rulers in both sizes. These can be used alone to make small versions of the projects. Or the BellyButton can be used to make a small X-Block which is used as the center of the larger nine-patch block.
The second photo shows how the BellyButton blocks fit into the larger blocks. Obviously I'm using fabric from 2 different projects in this photo, normally they would match and make a pretty design ;-)