With the blend selected, select the pretzel shaped path, then select the Blend Tool. The Blend Along a Curve button will be enabled on the Infobar. Press it and stand back!

Wow! The blend snakes its way along the entire path without our having to ask it to. And look how smooth the transition is! In DRAW the dark and light areas appear noticeably jagged. Welcome to the anti-aliased world of Xara X.

Select the Quick Shapes Tool. On the Infobar select Create Polygons (the hexagon button) and change the number of sides to 6. Hold down the Ctrl key to constrain the angle of creation, and drag a polygon approximately 120 x 140 pixels.

While you are dragging rotate the polygon so the pointed ends are on the top and bottom as shown.