I think more information regarding what you're trying to achieve might help. You have a clear image of what you want I'm sure, but I cannot figure out what that vision is from your question.
what ive tried is drawing two lines.
-the first is O degrees of rotation.
-the second is on a new parallel plane further away with a rotation of 45 degrees (its center is lined up with the first line)
I tried to use loft a surface between the two line segments. that didnt work
I then drew in guide curves (essentially completing the edge of my skewed plane), and tried to loft again. This did not work either. It kept on saying i had an open loop.
Odd that you can't get that to work with your initial selection. I just tried the same and had to work perfectly. Can you provide a selection of your loft properties and sketch profiles?
For swept solid features a solid closed sketch is required. An error stating this requirement will be displayed. Also the twist along curve will not give you straight edges.
Do either a loft or sweep feature and use Thicken command to get a solid. Or you can try using the flex feature twist option. If you sketch your lines in a 3d sketch you can get the offset plane as internal to the 3dsketch and simplify your tree or sketch 2 rectangles 45 degrees from each other and use 2 closed sketches. To see the differences between the loft and twist along curve sweep you can flip the 45 degree twist angle for the swept feature.
Did you try a surface loft or a solid loft? I believe a surface loft is in order for this situation. Can you post your model or a representative one? I hope this helps.