EQ8 teacher Marguerite Shrader recently shared with us how Material Mart in Midland, Michigan uses EQ8 in their store. It’s quite innovative and we wanted to share it with you! Marguerite writes:
“We want to let you know how we, as a local quilt store that also sells EQ8, are making it easier for our customers to design quilts with the fabrics we carry. About 2 years ago, we started selling EQ8 after one of our customers agreed to teach classes and support the product. We have a series of 7 classes developed so far, and they have been a big hit with the EQ8 user community in the area.”
Material Mart, Midland, MI
“Our latest endeavor has been to develop an EQ8 Fabric Library of the fabric inventory we have in the store, so that when our users design a quilt in EQ8, they can design with fabrics they know we have in stock.”
Material Mart’s Fabric Library in EQ8
“When they bring in the yardage chart, there is enough information in the printout that we can find their fabrics of choice. There are currently 2700 fabrics in this library. The EQ8 Library is distributed on a flash drive with installation and use instructions and is updated monthly to add and delete fabrics based on our inventory. The library is searchable by color by choosing Material Mart Fabric Inventory in the search. It is also searchable by notecard using the keyword system we developed, which is included in the instructions. We rolled out this library in our latest class, and the response was unanimous – all the students wanted a copy!”
Material Mart adds keywords to the Notecard for each fabric that make it easy to search their inventory.
Marguerite goes on to say, “The development of the Material Mart EQ8 Fabric Library started as a joke in the Fabric Management class last summer. As I thought about it later, I decided it would be a good way to tie the shop’s support of EQ8 and their extensive fabric inventory together… While we have to keep class sizes small right now, the response from the students present was overwhelming excitement at getting this inventory. Now that the initial library has been built, the monthly work to keep it up to date is fairly small.”
Marguerite teaching an EQ8 Fabric Management class.
She also has a great way to approach teaching EQ8!
“I have a Hub and Spokes method of structuring the class. The Hub is EQ8 Basics, which is usually a 5-hour class covering everything the student needs to get started. The Hub class is a prerequisite to any of the Spoke classes. The Spoke classes are 3-hour classes which are more focused on one topic (Advanced EasyDraw, PolyDraw, Managing Fabrics, Advanced Layouts, Foundation Piecing, Applique). I am still developing classes as students make requests. Once a student has taken the EQ8 Basics class, they can jump into any of the Spoke classes.”
Thanks for sharing your EQ8 story with us, Marguerite! To find out more about Material Mart, you can visit their website, or stop by the shop:
Material Mart
Quilt Shop
86 Ashman Circle
Midland, MI 48640
Is your quilt shop using EQ8 in a new or interesting way? Tell us your story! Email customerservice@electricquilt.com.
