SewCalGal is hosting a Blog Hop! It’s kicking off her Year of Red and White Quilt Challenges.

We hope to inspire you to use EQ and enter SewCalGal’s upcoming Design It! Quilt Challenge. It kicks off on February 10th and goes thru March 23rd. Designs of any size can be entered in this challenge, but they need to be your own design and have a red and white theme to them. (You do not need to use EQ to enter your design.)

There is also a Make It! Challenge for those that want to make their design (or a project from any purchased design or tutorial). The more you enter the more chances you’ll have to win prizes!

We hope you’ll find many inspirational projects shared in this EQ Blog Hop as well as tips and tutorials.

Monday, January 27th -SewCalGal

Tuesday, January 28th -Marlene at Kissed Quilts

Wednesday, January 29th -Connie at Freemotion Quilting By The River

Thursday, January 30th -Bea at Beaquilter

Friday, January 31st -Raewyn at Love to Stitch

Now, let’s get to the quilts!

I designed a few different quilts in EQ7 and will explain how I made them.

This quilt and thousands of variations are so easy to make in EQ7!

Click Libraries > Layout Libraries > Layouts by Style > Stars > click on the first quilt “Stars -1″ > Add to Sketchbook > Close

Click View Sketchbook > find the layout > Edit

Click Libraries > Block Libraries > Classic Pieced > Classics > Flying Geese > Add the Sketchbook > Close

Click Set Block Tool > Flying Geese > Click onto each space that you’d like a block.

Click the Rotate Block tool and rotate blocks as needed.

Recolor as you like. Click Add to Sketchbook when you’re finished.

I used Flying Geese for this two color design but so many blocks work well with this layout.

Shown here are a log cabin, nine patch and Dresden Block.

Another quick layout option in EQ7 is one patch quilts.

Click Quilt > New Quilt > One Patch Quilt

Recolor as you like. Click Add to Sketchbook when you’re finished.

One thing that can help, especially with one patch quilts, is the different paintbrush options in EQ7. If you click on the black triangle on the Paintbrush tool a fly-out menu of more paintbrush options will appear.

Freehand brush – paints a freehand line
Line brush – paints a straight line
Rectangle brush – paints a rectangle outline
Oval brush – paints an oval outline
Experiment and see what you like!

Also, EQ7 has many more one-patch quilts. Not just hexagons! You can choose from any of these shapes.

So many options and SO easy!

For my next quilt I drew my own super simple block.

I knew I wanted 4 stripes. You could make the block 4 x 4 and draw lines accordingly, but sometimes the math is not so simple. Here is another way to do it:

Click Block > New Block > EasyDraw Block

Click the Grid Tool > type 4 for Columns and 4 for Rows

Draw lines to the appropriate intersecting corners.

Then, erase the lines you don’t need.

Click Add to Sketchbook when done.

Here is the quilt I wanted this block for. Houndstooth!

As you probably know EQ is great for trying out different fabrics and colors. Even with just two colors, you can get really different looks with the same quilt.

Using the Swap Colors tool   changes any fabric in the entire quilt to a new fabric in just one click. Easy and quick!

You can download my EQ7 project here.

Enjoy the Blog Hop and SewCalGal’s Challenges!