When teaching classes, I often design my pattern and notes in gray scale.   If I use color, the students like to reproduce my work and make theirs exactly as I have done.  If I create in gray scale, the students seem to feel more free to use their own fabrics in their own favorite colors.  EXAMPLE–Show a child’s quilt in blues and they automatically assume it is for a boy.  If they wanted a quilt for a girl, they dismiss attending the class based on the picture of the blue child quilt.  So designing in gray tones and suggesting coloration options often works out better.  The students become more individual and creative without further influence from myself.  I love the value of  unique  creative expression.

Open your EQ program.

Click on the quilt worktable icon at the upper right side of the screen.

Before we begin our quilt layout we will gather some baby designs from the library for our blocks.

Click on LIBRARIES>Block Library at the top of the screen.

In the libraries box, on the left side of the box, navigate to the 05 contemporary applique category  and select the sub-category of toys and children.

Once the images are open in the sketchbook, click on select all and then add them to the sketchbook.

In the libraries box, on the left side of the box, navigate to the 05 contemporary applique category  and select the sub-category of celebrations.  Navigate to the baby with the blocks and click on it to select it and then add it to the sketchbook. Close the sketchbook when done.

Click on the quilt worktable icon on the upper right side of the screen.

Select the NEW Quilt/ Horizontal .

Set the layout to 1  x 1 blocks with the size of 12 inches.

Click on the BORDERS tab and set the style to blocks and the size of the blocks to 6 inches.  Set the number of blocks to be 2 x 2 in the border.

Click on the DESIGN TAB/ Blocks tools and select the set block icon.  Navigate to the image of the baby stacking blocks and click onto it to select it.

Once you have selected the baby stacking blocks image, click on the arrow at the bottom of the box that is pointing backwards.  This will change the image from full color to be a gray scale image.

Move the cursor over to the quilt layout and click once in the center of the layout to set the baby building blocks.

Continue selecting blocks from the sketchbook and change them to gray scale and place them onto the quilt.

Add to sketchbook

Now that you have a quilt layout with generic images for babies, you can recolor them in different ways to create a design that would appear to be more for girls or boys.

Click on the Fabric Tools icon and select the paint brush.  Color each of the elements in the way you need for the child.

Try designing in gray scale and see how many different looks you can create with the same layout simply by applying different colors of fabrics for a totally different feel for the same quilt.