Part of the magic and fun of Electric Quilt is trying out blocks and color combinations virtually.  You can get a good feel for the look of your quilt before you cut into those precious fabrics.  In this lesson, we are going to play with fabrics and color on a traditional Pineapple block.  This exercise is created to stretch your limits and let you just play with color and design.   From here you can use the designs and principles to ‘play’ with color on any quilt block to create the perfect masterpiece quilt.

Pineapple Color Play

Skillset: Beginner

Skill Builders:

  • Add fabrics to a project
  • Edit the fabrics and colors on a block and quilt
First, let’s get some fun fabrics.

  1.  We are going to download one of the free fabrics of the month.  Go to  doyoueq.com and select the Fabric of the Month tab.  Click on the display to be taken to the fabric of the month downloads.
  2.   Scroll down and select the April 2020 Stag and Thistle fabrics by Brett Lewis and Northcott.  Select Windows or Apple under the little keyboard and follow the instructions to download the fabrics.  There are many more free monthly fabrics to choose from so be sure to go back after the lesson and grab the ones you like!
Now that we have some fun fabrics, let’s start designing.
  1. Open EQ8.
  1. Let’s name the Project.  The project name appears at the top left of the EQ8 Window. Right now the project says Untitled – EQ8.
  2.  On the left side toolbar, click the New project button.  
  3.  On the Create a new project tab, type in the project name field Pineapple Color Play.
  4.   Click OK.  The box will close.  Notice the project name Untitled has been replaced with Pineapple Color Play.

  5. Select Design a Quilt from Scratch.
  6. NEW QUILT > Horizontal
  7.  LAYOUT > No. of Blocks H4 V4, Finished Size of Blocks W 9, L 9, No Sashing
  8. BORDERS> Style: Mitered, Lock All 1″
  9. Go to the DESIGN tab, BLOCK TOOLS, Open Block Library
  10. SEARCH by NOTECARD, Pineapple 2
  11. Select this Pineapple block above.  You may see different blocks but you should find this Pineapple 2.  Add to Sketchbook.  Close.
  12. DESIGN, Block TOOLS, Set Block, Set the Pineapple block into all of the squares.
  13. Lets start to play with colors by using the fabrics we found earlier.
  14. DESIGN, Fabric TOOLS, Open Library.  Scroll down the libraries until you find 2020 Fabric of the Month and select 04 Stag and Thistle.  Select all the fabrics and Add to Sketchbook.  Close.
  15. Now we are going to color the using the new fabrics and drop the blocks into quilts.  Remember that the new fabrics are added to the end of the fabrics, so scroll over to see them.
  16. Block Coloring 1  Here I have colored the corners with gradations of Teal Blues

  17. Block Coloring 2  I have added alternating purple fabric corners
  18. Block Coloring 2  For this quilt, Rotate the alternate blocks by pressing ALT/OPTION and pressing the Rotate tool.

  19. Block Coloring 3 Here we have swapped sections so that the corners contains the white background
  20. Block Coloring 4 Here we add the gradations of purple in the block design
  21. Block Coloring 4 Instead of a white background, I have added a dark black print.
  22. Block Coloring 2 again, what if you added some borders?
  23. Border 1 : Long Horizontal, Lock all 1″
  24. Border 2: Blocks, Lock all 6″, Blocks in border H5 V5
  25. Border 3: Mitered, Lock all 1″
  26. DESIGN: I used the tight vine with circle flowers border blocks.  Do a search of the block library to find them.
  27. Now let’s start a new quilt using a different layout and the same pineapple blocks.  Just putting the blocks on-point opens up new possibilities in design.
  28.  NEW QUILT > On-Point
  29.  LAYOUT > No. of Blocks H3 V3, Finished Size of Blocks W 9, L 9, No Sashing
  30.  BORDERS> Style: Mitered, Lock All 1″
  31. Block Coloring 5  Here I have colored the blocks using a single fabric for each block and arranged them in a pleasing way.
  32. Block Coloring 6 Here I reversed the background and corners, so the corners are solid fabrics.
  33. Block Coloring 6  Here I changed the white background to a complimentary solid fabric of teal.
This is just scratching the surface of playing with color and layouts with your blocks.  I hope these ideas have given you some inspiration to create something new and different from your usual designs.  Play with the different fabrics of the month and try different blocks to discover a beautiful quilt waiting to be designed.
Please attach your own design play quilts to this post, I love to see the creativity and new ideas you design.

Happy Designing!

Questions or Feedback

Please share your ideas, questions and feedback in the comments. I would love to hear from you. Thanks!

Lori J. Miller lives in Oxford, Michigan, where she designs, stitches and sews quilts and quilty things. She loves experimenting with fun colors and designs to make playful and clever products for the modern sewist.  Lori continues to share her knowledge with others teaching quilting and EQ8 classes around the country.  A self professed EQ8 superfan, you can follow her quilting adventures on her blog at lorimillerdesigns.com or on instagram @lorimillerdesigns