Although we’re fully into 2021, we’re touching base with the phenomenal Heather Valentine, from The Sewing Loft, who was our 2020 EQ Ambassador! Over the last 2 years, so even before she was our amazing Ambassador, Heather designed and published more than 75 picture-quilt blocks! Of course, all of them were designed in EQ8! Since these blocks have been so popular, she put together an All-Access Pass for the collection.

Jumping ahead

Since we can all agree that last year was not what anyone had planned, we’re going to look forward and find out what Heather has on the horizon for 2021!

Heather’s goal for this year is to get friendly with Mr. Roy G. Biv! No, we don’t need to alert her husband about another guy in her life ( ), but rather, she is working her way through her stash in color order (of the rainbow) to create beautiful quilts! Heather acknowledges that designing in EQ8 makes this a breeze. “I simply create my main design on the worktable and then add shade, texture, and dimension with the fabric tool. It really is so much fun to just play around in the program. The best part is seeing those wonderful drawings stitched into real life quilts with hundreds of scrappy bits from my stash!”

Read more about the EQ8 Color Tool Heather uses.

One way Heather plans to use up lots of her colorful stash is through a fun Mini Quilt SWAP. These swaps attract talented folks from all over the globe, so much so that the current swap is sold out! Luckily, Heather plans to have another swap in the late Spring, so visit her site often to stay in the loop!

Color Story Quilt

Speaking of colors, look at Heather’s lovely “Color Story” quilt!

Color Story, as designed in EQ8

Here is the finished quilt (that you can buy the pattern for)!

And, here it is again using a different colorway (which is super easy to change using EQ8)!

They’re both so pretty! Which one would you make?

Get a sneak peek at Heather’s newest design!

Heather’s current quilt is called Honey Pot. It’s not ready, or sewn, yet, but you can see the progress captured in EQ8!

Hopefully, this motivates everyone to visit Heather’s website often, so you can get the pattern when it’s available!

Heather certainly is busy, and EQ8 allows her to be more productive, as well as experimental, when deciding on the right color to choose from Mr. Roy G. Biv!

Thanks for letting us catch up with you, Heather! Wishing you a continued colorful year and thrilled that EQ8 is part of that design adventure!