September means back to school time in most areas. As a very young child, I recall looking forward to see how the teacher decorated the classroom to enhance learning principles. Why not make a small wall hanging quilt to add to the classroom decor for the teacher to display?
Open your EQ8 and name a new project ‘Back to School’. Click OK at the bottom of the project helper box to save your new project.
The project name should now appear at the top of your screen.
At the top of the screen click on LIBRARIES>Block Library
In the Block Libraries box, click on ‘search>>by notecard’. A secondary box will open.
In the notecard box, type in the word ‘school’ and then click on the word ‘search’ at the bottom of the box.
All the different types of blocks that are built into EQ8 libraries will come up for you to choose from. Scroll through and choose a couple blocks that remind you of school. Click on them while holding down the control key (CTRL) on your keyboard and then click on the ‘add to sketchbook’ icon at the upper right side of the screen.
Continue clicking on the ‘search by notecard’ at the bottom of the block libraries box under different words that relate to school. Try ‘pencils’, books, etc. to build a collection of school related blocks for your classroom quilt.
Click on the word ‘close’ at the bottom of the box once you have collected all the blocks you want to work with.
I plan on using the blocks just the way they are in the libraries so I don’t need to open them in the block worktable. I will send my blocks directly to the quilt worktable.
Click on the quilt worktable icon 
on the upper right side of the screen.
Set the properties for your quilt design using the tools on the ribbon at the top of the screen.
Start by clicking on the Layout tab at the top of the screen. In the properties box at the left, change the number of blocks to be 2 horizontal and 2 vertical. Change the size of the blocks to be 6 inches width and height.
Click on the Borders tab at the top of the screen. From the ribbon, click on the ‘long horizontal’ option, and then in the border options box at the left side of the screen, click on the ‘all’ selection and change the size of all of the borders to be 4.00 inches.
Click on the Design Tab at the top of the screen and select the ‘block tools’ icon 
from the ribbon. Click on the ‘set block’ icon 
under the block tools at the left side of the screen and scroll all the way to the end to see the blocks you added to the sketchbook for this project. Click on each of the school blocks and drag them to the center block area of the quilt layout.
Add the layout to the sketchbook. 
Click on the Design tab at the top of the screen and choose the ‘auto borders’ option from the ribbon. Click on the down arrow to see all the different types of auto borders that are available in the EQ Libraries.
Click on any border of your choice to select it then click on the border area of the worktable to have the border choice instantly applied to the quilt layout. You can easily change your mind by selecting a different border and clicking again to see what the new selection may look like.
Once you are happy with your border selection, be sure to add it to the sketchbook. 
From the Design tab, select the ‘fabric tools’ icon from the ribbon. Use the paintbrush tool 
to change the colors of your design by using fabrics or solid colors that are built into the defaults for the EQ8 program.
Add the colored design to the sketchbook.
This little quilt wall hanging is 20 x 20 inches. You can decide from here how you want to construct it. You can piece it, applique it, print blocks, or print the entire design layout onto one piece of printer fabric. The choice is yours to make. The design process was quick and easy using the built in options in EQ8.
