EQ has a few new faces around the office so we decided to make a quilt! This way we know everyone understands how to sew and the process of quilting. We have a lot of quilters on staff but not everyone (yet!). We’re sharing the process with a Sew-Along so you can see our blocks and get to know the EQ staff! If you’d like to sew along and get more details about the project, check them out here.

This month we’re featuring Janice!

Janice has worked at EQ since August 2020, but  she was an EQ user long before she worked here! Janice works in product development and marketing. She handles bug reports and feature requests so if you have sent one of those in you have probably heard from her. One of Janice’s most recent projects was developing the Judy Martin Log Cabin add-on for EQ8.

She is also a quilt historian and has a PhD in Folklore. Her dissertation research was published as the chapter on pieced quilts in the book American Quilts in the Industrial Age, edited by Patricia Cox Crews and Carolyn Ducey and published by the International Quilt Museum. Janice says, “I loved working on Barbara Brackman’s Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Blocks and BlockBase+ for EQ because Brackman’s research was foundational for my own work on the development of the block-style quilt and the connections between colonial and early-American and European quilting traditions. I’m always happy to talk quilt history and get very nerdy about pieced block designs!”

Janice says she likes working at EQ because “We are a small but mighty team! Everyone cares so much about our users having a good experience and being able to learn the software and create the designs that are bouncing around in your head! It’s a really positive place to work and I love seeing all the amazing things our customers create!“

Janice has been sewing for a very long time. She says, “I made clothing in 4-H, including my prom dress one year. I learned to quilt from a family friend when I was in junior high, so I’ve been sewing and quilting for over 20 years. In fact, the woman who taught me to quilt helped me calculate fabric yardage I needed by designing my first quilt in EQ4. So I’ve been using EQ products from the beginning of my quilting journey.”

Here’s Janice’s first quilt.

Here she is with a quilt she made as a 4-H donation project.

This is a star quilt that she made as a wedding gift for her sister.

Janice has also made a lot of t-shirt quilts. Here’s one she made for her Dad using his clowning t-shirts.

For the sew along Janice made the Whirligig block. She says, “As it is originally designed, the Whirligig block requires both Y-seams and partial seams. Y-seams are not my favorite thing to sew so I first chose to modify the block in EQ8 to eliminate any Y-seams. After playing with the block a bit I decided that adding four seam lines in the spots marked in purple in the image below would allow me to make the block with just partial seams and no Y-seams! That’s one of the great things about EQ, if you don’t like the way a design has to be constructed, EQ makes it very easy to change the block.

First, I printed out the rotary cutting instructions. Then, because I edited the large white triangles into a small triangle and a shape with four sides, I chose to just number and section that portion of the block so that I could foundation paper piece it rather than cutting templates.

Next, I sewed the center square-in-a-square and created the four sections that rotate around the center block.

Once these five parts were together I started attaching outer sections to the center square. This is where the partial seams were needed. Partial seams sound scary but with a little practice they aren’t too bad. For this I sewed just past the point of the central patch since that needed to match up and then back stitched to hold the partial seam

Then I could sew the next three sections to the center square like normal.

I use partial seams a lot when making quilts with differently sized blocks, especially my t-shirt quilts, so I was comfortable with that part of this design. I love how EQ makes it easy to make a block using different techniques and to modify blocks if they otherwise require techniques that you don’t like or aren’t comfortable doing.

With all that experience, it’s no surprise that Janice’s finished block looks great!

Every month we’re also asking a random icebreaker question, just for fun. Janice’s question was, If money and time were no object, what would you be doing right now?

I love to travel and see new places and learn about different local textile traditions. If I had unlimited money and time, I would be traveling with my family all over the world! A dream of mine is to host some of those quilting travel tours!

So that’s ten blocks, ten months, and ten employees done!

Stay tuned for our next post on November 15th. We’ll feature another staff member and block!