Greetings!  I am working on some home made gifts and this is one of them.  I am making a Pop Art Wall Quilt using the EQ8 Image Worktable, a photo and EQ Printable fabric.  This Pop Art quilt is reminiscent of the visual artwork created by Andy Warhol.  I have chosen a picture of Oreo, my son’s cat, to make a fun wall hanging for his room.  You can choose any image you like to create this bright and eye-catching quilt.

Pop Art Wall Quilt

Size: 24″ x 30″

Skill Builders:

  • Working with the Image Worktable
  • Editing a Photo
  • Using Photo Special Effects
For this quilt design, you will need a photo saved into your My EQ8/Images file or somewhere on your computer where you can find it.  Your photo should be in the format of a jpg, png or tif file.
  1. Open EQ8.
  2.  Let’s name the Project.  The project name appears at the top left of the EQ8 Window. Right now the project says Untitled – EQ8.
  3.  On the left side toolbar, click the New project button.  

  4.   On the Create a new project tab, type in the project name field Pop Art.
  5.  Click OK.  The box will close.  Notice the project name Untitled has been replaced with Pop Art.
  6. Select the Image Work Table by pressing on the Green Circle Button at the top right of the screen.
  7. The Image Worktable will open.  It will be empty because we have not added anything to it yet.
  8. Select IMAGE, then EDIT
  9. Select Import Image
  10. Navigate through your files to find the photo that you had previously saved, select it and click OPEN.  The photo will be imported and appear on the edit screen.
  11. Under EDIT OPTIONS, Select Crop  and crop the photo.  I cropped my photo to just capture the kitties face.
  12. Once you have the cropped picture to the size that you want, APPLY the CROP 
  13. Next, I am going to resize the picture to a size that will fit on an 8 1/2″ x 11″ fabric sheet.  Under EDIT Options, Choose Resize.  Be sure to check the box to Maintain Aspect Ratio.  I used 8″ x 10″.  When you are finished, Add to Sketchbook.
  14. Next, because this is a black cat and I want to get a bit more contrast for the picture, I am going to adjust the contrast and brightness.  Go to Histogram in the Ribbon Bar, Select Bright/Contrast.  Adjust the slider bars.  There is a bit of trial and error here so I used Brightness of 30 and Contrast of 30, but it will depend on your picture.  You may have to come back to your cropped picture that you saved to try again until you like it.
  15. Next, we will change the whole photo subject into black and white.  Go to Special Effects, Effects, Artistic, Halftone.  Close the samples window.
  16. Select Style Random, Change Dimension to 1.  If it looks good, add to sketchbook, if it is too dark or too light, go back to adjust Histogram Brightness and Contrast and try again.
  17. Now we can start adding colorful backgrounds.  Go back to COLOR on the ribbon bar, then choose Red/Green/Blue.   Move the slider bars to the extremes to get different colors.
  18. If you are not able to get additional colors, bring in the picture again fresh and start again.  When you like a background color, Add it to the sketchbook.  Save at least nine colored pictures.
  19. Now that we have our colored photos, let’s add them to a quilt.  Go to the Quilt Worktable.
  20.  Under the NEW QUILT tab, select Horizontal from the ribbon bar.
  21.  Under LAYOUT, No. of Blocks – Horizontal 3, Vertical 3, Finished Block Size W 9 L 9, No sashing.
  22.  Select the Borders , Choose Border Style of Mitered, under Lock size adjustments, select all and move the borders to 1/4″.
  23. Select PHOTO TOOLS  on the ribbon bar.
  24. Using Set Photo, Set the Colored Photos in the quilt.
  25. Go to Fabric Tools, choose a color or fabric and color the border.  Now you are ready to print out your photos onto fabric and assemble your quilt.
Electric Quilt has wonderful printable fabrics that you can use for printing.  They come in several varieties and work with an INKJET PRINTER ONLY.
You can check them out HERE!
 

Here are  Tips and Help Articles to help you get ready to print and sew up your design.

Preparing Images for printing on fabric

Print photo from Quilt Worktable

Tips for Printing on EQ Printable Fabric

Now that you have designed this with EQ8, why not stitch up this Pop Art Wall Quilt with your own photo?  You can find  more information for this fun wall quilt on my  Lori Miler Design’s Blog .

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 stitcher.  Sewing since age 11, Lori has deep roots in sewing and quilting traditions that add a unique dimension to her designs.  She loves designing using Electric Quilt 8, Electric Quilt Mini and EQ Stitch.  You can follow her quilting adventures on her blog at lorimillerdesigns.com or on instagram @lorimillerdesigns