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Design & Discover

Design & Discover – Coloring Scrappy Quilts

Posted 05-01-2023 by | Posted in: Design & Discover Favorite Posts

First of all, you definitely don’t have to manually color each individual patch to make a quilt look scrappy! Lots of times if you are planning on sewing a scrappy quilt you wouldn’t be using the specific red fabric you’re coloring your quilt with, you would just be using a red from your stash anyways. So, the first step is just to not overthink it!  But, here are a few different ways to make this job a little faster. In this Wedding Ring Quilt I used the Ctrl/Cmd to color the blocks with the Paintbrush tool, which colors the same patch in all matching blocks on the current layer.   And ended up with this quilt… Once you have a quilt designed and colored like in Step 1, click the DESIGN tab > Block Tools Use the Rotate and Flip tools to break up the repetitive fabrics. For example, here

Design & Discover – Lone Star Quilts

Posted 04-01-2023 by | Posted in: Design & Discover Favorite Posts

Making a Lone Star quilt in EQ8 is easy! There are a few different options. A Lone Star Block First try checking in the Block Library. Click Libraries > Block Library > 01 Classic Pieced > Lone Stars. There are 29 block options. You can also edit any of these blocks. If you would like to use one of these blocks click on the block and click Add to Sketchbook. Click NEW QUILT > Layout > Horizontal Under NUMBER OF BLOCKS make the quilt 1 x 1 Under FINISHED SIZE OF BLOCKS make the block the size you want your finished quilt to be (minus any border). Click the DESIGN tab > Block Tools > Set Block Click on the block and click on the quilt to set it. Click the Fabric Tools an use the coloring tools to recolor the quilt. Click Add to Project Sketchbook    for any

Design & Discover – Using Blocks in the Sashing 

Posted 03-01-2023 by | Posted in: Design & Discover

Let’s see how this month’s free project Lucky Leaves was designed. You can download the project here. Be sure to check out the other free projects available. There are over 320 to choose from! The project includes 51 new fabrics! And this cute block!   Here is how to design this quilt: Click the NEW QUILT > Horizontal Click the LAYOUT tab Under NUMBER OF BLOCKS make the Horizontal and Vertical: 2 Under FINISHED SIZE OF BLOCKS make the Width and Height: 9 Under FINISHED SIZE OF SASHING make the Width and Height: .75 Click the BORDERS tab For the first border’s style choose Corner Blocks and make all sides: .75 For the second border’s style choose Long Horizontal and make all sides: 2.250 For the third border’s style choose Long Horizontal and make all sides: .250 Click the DESIGN tab > Block Tools > Set Block Click on the

Design & Discover – Easy Quilt Changes

Posted 02-01-2023 by | Posted in: Design & Discover

Let’s discover some easy and quick ways to change existing projects. For example, I’m going to use this month’s free project of the month, Scrappy Sweetheart. You can download the project here. It also includes 50 fabrics! This is just one of over 320 free project downloads for EQ8. Check them all out! Download the project and double-click on the project to open it in EQ8. If you’re having trouble finding the project, please read this. Click the Quilts section Click on the quilt Click Edit This quilt it a little quirky and pretty bright. Let’s try it with some lighter colors. Click DESIGN > Fabric Tools > Randomize > Map to Colors Choose Brightness and click on the quilt to see the brightness level change. Click Add to Project Sketchbook  . If the project is unnamed EQ8 will prompt you to do so. (To be saved, your item needs

Design & Discover – An Easy Quilt Using All Three Layers!

Posted 01-01-2023 by | Posted in: Design & Discover

This lesson is great for anyone starting off with EQ8, or if you want a refresher on the basics! We have lots of other resources available for learning EQ8, as well. Let’s get started! Open EQ8 and click Design a Quilt from scratch For this lesson we are using the default layout and border, but you can learn more about Layouts here and more about Borders here. Please note that in EQ8 always works with finished sizes. When you are choosing sizes for blocks, or anything else, EQ8 adds the seam allowance for you. Click the DESIGN tab > Block Tools > Open Library Beside 01 Classic Pieced click the plus sign + to open that category, then click the Four Patch style Click on Clay’s Choice and click Add to Sketchbook Click Four X to open that style Click on The Arrowhead Click Add to Sketchbook Click Close Click Set Block

Design & Discover – Wreaths!

Posted 12-01-2022 by | Posted in: Design & Discover

This month we’re playing with different ways to make wreaths in EQ8! EQ8 comes with some wreath blocks already installed. Let’s check those out first. Open EQ8 and click Search for block patterns Click Search > By Notecard Type in wreath Check all 3 boxes. Make sure it reads Find at most 300 items. Click Search Click on a wreath you like and click Edit to Block Worktable This is a Polydraw + Applique block, with everything drawn on the Applique tab. If you want to edit here is a lesson about applique blocks. Otherwise, click the COLOR tab and recolor the block, if you’d like. (We’ll be changing the block and recoloring it again in a few steps, if you want to wait.) But, even a spring wreath can look more wintery with some new colors or fabric! One option is to use fabrics from the Fabric Library > Themes

Design & Discover – Ombré Fabrics

Posted 11-01-2022 by | Posted in: Design & Discover

Working with ombré fabrics in EQ8 may be a little tricky if you don’t understand how images are cropped, repeated (or tiled), and displayed in EQ8. With most fabrics we recommend cropping to the repeat or not more than about 7 inches. Below is a fabric that doesn’t have a repeat so was cropped at a inconspicuous spot. Even when you see where the fabric tiles it isn’t very obvious. (Click on the image to make it larger.) When you place the fabric in a block you can’t see the tilling at all, and even if you did it would be easy to get rid of with a little fussy cutting. But, because of the way ombré fabrics are designed, those techniques don’t work very well.  If you imported this fabric (Peony by Jennifer Sampou)… Cropped it to 7 inches and added it to a block, it would look like

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