EQ8 Lessons with Yvonne

Fall is the time of year when I think of the color orange.  We see it in the changing leaves colors, pumpkins being carved for Halloween, pumpkin pie, pumpkin spice lattes, and much more.  I am not a huge fan of the color orange, but it is effective when used in small doses, blended with other colors, or as the highlight of an entire quilt made of oranges. Open your EQ8 program and give the new project a name called ‘Everything Is Coming Up Orange“.  Click OK at the bottom of the box to apply the project name. You should now see the name of the project at the top of the screen. Click on the project sketchbook icon on the far left side of the screen.  In the box, click on the fabrics heading.  Click on the three little dots in the upper right corner of the project sketchbook. 

I have so many ideas bubbling up in my head.  I like to teach decorative stitching with a standard sewing machine, digitizing for an embroidery machine, and using the EQ8 program to create the background blocks to work with.  I can’t see all my steps in EQ8 but I can get a good feel for how the blocks will look that I can add further stitch embellishments to later. Open your EQ8 program.  Name your new project “Testing Ideas”. Click the OK at the bottom of the box to name the new project. You will see the name of the new project at the top of the screen. Click on the block worktable icon on the upper right side of the screen.   On the ribbon at the top of the screen, select the ‘pieced & applique’ icon and then select the ‘easy + applique’ icon. My idea is to teach

Disappearing 9-patch blocks are extremely popular to use in quilts.  They are easy to make in EQ8 using the Serendipity tools.  With just a few clicks you can see all the different variations of a 9-patch block using EQ8. Open your EQ8 program and create a new project called Disappearing 9 Patch.   Be sure to click the OK at the bottom of the box. Open the view sketchbook and locate the built-in EQ8 9-patch design. Select the 9-patch and then click on EDIT at the bottom of the box.  This will place the design on the block worktable. The block worktable opens up on the DRAW tab of the block worktable. Click on the COLOR tab at the top of the screen and recolor the block as below. Add to sketchbook  At the top of the screen, click on the BLOCK heading and select Serendipity>Clip and Flip. The Clip and

I love having a quick and easy Easter design handy for the grandkids.  I don’t always have time to make a quilt, but my EQ8 program will produce an easy outline to help the kids be creative with paints or crayons to color a design I create. Open your EQ8 program and name a new project ‘Easter’ on the opening page. At the top of the screen, click on LIBRARIES>Block Library In the bottom of the library box, click on the word ‘search’ > “by notecard”. When the notecard box opens, type in the word ‘bunny’ and then click on the word ‘search’ at the bottom of the box. The results box will list how many items you have in EQ8 that fit this word.  Click on the OK at the bottom of the box to see the results. Scroll through the search results and click on any one of

Thread is the glue for our stitching.  Without thread, there would be no sewing of any kind.  Art quilters use different mediums to create their amazing masterpieces.  Thread plays a big role in the decorative/embellished look of artsy quilts.  If you can’t draw, like me, I can use EQ8 to help me create my designs first and then use my threads or paints to finish my project. Launch your EQ8 from your desktop.   Click on the ‘create a new project’ icon on the upper left side of the screen.  The project helper screen will open.  Name your project ‘Thread Painting Using EQ8′. Click on the OK at the bottom of the box. Confirm that the project’s name shows at the top of the screen.  Once it is named, everything you add to your sketchbook while working on this project will be listed under this named project. To create a Thread

My favorite colors are Blue, Purple, and Fuschia.  Most of my fabric stash is in these colors.  When I design a quilt or block in EQ8 I often start with grayscale colors and add my favorite colors later.  I prefer to have all my favorite colors in one project that I can return to with future projects and import the fabric library I created with my favorite colors. Open your EQ8 program and create a new project named ‘My Favorite Colors’. I start making my favorite color project by removing all the blocks and fabrics in the EQ program by default.  This way I can create a clean sketchbook with only the blocks and fabric colors I like. In the sketchbook under the blocks heading, click on the three little dots on the upper right side.  Click on the option to ‘clear all unused blocks.   In the pop-up box, click

Do you work on more than one project at a time?  Do you start a project and get stuck and then move to another project?  Did you know you can save partial projects in EQ to return to later to complete?  EQ makes it easy to start and stop projects and return to them later to complete or edit. If I am not sure what I am going to design and I just want to practice, I create a special project file named ‘Practice”.  Everything that is just a thought I want to try out goes into this file until I have developed my design idea.  I can then go back to the original design and pull it out of the Practice file to create a specific project for it. Open your EQ8  When the splash screen opens, select the ‘new project’ icon and name the project  ‘Practice”.  Click ‘OK’