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EQ8 Lessons with Yvonne

EQ8 Lessons with Yvonne-Simple and Beautiful

Posted 11-21-2021 by | Posted in: EQ8 EQ8 Lessons with Yvonne Favorite Posts

My experience with teaching quilting and machine embroidery over the years is that the simplest projects are liked the best by the students.  When I present a challenging lesson or a lesson with lots of steps to create amazing designs, I often don’t get people excited about the whole process.  When I give them something incredibly simple and quick to create, they O0h and Ahh over it for months afterward. I like to be challenged to learn more, do better, get more creative, and try things I would normally never do.  I don’t care to repeat the same process more than once because I get easily bored.  The more I have to work to get the results I want, the more I am learning during the process.  That does not mean that I can’t appreciate quick and easy projects. Open your EQ8 and name a new project called ‘Precuts and

EQ8 Lessons with Yvonne-QUICK COLORING FOR MAXIMUM EFFECT

Posted 09-19-2021 by | Posted in: EQ8 EQ8 Lessons with Yvonne Favorite Posts

Our quilts are often about color.  Sometimes it is the design itself that is the focus, but the eye sees color before it sees patterns.  I love designs that have a bit of a dimensional look and are quickly created with color. Launch your EQ8 project to start.   On the opening screen, click on the little piece of paper with the green starburst on it on the upper left side of the screen.  This is the new project icon. In the project sketchbook, name your project ‘Quick Coloring for Maximum Effect’. Click on the quilt worktable icon on the upper right side of the screen. Choose NEW QUILT>One Patch from the ribbon at the top of the screen. The default for the program is to open to the Hexagon one patch layout. Click on the Layout tab at the top of the screen.  In the drop-down menu, select the rectangle

EQ8 Lessons with Yvonne-Create Your Quilt Stencil to Match Your Block

Posted 07-18-2021 by | Posted in: EQ8 EQ8 Lessons with Yvonne Favorite Posts

Once you create a block and quilt layout, the next step is to quilt the layout.  Sometimes you have no idea what would look good for a quilting stitch.  EQ8 can help us decide how to quilt a design by matching a block layout pattern with a quilt stencil. EQ has loads of stencils built into the library but they may not match exactly what you have designed for a quilt block.  You can use your block drawing as a start for creating the stencil. Open your EQ8 by double-clicking onto the logo on the desktop.  When the program opens name a new project file “PRACTICE STENCILS”. Click on the block worktable icon and select NEW BLOCK>Pieced>EasyDraw for the block worktable. On the properties bar for the block worktable, use the default size of 6 x 6 inches and snaps at 12 x 12. Click on the grid tool to

EQ8 Lessons with Yvonne-Fabric Choices Make A Difference

Posted 05-16-2021 by | Posted in: EQ8 EQ8 Lessons with Yvonne Favorite Posts

The month of May makes me think of Spring flowers and Mother’s Day.  There are some wonderful applique designs built into EQ8 that host a variety of flower shapes in one applique block.  This one block can look so totally different depending on the fabric choices used.  You can try out different fabrics in your designs to see what gives the best overall feel for the quilt block before you even begin shopping for the fabrics or before you begin cutting the fabrics already in your stash. Launch your EQ8 program and name the project May Flowers. Click on the OK at the bottom of the project helper box. At the top of the screen, click on LIBRARIES>Block Library. In the block libraries box, click on the word ‘search>by notecard’. In the search block notecard box, type in the word ‘mother’ and then click on the ‘search at the bottom of

EQ8 Lessons with Yvonne – Using SVG Files from BlockBase+

Posted 03-21-2021 by | Posted in: BlockBase+ EQ8 EQ8 Lessons with Yvonne Favorite Posts

The newest software release from Electric Quilt is here!  Block Base+ is the newest software that is a companion to the Block Base book.  Some of you may have the original Block Base CD that was released several years ago, but the new updated Block Base+ is fantastic.  It is so versatile with all the things you can do with it. The greatest new feature for the Block Base + program is that you can select a block and set the size you want and then export it as a .svg file.  This is very exciting because of all the cutting machines on the market today.  You can send your .svg file to your cutting machine and cut all the pieces needed for your block construction.  This saves a lot of time.  We can not save an image as a .svg file in EQ8, so having the ability to do

EQ8 Lessons with Yvonne-Treat Yourself

Posted 01-17-2021 by | Posted in: EQ8 EQ8 Lessons with Yvonne Favorite Posts

2020 was a challenging year.  Start 2021 by treating yourself.  I turn to my sewing room for inspiration and it provides me with a calming retreat area in my own home.  It starts with my favorite inspiration tool–EQ8.  Browsing the huge built-in libraries for blocks and layouts gives me just the right space to start experimenting with new design ideas I had not tried before. I like to start my process by looking through the block library in EQ8.  I also have many add-on libraries that the EQ company has provided us with to add to the already massive library of blocks in the program.  I simply scroll through the library and look at the blocks and choose one that I have not tried before. Open your EQ8 program    and start a new project called ‘Treat Yourself in 2021′. I can look at the blocks by category or by construction method. 

Lessons with Yvonne – Use Your Birthstone Color to Create a Quilt

Posted 11-15-2020 by | Posted in: EQ8 EQ8 Lessons with Yvonne Favorite Posts

My birthday is in November.  The birthstone for that month is Topaz.  This is a yellow/orange color.  I don’t like that color at all.  But, as a challenge to myself, I will make a monochromatic block using that color.  I find it is good to challenge myself in all kinds of ways as this is when I grow the most and learn all kinds of discoveries. I once made a quilt in browns and oranges that I don’t care for either, but it is now one of my favorite quilts.  Surprise! Open your EQ8 and name your project ‘birthstone designs’. Click on the block worktable icon on the upper right side of the screen. Click on NEW BLOCK>Pieced>Easy Draw. Set the block size to be an 8 x 8-inch block with 24 snaps horizontal and vertical. I don’t care for the colors I am using so I will create areas

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