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EQ8 Lessons with Yvonne

LESSONS WITH YVONNE–Bargello All The Way

Posted 09-16-2018 by | Posted in: EQ8 Lessons with Yvonne Favorite Posts

I absolutely love Bargello Quilts.  I love the colors, the movement, and the ability to create them so very easily in EQ8.  I can choose to use an EQ8 quick quilt layout option or I can design my own strips.  The options to create these are endless.  These designs look complicated but they are so easy to design and stitch that even a beginner can create these beautiful masterpieces. Bargello Quilts are simply, vertical strip quilts.  On each vertical strip, you define the number of blocks and the sizes of the blocks.  You also decide on the number of strips and the width of the strips.  Of course, you can easily insert a strip with no blocks to section off your quilt layout.  The design is entirely up to you. Open your EQ8 program.  On the opening page, click on the Start With A Quick Quilt project icon.  In the Project

EQ8 Lessons With Yvonne–Curved Blocks Create Movement

Posted 07-15-2018 by | Posted in: EQ8 Lessons with Yvonne Favorite Posts

Your quilt may have a focal point where the eye rests (like in a medallion quilt) or it may have movement where your eye travels over the entire quilt top to discover many pleasing features built into the design.  Movement can be created with color repeats and with curved elements that cause you to travel over the quilt to take in the entire project.  In this blog we will discuss movement created with curved blocks.  There is more than one way to create the illusion of curves and movement. The easy way to create curves is to make a block with applique on it.  Placing the applique elements in a somewhat random placement that is slightly curved will create an overall curved design when added to the quilt layout. This does not really looked curved.  When placed onto a quilt layout and then having the blocks rotated with the symmetry

EQ8 Lessons with Yvonne–Whole Cloth Quilting

Posted 05-20-2018 by | Posted in: EQ8 EQ8 Lessons with Yvonne Favorite Posts

Whole cloth quilting can be accomplished by stitching free motion, in the embroidery hoop, or by printing templates and transferring the design to the quilt top to stitch through.  The choice is yours.  EQ8 aids us in this adventure of whole cloth quilting by providing stencil blocks in the Block Library built into the program. The EQ8 program gives us a visual of how the whole cloth quilt will look when stitched.  You can always change the layout once you start working on the quilt material itself.  For instance, on the quilt pictured above, I would not create a stencil for this wavy line border.  I would most likely use the serpentine stitch on my machine at maximum width and length and repeat the rows one beside the other stitching with my walking foot until the outer border was filled to my satisfaction.  I like to use this visual reference

EQ8 Lessons With Yvonne–Designing with Dresden Plates

Posted 03-18-2018 by | Posted in: EQ8 Lessons with Yvonne Favorite Posts

Dresden plate applique is a very old technique.  It lends itself perfectly to today’s machines with all their decorative stitches.  There are many blocks all ready in the library with the dresden fan blades that you can use for your particular design. Open your EQ8 program. On the opening screen, click on ‘search for block patterns’. In the BLOCK LIBRARIES box you will see under the 01 Classic Pieced section that there are 5 different sections for Dresden variations.  Click on the Dresden Four Fans section.  Click on the first image in the upper left corner.  Click on ‘Add to Sketchbook’ icon and then click on the word ‘close’ at the bottom of the library box. Since the original design is now in the sketchbook, we can edit it any way we want and add edited copies to the sketchbook without over writing the original block design. Click on the

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