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It’s a festive time of year, maybe you are feeling inspired by pretty candle-lit stained glass windows and imagining how to design them as quilts? Did you know there are 88 stained glass blocks already in EQ8? On the home screen click Design a Quilt from Scratch Click NEW QUILT >  Horizontal Click the LAYOUT tab Under NUMBER OF BLOCKS enter… Horizontal: 4 Vertical: 4 Under FINISHED SIZE OF BLOCKS enter… Width: 12 Height: 12 Under FINISHED SIZE OF SASHING enter… Width: .5 Height: .5 Click the DESIGN tab Click Block Tools Click Open Library Click the plus sign + next to 03 Foundation Pieced and scroll down to Stained Glass Grids Click Select all Blocks Click Add to Sketchbook Click Close Click Set Block and click to place whichever blocks you would like in the quilt. Click the Fabric Tools Click Swap Color Click on the black swatch and click on any

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

In this lesson we’ll learn about planning block sizes for pre-cuts including Jelly Rolls, Mini Charm Packs, and Charm Packs. precuts pre-cut precut In EQ8, you are always working with finished sizes. When planning your patch/block sizes in EQ8, subtract ½” from the pre-cut size to account for seam allowance. For example, if you want to make a strip quilt using a Jelly Roll (2.5” x 44”), set your strip size to 2” x 43.5”. Here is a lesson about Strip Quilts in general, but let’s make one specifically for pre-cuts. Click Design a quilt from scratch You should be on the NEW QUILT tab, so click Vertical Strip. Click the LAYOUT tab Under STRIP STYLE AND SIZE enter… Width: 2 Length 43.5 Click on the remaining strips and change each width to 2 inches. Check the box for Clone the selected strip and click on a strip to select it

You may think you know EasyDraw but this month we’re going to talk about some tricks that you may not be aware of! First, the main rule of EasyDraw is that all the lines must touch each other or the edges of the block. In the first block the lines do not touch the edges. In the second block lines are added. In EasyDraw think of your lines as pieced seams. You couldn’t piece the first block, so you can’t draw it that way in EasyDraw either! For our first block we’ll draw a Mariner’s Compass block.  Let’s start with a circle. Click Block Worktable Click NEW BLOCK > Pieced > EasyDraw On the Graph Pad make your block Width and Height: 10 x 10 Make your Snaps Horizontal and Snaps Vertical: 50 x 50 Under Snapping Options turn Snap to Grid Points on Worktable ON Click the Arc tool

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

When you think of Layer 2 you may think of using it for applique and motifs, which is correct. However, you can use Layer 2 for elements of your quilt design as well. For example, to design a quilt with a block on-point in the center with blocks around the center. Click Design a quilt from scratch Click On Point Click the DESIGN tab Click Block Tools > Set Block Click on Layer 2 Click on a block and drag in onto the quilt. Click the Adjust tool. Place a check mark next to Preserve aspect ratio while resizing Type in the new size for your block (in the example it is 18 x 18) Enter the Block Rotation degree: 45 Click Center Vertically Click Center Horizontally Click on Layer 1 and place the rest of your blocks as desired. Click on the Fabric Tools and recolor any way you

This month we’ll be learning a few different ways to design with sashing! Open EQ8 and click Design a quilt from scratch. Click Horizontal Click LAYOUT Use the sliders to choose the width and height of the sashing (for this example, mine are 1.5). You can also choose to check or uncheck Include sash border and Keep width and height equal. Click the DESIGN tab Click Open Library Any block can be placed in sashing but there are specific blocks designed to fit well. Click the plus sign + next to 10 Sashing to see some block options. Choose a few blocks and click Add to Sketchbook. Click Close. Click the Set Block tool to place the blocks. Click the Rotate tool to rotate the vertical sash blocks. Click Fabric Tools and recolor as desired. Click Add to Project Sketchbook  . If you haven’t named your project yet, EQ8 will prompt you