Tuesday Archive - EQ Designs

Every Tuesday over at Val's Quilting Studio you have the opportunity to look back at your previous posts and bring one up to date if you like.   I'm a little late getting this post together, between getting the trash out this morning and getting Drama Teen out the door for volleyball camp, I didn't have time to get a post put together.  Hopefully I can pull this one together over lunch.  

I started using EQ in 2009 after  Microsoft's introduction of the Vista operating system made my QuiltPro program just about useless.   I wasn't very happy with EQ, it wasn't as intuitive as QuiltPro was.  It wasn't until about a year later in 2010 that I finally figured out how to use EQ to do some fundamental quilt layouts.  I had just completed all the blocks from a 2006 Buck A Block program from the quilt shop in Texas.  With the blocks done, I was looking for a way to set them.  The original post is here.  Looking back those initial layouts were pretty awful.  I was trying really hard to use all the finishing kit fabric I bought with the blocks.  I finally realized that just wasn't going to work and raided the stash for something else.  This was the working design I used to set the blocks together.

I ended up changing the final border in the finished quilt, it didn't work up on the design wall any better than it did in the EQ version. 

Texas Twilight
Buck-a-Block in a self designed layout

I was pretty happy with the final quilt, though that final photo is pretty bad.  My photography skills have definitely improved in the last 4 years.   This ended up as a Christmas gift for my sister-in-law who lives in Texas.  

I love playing in EQ.  I've designed a couple of quilts since.  Even when I'm making a project from a pattern, I'll draft the blocks in EQ, scan in some fabrics and play around till I've got the colors right.  It usually saves me from having to make a fabric change after the first block is made. 

Check out the other vintage EQ designs over at Val's Quilting Studio.  

Bloggers Fall Quilt Festival - Fall 2011

It's time again for the Blogger's Quilt Festival so graciously sponsored by Amy's Creative Side.  I'm a little late getting my entry posted this year due to photography problems.  This quilt was completed last week and has been dubbed "Texas Twilight" by My Guy. 



This quilt has made previous appearances on my blog while it was under construction as the Buck-A-Block quilt.  The light background blocks are made from Thangles Buck-A-Block #2 designed by Mary B. Hayes.  The black and dark blue setting was self designed.  These blocks were offered as a BOM by the local quilt shop when we lived in Texas back in 2006.  I didn't actually start working on the blocks until about mid year last year. 

This quilt was supposed to have green sashing with a blue bonnet print as the border.  But that proposed setting would not gel with the blocks.  I ended up going in a completely different direction.  The dark fabric in the Thangles blocks is actually bluebonnets on a black background, hence the black.  The blue is a good match to the blue dots in the light background fabric.   I like the finished quilt even though looks nothing like the original plan.  Sometimes the blocks just have other ideas than you do. 

Trudy Lindemann did the quilting.  She used diagonal lines in the blue setting triangles and wide borders.  In the narrow blue border she did a modified feather motif and then loops in the pieced blocks.   It turned out beautifully. 

Grab a cup of coffee (or tea) and hop over to Amy's to check out all the wonderful quilts posted as part of this fall's show.