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.  

The Other (or Another?) BOM

I like BOMs (block of the month).  My job over the years sometimes required a lot of effort and with a family that needs me too, time for quilting was at a premium.  I found I liked BOMs.  It was the one "class" the local quilt shop (when we had one) would offer at night.  Plus no matter how crazy life was at work or with kiddo's soccer, basketball, school, church schedule, I could usually find enough time to finish one block a month. 

The only problem with BOMs is that you have to figure out how to set them once you finish them. I struggle with that part of the process.  It took me the better part of a year before I decided how to set together my first completed BOM.  That seems to be a trend.  I've posted about the 2008 BOM project (here and here) that I'm finishing up and that also took me a year to figure out.  I have a second BOM from 2008 that I also need to finalize a design for.  In looking through my stash, I found a BOM that I intended to start when we lived in TX, but never did.  It was a "Buck-A-Block" program that was sponsored by the quilt shop.  Most of you have probably done one of those programs, where you go in on a designated day of the month, pay a $1 and pick up your little baggie with the fabric strips in it and the pattern for the block.  I was able to get all the baggies, but I never started the project.  That was back when I thought you could only work on one project at a time.

I pulled out all those little baggies earlier this year and started on the blocks.  I have about half of them done.  Enough so I can start mocking up the final setting.  Since it takes me so long to decide on a final design, I thought I should start now.  Maybe by the time I finish the blocks, I'll know how I want to set them.  I bought fabric for the border and fabric for setting the blocks when the shop started the BOM.  So started playing with those fabrics to come up with a setting in EQ. Here are a couple of potential settings. 

The dark green and the medium blue do match colors that are in the block fabrics, but I'm not sure that they really go with the blocks.  These two were the fabrics chosen by the shop for their setting, which was a simple straight set with sashing and cornerstones.    I'm wondering if I should do something lighter.  So I played with a lighter blue print from my stash.  Not sure I have the right color yet, but here's how that might translate into a final setting. 

I probably need to rescan the border fabric.  It has a large repeat (of TX blue bonnets).  I'm not happy with how that looks in EQ, so that may also need to be reconsidered.  But I'll play with a scan of the larger repeat first. 

I'm pretty sure I want an on point setting.  Do I keep the dark green, do I keep the border fabric?  I want at least a queen size quilt.  My SIL and family live in TX and love all things TX.  So I'm thinking this quilt may end up with them.  So I'd like to keep the blue bonnet border fabric. Though I suppose I could use the blue bonnet fabric for the backing.  Have to consider that.   I'd also like to use fabrics from my stash to finish this one up.  My stash report could use some significant withdrawals!

I'm only half done with the blocks, so plenty of time to decide on a path forward.  Any suggestions?