Foundation piecing with EQ7

Lots of fun, but fiddly...

 

Electric Quilt patchwork design software and foundation piecing -
a fantastic combination for creating all sorts of lovely things!
Love it, love it, love it!
Sounds complicated, but a bit of time playing around and
 getting to know the programme really helps.
After a bit it all starts to come together ....

Planned this little block for Plantlife's
Wildflower Meadow project
on my new EQ7 software upgrade.  It needs rearranging a bit, and a border
 to make it the required 15cm square - and I need to be A LOT more
 accurate with my piecing, but it's a start.

Printed out the numbered block...
EQ can number the patches automatically, or you can do it yourself

Opted for a printed 

1/4" seam allowance round the templates

 



 

 coloured them in roughly with coloured pencils, just to make sure I didn't get lost.

 

Tunnel vision

I never buy purple fabric - so why design a purple flower?

My block needed three purples and I couldn't even find one in my stash.

Eventually, at the back of the cupboard I found a piece

shading from deep purple at one selvedge to pale violet at the other.

Sorted!

Decided to be more adventurous with colours next time I shop for scraps!

 

 

prototype ready for its border.

 

Designed this applique pattern on EQ7 too -

ain't it cute!

Would have had no trouble at all finding the fabrics for this...

 



Virtual quilting - great fun!

I laughed when I visited Judy Butcher's Virtual Quilter blogspot

 and read that she uses her computer to design

 'way more quilts than I could make in several lifetimes'.

That makes two of us! Most of my designs will

never make it to the sewing machine -

but it's such fun playing on EQ6!

But here's one that just might get made...

Passing round photos of the tiled frieze in St Pancras station,

a friend said, 'I can see this as a quilt - but where do I start?'

St Pancras is a spectacular London landmark.

Opened in 1868, it was recently renovated & extended

 at a cost of £800 million

St Pancras Railway Station - the exterior

 

The Victorian tiled frieze and ironwork
Photo: Steve James

Look at this beautiful detail hidden in the rafters!

detail of part of the frieze
Photo: Steve James

Set to work redesigning some of the standard EQ6 blocks.

Wanted to get the feeling of these Minton tiles

not just a carbon copy.

Opted for batiks, simply because they glow.

Was right out of my comfort zone in terms of pattern and colour

Added a block border to recreate the feel of the bricks,

and here's the result.

Still needs a lot of work...

'It's awfully complicated,' said Jill, faintly,

'but I do like it!'

I like it too - and if it never gets made, that's OK -

I've had my fun!

54 down - 18 to go...

Only 18 blocks left to quilt - hurrah!

 

Seems months - it IS months! - since Esther cut the
 batting (wadding) for her Odeon quilt and we sent it
to be machine basted 

I can't recommend enough having the layers
tacked together by machine, particularly if

you're a hand-quilter with bad knees or a bad back.

It's worth its weight in gold!

 My quilting friends offered to do a Team Baste, bless 'em,
but some of them aren't good after leaning
 over a table, so this seemed a very good option.

By the way ... 





Look at this lovely little stained glass wall hanging -

A perfect match for my quilt, or what?

It's by Shards of Glass and I found it on Etsy last week. 

Couldn't believe how similar it was in colour and style


"EQ - what?"

Those who've never seen Electric Quilt 

 in action might be interested in a brief view of how

 the programme helped me design the Odeon quilt

For the basic layout I chose a 9-block by 8-block

horizontal grid and added vertical sashing and a border

Next I added quarter log cabin blocks,

inserting them right across the grid and flipping some

horizontally to get a mirror image.

Colouring the block is easy - just the touch of a button.

EQ comes with libraries of blocks, fabrics, applique
 patterns and basic quilt layouts, and new fabrics are
added free every month.  You can also download

 ranges you like direct from the manufacturers website.

For OdeonI just used library fabrics that were roughly
the colours I wanted and refined the choice later.

EQ6 planning page

Esther wears jade a lot and loves browns and creams,

so those seemed a natural starting point. I've never used batiks,

but the more I thought about the more it seemed the way to go.

Bought most of them at the wonderful Web Fabrics at
Purcellville VA,and then trawled the web to match a
 lovely gold scrap I found in my stash.

  Must've looked at HUNDREDS of sites, but eventually found it at

Batiks Etcetera in Wytheville VA and had it shipped to the UK.

The fabrics shown in this layout are not batiks, but

they gave me the yardage needed in each colour

Number of patches and yardage

EQ6 is great - it works out fabric yardage (above) and prints

rotary-cutting patterns, templates or foundation piecing patterns.

Rotary-cutting diagram

Templates with 1/4" seam allowance added

foundation piecing template preview

These were the final fabrics

My grandson's quilt (see Something old - something new)
has applique in it.  If you're interested I'll add a post with
a few pics to show how the applique design tools work.

Would love your feedback -
it's so nice to meet people through comments!

Art Deco - so inspiring!

Remember Saturday matinees at the Odeon?

Or am I the only one who admits to being that old?

Few of us had a TV, so matinees were a real treat.
 Queueing at the door, the rush for the best seats,
Pearl & Dean adverts, ice cream, cartoons -
it was all very exciting...

And getting chucked out when my cousin dropped

stink bombs in the gents was quite exciting too.

It seemed a very long walk from this very
screen to the exit, herded along by an angry usherette...

Toilets on right, out of shot.
Wonder if the air has cleared yet?

Odeon design must have been burned on my brain
 at that time, because the name that immediately sprang
to mind when I designed this quilt was

'ODEON'

Art Deco or what!

These colours and shapes show up in art deco

architecture, lighting, upholstery, glass, pottery

- so many different things.

Look at these fabulous tiles from

the Regent Theatre in Mudgee, New South Wales

photographed by Michelle of Barnhouse Antiques

And this art deco wall light from Coventry Technical College,

taken by Pete Zabulis is just so evocative of the era

Inspiration everywhere!

Coming next - a Clarice Cliff story

that will make you art deco fans weep...

Something old, something new...

New grandson = new quilt

Been seeking inspiration for a few weeks now...

When Hector was born, the family dogs

 seemed just the thing to feature on his quilt,

 but what to do for Meyer...?

Was at a loss until a dig through the

 family archive produced this little gem...

I've always loved this delightful drawing,

created many years ago by Meyer's daddy.

It was the perfect centre for the quilt -

but I needed three more figures

to complete the family group 

To clone or not to clone...?

Decided not to clone.

Decided to try doing more drawings in the same style -

which turned out to be harder than it sounds.

Drawing kid-style is difficult when you're an adult -

we can't help making things too perfect.

Fancy having a go yourself?  Then try this -

If you're a Righty, get a massive felt tip,

hold it in your LEFT hand and just go with the flow on a B-I-G sheet of paper.

It feels odd, but adds lots of naivety to a drawing...

so here are a couple more.

Using Electric Quilt software I created basic

 borders and a large central panel.

Then the drawings were scanned, imported into

the programme, and traced using the mouse.

It took a while as I haven't used the drawing programme

for months and it's amazing how soon we forget...
If you're finding EQ hard to get your head round,
hang in there and experiment - it's worth it.

Here's the result.

It's a work in progress, but I quite like it so far.

Now comes the interesting bit -

chasing up the right fabrics at Patchwork Chicks ,

plus a detour to the Alma for lunch of course.

I can think of a few people who'd be up for that...

First Quilt - driven by the arrival of a cute little boy

Nearly five months old in this pic - and very cute. 

Seen here admiring his new quilt at close quarters and making a few helpful suggestions. 

'The stitching's a bit uneven in parts, Grandma.'





Cleo posing near her picture - and not a bad likeness, though I say it myself...

Quilt designed using Electric Quilt software - marvellous! -and fabrics from Patchwork Chicks and the Skep.  Hand-quilted by Yours Truly

Next job - knit Debbie Bliss's cute dufflecoat.  Back to t'Net for a wool search...