I did design a small quilt a few weeks ago. Figured I would make it small in case it was all messed up. And sure enough, it was messed up. I find the printing of templates, or yardage, or rotary cutting instructions really difficult to follow. Part of the rotary cutting instruction didn't even print. I had to go back and figure out what I needed manually. I designed part of it to be HSTs, which turned out to be the wrong size (too small). I said to add 1/4" seam allowance. What a pain. Good thing it was all in muslin, so I didn't waste expensive fabric.
Now that I've done this small design, I think I "might" know how to fix the problems. I'll have to fiddle with it.
northern colorado
OK, Annie. Here are two of the blocks I created in the EQ Sampler class. I played around with them and came up with a quilt top.
Block 1 Captial T Modified
Block 2 Kaleidoscope
And, finally, below is the quilt top from EQ7 as it might look. I have sewen the first three rows and just need to do two more. I haven't yet decided what borders I'll use. Maybe what is shown. But I think I will extend the black points from the Kaleidoscope into the borders.
In the beautiful Pacific Northwest!
Wow Judy, so pretty. Love the dramatic B&w and red effect.
Lilly, I think it would be helpful to share the struggles as well. You are probably not the only one experiencing difficulty with rotary printing. I have not made a quilt yet but have noticed that some of the quilting instructions are cut off but I never printed them out and didn't think anything of it until now.
Miz Pat. All are welcome, we are in the very beginning of brainstorming how to get it going so all are welcome as well as any ideas.
Starling, I don't think you have to wait to complete the class. I found that the bulk of design ideas were in the first two lessons.
Judy, should we start a thread and invite others??
Lillie:Figured I would make it small in case it was all messed up. And sure enough, it was messed up. I find the printing of templates, or yardage, or rotary cutting instructions really difficult to follow. Part of the rotary cutting instruction didn't even print. I had to go back and figure out what I needed manually.
If your block is designed with shapes that are difficult to rotary cut you will not get cutting instructions for those shapes. You need to choose templates or foundation piecing depending on the shapes.
Lillie: I designed part of it to be HSTs, which turned out to be the wrong size (too small). I said to add 1/4" seam allowance.
What this actually does is round your measurements to the nearest quarter inch. This measurement will not always be accurate depending on the block and the size you've selected. For example; any nine patch blocks should be made 3, 6, 9, 12 inches. If you choose 7 or 8 you would need templates not rotary cutting. The rounded numbers will throw off your accuracy.
When in doubt choose templates to check if your pieces are the correct sizes.
Annie:Judy, should we start a thread and invite others??
I'm not sure who is the "owner" of the EQ group. Maybe Kris? Unless I'm mistaken, only the group owner can add a thread.
Judy, I just remembered what I meant about keeping measurements the same. I was thinking about when you combine blocks, I found that when you stay within certain types of blocks, the edges flow better between blocks, but I guess that doesn't really make sense if we are going to be altering the blocks anyway. Oh well, I think it's going to be fun.
I'll check on the owner and see if we can get this started.
I did all of that Kris, thanks. I figured out what the problem was/is. It happened between the rotary cutter and the mat. lol I forgot to add the 1/2" to the original size of the squares for the HST's. Other than that the block turned out just fine. Although, I did not get all the rotary cutting instructions for all the pieces. I had to use templates and rotary cutting instructions to figure out the sizes for all the different pieces I needed. Seems to me it should be a bit more straight forward.
All in all, it was a fun process and I learned a lot. I will definitely do it again.
Kris,
I went to the member area of this group to see if I could find any owner listed besides QCA, but couldn't find anyone. Judy thought you might be the owner. We would like to set up a thread in this group. Can you help us?
Judy, your quilt is lovely! I haven't actually thought about trying to make anything I have designed. LOL, is that what EQ is for? I have fallen behind on the class because I started the border class as well. I am on vacation this week, actually staycation so I am trying to catch up on everything. Hopefully I will be printing my quilt out so I can at least see how that works. I really enjoyed the class and am amazed at what EQ can do. Hopefully I will be up to speed on class one by the first of the year so I am ready for clsss two
Pat Lancaster:Judy, your quilt is lovely! I haven't actually thought about trying to make anything I have designed
Thanks Pat. I've used EQ7 for several quilts. It can be a challenge sometimes since you really don't get instructions like we're used to in books. But EQ7 has been invaluable to me for laying out a design idea, previewing the fabrics I want to use and, especially, seeing how a certain border or sashing will look.
Annie:Kris, I went to the member area of this group to see if I could find any owner listed besides QCA, but couldn't find anyone. Judy thought you might be the owner. We would like to set up a thread in this group. Can you help us?
Annie,
Sorry for the late reply. This group does not have a moderator. You should be able to start a new thread yourself. I started one for the Block Base sew along.
Lillie:All in all, it was a fun process and I learned a lot. I will definitely do it again.
Glad you were able to identify the problem.
FYI:
Don't forget to adjust "Sorting and Filtering" so you can see all posts older than two months.
Issues with EQ7.
Selected a stock block, didn't make any changes to it. Printed it out with 1/4" seam allowance. Cut all the pieces out of muslin, found that the printed dimensions for two of the pieces were off by 1/8". I re-cut those two pieces to the correct dimensions, and sewed the whole thing together.
Obviously I'm missing something here. In the print menu, I said the finished size should be 7.25". The finished size turned out 7.0". I used a scant 1/4" seam. I thought the block would turn out 7.50" when sewn together. When sewn to the rest of the quilt, it would be 7.25". Do I need to select a bigger finished size in the print menu?
Lillie: snip Issues with EQ7. Obviously I'm missing something here. In the print menu, I said the finished size should be 7.25". The finished size turned out 7.0". I used a scant 1/4" seam. I thought the block would turn out 7.50" when sewn together. When sewn to the rest of the quilt, it would be 7.25". Do I need to select a bigger finished size in the print menu?
snip
I think the problem might be that if you are going to cut half square triangles out of squares, you need to make the squares 7/8 inch larger, not 1/2 inch larger. That alone will give you the difference you are seeing in your sample block.
You also might want to make the sample blocks out of scraps instead of muslin. You will see what the block really ought to look like that way, and you end up with a usable block for some small project in the future.
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