Set up a custom set quilt with the center size of 51" x 12" if you wish to use my Three Six Nine quilt layout. 

​Or create your own layout.  You pick the size.

Add a plain block to the quilt.  Make three copies.  Size one at 3", one at 6" and one at 9".  

Save the quilt -- to save the coloring of each of the blocks.

Happy quilting.

​Kari

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Tips for EQ8 video guide.

​For fabrics, I used the latest free download from Do You EQ.  Vertex was designed by QT fabrics.  It has 84 fun fabrics to give your quilt a very scrappy look. ​

Before playing with my motif from the EQ8 library, I decided to create a background -- and chose to do this as an applique motif as well.

One of the standard shapes in the applique toolkit is a hexagon. 

When creating your hexagon, make sure to use the Ctrl (if you are a PC user) or Command (if you are a MAC user) when drawing or resizing.  That will ensure all the sides of the hexagon are exactly the same size.  It will also keep the hexagon straight.

With Ctrl or Command, resize your hexagon to slightly under 2-1/4".  

Make sure to turn on Snap Aligned Segments and clone the hexagon and place six copies around the center hexagon.  I think you will love how they snap to the center hexagon.

Use the draw tool to draw a triangle for the space between two of the hexagons.   Clone and position in all of the open spaces between the hexagons.

I chose to create a faux border, by tracing the outline of my hexagon and triangle shape.  Once drawn, send to back.

Use wreathmaker to create the floral six sided wreaths.  If the wreath doesn't look quite right, select undo and make any adjustments.  Electric Quilt will remember the settings for your last wreath -- so it is easy to do minor tweaks.  Make sure to size your wreath so it fit within the hexagon block.

The most time consuming part of the entire process is coloring the block.

On the quilt worktable, create a new Custom Set Quilt.  I set the size at 21" x 21" and the motifs at 20" x 20".  I went a bit larger on the worktable size as my faux binding went slightly outside the block outline.  This way you could still see the entire binding.

Both the hexagon motif and the cornflower wreath were set and centered on Layer 2.

I finished up with a little recoloring and added the project to the Project Sketchbook to save.

Happy quilting.

​Kari

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Tips for EQ8 video guide.

Ann Cornett Horsley -- One block used in five different layouts.  Playing around.

Maureen Pinwill
I have been working on a quilt for the past few years which involves a great deal of simple embroidery along the whole border of a king size quilt, so much of this hand embroidery has been undertaken by hand either whilst watching tv or when I wake up, usually at about 4 - 4.30 am. The patchwork pieces are tiny and quite traditional but all the pieces are the same along the top and sides of the quilt. It has lots of small embroidery decorations that are mirrored on top to bottom and also side from side. So I had to ensure that everything was pieced in the correct order. All the top blocks are joined together and then a backing will be placed when all the tops have been joined. I only have three more blocks to finish and only then can I start back the quilt sew the quilting top and put the border on. I hope to get it finished for my daughter's next wedding anniversary in March 2024.  The next time I approached a quilt of this nature I will use my Artista Designer Plus Embroidery program to do so, as I am sure it would have been completed much earlier if I had taken the time and trouble to put the design in that program. Although I do use embroidery to meditate so it has given me many, many hours of peace and calm 

Helen Warwick Drafted in EQ8 for foundation paper piecing. The original Java Twist was not foundation paper pieced and my friend could not get any of the blocks to come out the correct size by following the directions. I suggested trying to draft it as a foundation paper pieced block and she knew how to do foundation paper piecing, but not how to draft them. This is what I came up with. I learned a lot in the foundation paper piecing lessons from Kari. The quilt turned out beautiful.
I have a very happy friend. 

Happy quilting.

​Kari

Join the On Point Quilter weekly newsletter and receive regular tips and inspiration on using Electric Quilt 8 along with the  Free 12 Top
Tips for EQ8 video guide.

I started by drafting a very simple crossing block using EasyDraw.  I chose to make the block 17" x 17".  This is the size without added seam allowances. 

​The diagonal lines were drawn 1-1/2" in from each corner.  They cross to create an on point square in the center.  It also gave me some really large on triangles for additional designing.

When working with an on point segment in a block, the snaps horizontal and vertical won't always give you the precision you need to create perfect diagonal lines -- ones that produce squares and rectangles that are easy to cut.

Fortunately EasyDraw gives us the ability to partition lines.  Use a similar partition for all three edges of your big triangle.  I used Partition Segment - 6 for my design.  However, feel free to experiment with the concept with a different number of partitions.   Just remember that the more partitions you add the more piecing you will be doing. 

Next it is time to draw your lines.

Make sure to switch to Snap to Nodes only under your snapping options.  If you also have Snap to Grid on, EQ will naturally gravitate to those snap points when they are close to a Node.  EQ has a much stronger magnet on grid points versus the nodes.

Draw a series of diagonal lines that are parallel to the long diagonal lines originally drafted.  This is super simple as all you need to do is connect the dots (or in this case nodes).

Go to Color and back to Draw.  The will split all your drawn lines at intersections.  So they are no more long diagonal lines but a series of small short lines instead. 

This is a design decision point. 

​You could piece your block with 15 squares in each of the larger triangles.  Or you could turn each of the squares into half squares triangles.  A great idea if you have a stash of extra half square triangle units from a previous project.  Maybe a set created from cheater corners.

I chose to simplify my design and delete some of the small diagonal segments.  This will turn the squares into 5 rectangles.  Essentially creating log cabin pieces.

​Much faster to piece.

You could replicate the process and draw the same segments for the other three large triangle units.  

However, I chose to go with an easier approach.  I converted the longer lines to guides (this will assist in placement.  

Then cloned and rotated the log cabin pieces from the top and placed over the guidelines.  I found it was easiest to get everything to snap if I switched back to Snap to Grid.  Note that we have Horizontal and Vertical Grid snap points at all three corners of the large triangle.

Just for fun I decided to create a small pieced unit in the on point square in the center.

Another design point.  Chose your own design for that on point square.

A simple quarter square triangle unit for me. 

After playing with my design in the quilt worktable, I realized I could simplify the construction process by making a slight modification to the corners. 

By eliminating two diagonal lines and adding a third one going the other direction, I've eliminated the awkward house shaped piece in the corner.  Instead I have an additional rectangle and a half square triangle for the corner.

​Now all the pieces will show up on the rotary cutting chart and it will be easier to cut and piece the entire block.

Color the block using a variety of fabrics for a scrappy look.

​I used the latest free download from Do You EQ.  Vertex was designed by QT fabrics.  It has 84 fun fabrics to give your quilt a very scrappy look. 

When I pulled the rotary cutting chart for my 17" block, I realized that it wasn't quite as rotary cutting friendly as I hoped.

Each of the logs needed to be cut from 2-1/8" strips.  And the cross cuts had challenging measurements as well.

​

Fortunately in EQ, we don't have to create our quilts in the size we designed our blocks.  

I could tell you that I worked through the math and figured out the size of the block that resulted in easier to cut logs.  However, I wasn't feeling very brainy today -- so I cheated.  I just experimented with some different sizes. 

To do this, in the Rotary Cutting dialogue box, switch from "Use size from worktable" to "Custom Block size".

Type in a new size and select preview. 

Notice how much better the rotary cutting chart is once the block size is changed to 15-1/2" x 15-1/2". 

​Now the logs can be cut from 2" strips of fabric.

On the Quilt Worktable, select New Quilt and select the Style Horizontal.

On the Layout tab, change the number of blocks to 3 horizontal and 4 vertical.

Change the size of the block to 15.5"

Change the sashing size to 2.75"

On the border tab, set up 3 borders:
Border #1 - 1" Long Horizontal
Border #2 - 4-1/2" Long Horizontal
​Border #3 - 1/2" Mitered (for the binding)

On the Block worktable, create a block for the cornerstones.  This is optional -- but I thought it was a way to carry the concept of the center of my bocks into the cornerstone.

My cornerstone block was designed at four inches.  Make sure to turn on Snap to Grid before drawing the unit.

I created an on point square and then drew horizontal and vertical lines through the center.

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Happy quilting.

​Kari