Last week I shared how to draft a couple of very basic heart blocks in Electric Quilt.  If you missed the post, you can find it here.  

This week, I wanted to make my basic block a little more interesting.  In my free video tutorial, I will share three different ways to turn a basic block into a 
" stunner".

Here are my new blocks.

Here was the quilt I designed incorporating all my heart blocks.

I challenged my blog readers to share their own heart blocks and I am in awe of their wonderful work.  Here are their creations.

Using a random number generator, the winners of my heart block challenge are Marlene S. and Nancy S..  They will be receiving a copy of the EQ8 Lessons for Beginner Book. 

​Thank you to everyone who submitted a design. 

Are you just getting started with Electric Quilt 8 and need some help? 

Shoot for the Stars is designed to get you started with Electric Quilt 8 through training delivered straight to your inbox.  This series includes 14 short (ie. 5-10 minute) videos delivered over the course of a month allowing you to learn the basics of this complex program in bite size increments.

​The class is currently on sale for $35 (regular $50).  Join now.

In my video tutorial, I share how to draft a very simple heart block in Electric Quilt.   I also share adding a new fabric collection from a manufacturer's website and posting your final block to Facebook.

Here are my blocks.

I purposes kept the blocks super simple, as I wanted you to play with this basic block and jazz it up.  What could you change:

• Using 9 patches in each of the sections.
• Inserting a square patch in the heart and trying Serendipity>Merge Block.
• Divide the heart using horizontal or vertical strips.  This could be in each quarter or overall in the simple heart block.
• Create log cabin-like piecing in the quarters or the overall block,
• Add applique.
• Let your creatively rule.

Once you created your block, post it to either the On Point Quilter page or Learning EQ Facebook group.  You will need to be a member to post to the Learning EQ group -- but just answer a few questions if you would like to join.  

Next week, I will be sharing some of the submitted designs on the blog.  I look forward to seeing your work.

Using coupon code IHeartEQ for 20% discount on Electric Quilt books and software in stock in the On Point Quilter store.  Click on photo to view in store. 

This discount is on top of current sale pricing.

Coupon good through February 15, 2019.

Would you like to be able to see what a particular quilting design looks like before stitching it on your quilt.  I will share with you how to add quilting designs created in programs outside of Electric Quilt in this video tutorial.

I personally use Art and Stitch to create my machine quilting patterns for the longarm -- but this technique would also work with designs created with embroidery software as well.

Here is my Electric Quilt rendition of paper snowflakes.

Here is my finished quilt.  It has been a fun project to work on during the last few cold and snowy weeks.

It is currently six below (Celcius) with forecasts for even colder weather next week.  So it is a good time to be working on my "indoor" snow.

When I went to piece the borders for my snowflake quilt, they were just too boring.  Way too much of the white fabric!  So I decided to spice things up with some string piecing.  

I had never done string piecing before, but I figured it was a variation on foundation piecing.  So I cut a series of 3/4 inch, 1 inch and 1-1/2 strips of a dozen or so white and light blue fabrics.  I then used my foundations from last week as a base for the strings.

However, I realized that this could also be done by drafting the units in Electric Quilt and foundation piecing them.  My one rule that I worked with is that each triangle needed to be one foundation to keep things simple.

In this tutorial I will be sharing how to draft these foundation units along with my hack in drafting "non-square block foundations".  Following my suggestion will save you a lot of grief -- trust me.

Here are my "real quilt" pieced borders.

Here is my real work-in-process quilt.  Now I am trying to decide if I want to put little snowflakes in the corners.  In my sample below I am auditioning a few ideas..   

Will I ever get this done???