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Are you a fan of English Paper Piecing? Or maybe you’ve been curious about trying it with a small project.
If so, this tutorial is for you. In this lesson, we’ll draft a five-pointed star in Electric Quilt 8 that works beautifully for English Paper Piecing. The surprising part? The entire star begins with the Ellipse tool in the Appliqué workspace. Once drafted, we’ll also explore how to use the star to create a wreath block and a simple quilt design. Drafting the Five Pointed Star
In Electric Quilt 8, open the Block Worktable and select:
New Block → Pieced and Appliqué → Easy Plus Appliqué Many EQ users think the Ellipse tool is only useful for drawing circles. But with a few adjustments, it becomes a powerful drafting tool.
Creating a Star Wreath with Wreathmaker
Designing the Five-Pointed Star Quilt
Next, place the block in a quilt layout.
Create a Horizontal Quilt Layout with one block. For my quilt, I set the block size to 20″ × 20″, but you can adjust the size to fit your project. For the borders:
To echo the geometry of the star, set the number of border blocks so the diamonds visually align with the five star points. I used:
This creates a border that reinforces the star’s structure and rhythm. 
Five Pointed Star Quilt
Five-Pointed Star Quilt Video Tutorial
For a full walkthrough of the drafting and design process, watch the video tutorial below.
Construction Suggestions
Tip for Users of Electronic Cutting Systems
If you use an electronic cutting system such as a Cricut Maker, you can generate cutting files from EQ8 templates. Here’s one method:
Inkscape is a free, open-source vector graphics editor available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. One important note: always double-check the scale when moving between programs. Some software—particularly Cricut Design Space—can change sizing during import.
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Do you struggle with drafting foundation blocks in EQ8? If you’ve ever wondered how to break a complex image into foundation-friendly sections—or how to draw lines in the correct order so EQ sections it properly—this tutorial will walk you through the process step by step.
In today’s post, I’m sharing how tracing an image can help you clearly “see” the sections before you ever stitch a seam. Inspiration: The Beauty of Ice Dance
While I don’t watch much television, I become completely captivated by the Winter Olympics every four years. My favorite event? Ice dance in figure skating.
I’m fascinated by the intricacy of the step sequences and the precision required for partners to stay perfectly in sync. The elegance and athleticism of these teams is truly spellbinding. Ice skating is also my personal exercise of choice. I love visiting rinks in the Twin Cities to take ice dance lessons and practice patterned dances. No jumps, spins, twizzles, lifts, or dramatic holds for me—but skating has given me a deep appreciation for the incredible skill Olympic athletes bring to the ice. That love of skating inspired today’s foundation-friendly designs. Blocks for Tracing
I created two skating-inspired images specifically designed to be foundation friendly:
Download and save the images to your computer. Then import them into Electric Quilt 8 and trace them on the Block Worktable. Tracing is one of the most effective ways to understand how a pictorial design can be divided into logical foundation sections.
Tips for Drafting Foundation Blocks
Here are my top drafting tips from the video tutorial:
1. Adjust Your Snap Settings After importing your image, change your snap settings to Snap to Lines and Arcs only. This gives you maximum flexibility when placing lines. 2. Use Undo Immediately If a line connects incorrectly, select Undo right away and redraw it. Extra nodes can create unintended bends in your lines—and those bends affect how EQ automatically sections the foundation. 3. Save Frequently Save your block after completing each section. If a later section causes issues, you can return to a clean version instead of starting from scratch. 4. Preview Foundations as You Go After completing each section:
5. Use Snap to Node Strategically When starting or ending a line at an existing node:
Ice Dance Foundation Video Tutorial
Watch the full video to see the complete drafting process of the Ice Dance block—from sectioning to tracing to previewing your foundation results.
Featuring a Single Block in a Quilt
Pictorial foundation blocks often shine brightest when they are the star of the quilt.
Consider:
Ice Dance Quilt by Kari Schell
Ready to Improve Your Foundation Drafting Skills?
If working through today’s Ice Dance block sparked new ideas — or highlighted areas where you’d like more confidence — I’d love to invite you to go deeper.
In my Foundation Friendly Designs with EQ8 class, we focus on understanding the process behind foundation drafting so you can confidently create your own designs — not just follow steps. Right now, the class is on sale for $49 through February 28, 2026. What Is Foundation Piecing? Foundation piecing (sometimes called paper piecing) is a technique where fabric is sewn directly onto a printed foundation, stitching precisely on the drawn lines. It’s ideal for designs that require accuracy or include unusual shapes. Why Foundation Drafting Matters in EQ8 Foundation piecing truly shines when designing:
And in this class, we cover all of these — step by step. You’ll learn how to:
Class begins Wednesday, March 4th. If foundation drafting has ever felt intimidating — or if you're ready to confidently design your own pictorial blocks inside EQ8 — this class will give you the structure, clarity, and guided practice to make it click. 
So… are you Team Wonky or Team Precision?
Last week we bravely turned Snap to Grid OFF and embraced playful, wonky heart and flying geese blocks. It was creative, freeing — and maybe just a little nerve-wracking for those who love accuracy. If the wonky approach made you slightly jittery, this week is for you. We’re recreating the quilt using precision-drafted blocks that are easy to rotary cut, simple to piece, and wonderfully calming. A Quick Look Back: Team Wonky
Here were the wonky blocks and quilts from last week’s tutorial.
If you missed it, you can check out the full tutorial here.
Now let’s rebuild the design with clean lines and perfect symmetry. Drafting the Precision Blocks
All of the precision blocks were drafted in EasyDraw, and the most important setting?
Turn Snap to Grid ON. That single step keeps everything aligned and ensures the blocks will piece beautifully.
How Serendipity>Merge Blocks Works
The Merge Blocks feature on the Block Worktable allows you to combine Sketchbook blocks to create entirely new blocks.
Here’s how it works: When you open the Merge Blocks dialog, EQ evaluates the blocks in your Sketchbook to determine which ones qualify as a background block. Only certain blocks appear on the left side of the dialog. To qualify as a background block:
Any suitable block in your Sketchbook can then be merged into that background block. It’s one of those features that feels like magic once you understand how it works. Building the Precision Heart Variations
The single precision heart block was merged with three previously drafted blocks:
Creating a Two-Heart Block
Creating the Precision Quilts
Once the precision blocks are drafted and merged, it’s time to update the quilt layouts.
Precision Hearts — Horizontal Layout
Precision Hearts Horizontal Quilt Layout
Precision Hearts — On-Point Layout
Precision Hearts - On Point Layout
Watch the Video Tutorial
Be sure to watch the full video below for step-by-step instructions on:
Team Wonky or Team Precision?
Now that you’ve explored both versions…
Do you enjoy the playful freedom of wonky designs? Or do you prefer the calm, symmetry, and rotary-cut friendliness of precision piecing? I’d love to hear which team you’re on.
When Valentine’s Day is on the horizon, I almost can’t help myself — hearts start showing up in my quilt designs. This year was no exception.
Instead of aiming for perfect symmetry, I turned Snap to Grid off in EQ8 and let myself play. The result? A set of delightfully wonky heart blocks, paired with a wonky flying geese block for sashing. Loose, imperfect, and full of personality. Drafting the Wonky Blocks
In the video, I walk through drafting several variations of the wonky hearts and flying geese. Here’s a look at the blocks created during that process:
First Quilt Layout… and a Reality Check
On the Quilt Worktable, I set up a horizontal layout using 12″ blocks with 4″ sashing and dropped in my wonky blocks.
And honestly? It looked like a bit of a mess. There was just a little too much wonkiness happening all at once. Calming the Design with a Frame
To bring some visual balance to the quilt, I drafted a 12″ frame block with 1″ long strips around the outer edges and colored it with a contrasting fabric.
Using Serendipity > Merge Blocks, I combined the frame block with the Four Wonky Hearts Block.
Back on the Quilt Worktable, I replaced the original heart blocks with the framed wonky heart blocks — and that made all the difference. The quilt instantly felt calmer and more cohesive while still keeping its playful charm.
Wonky Hearts Horizontal Layout
Watch the Video Tutorial
Be sure to watch the video below for step-by-step instructions on drafting the blocks, merging them, and creating your own Wonky Hearts quilt in EQ8.
A Note on Foundation Piecing
These wonky heart blocks are excellent candidates for foundation piecing. One of my favorite EQ features is the ability to print your own foundations directly from the software.
Each wonky heart can be pieced using:
To check your foundations, go to Print & Export > Foundation, click on the block, and preview the pattern before printing. 
Foundation Sectioning under Print and Export
Creating an On-Point Layout
Although this variation isn’t included in the video, I couldn’t resist exploring an on-point layout for the quilt.
Once I started experimenting, I quickly realized the heart orientation needed to change. To make that work, I:
Using Serendipity > Merge Blocks, I:
For the setting triangles and corners, I used the EQ Default Four-X Block.
On Point Wonky Heart Quilt
Your Turn
So tell me — do you enjoy wonky, playful designs, or do you lean more toward precision and symmetry when it comes to hearts and flying geese?
I’d love to hear what you prefer.
I haven’t done a showcase of Tech Know Quilter designs in quite a while, and it’s long overdue. One of my favorite parts of teaching Electric Quilt 8 is seeing how students take a concept, tool, or challenge and truly make it their own.
In this post, I’m sharing a collection of student designs created during the “Apply What They Learned” monthly challenges from the latter part of 2025—followed by a look at a brand-new EQ8 add-on that opens up even more creative possibilities when paired with AccuQuilt dies. I continue to be amazed by the creativity, skill, and confidence of the Tech Know Quilter community. Tech Know Quilter Student Design Showcase
The designs below were submitted by Tech Know Quilter members as part of our monthly challenges. Each challenge encourages students to apply newly learned EQ8 skills—whether that’s working with custom blocks, layouts, color variations, or design tools—to create something uniquely their own.
Julie Pedersen This is my quilt that we designed for the TKQ Masters Scrapbook Challenge class. We chose a state/place for our theme. Each lesson we were given a category such as food, flora, fauna. We then chose the items for our quilt. We created a layout and filled it with blocks from each category. I chose Hawaii and filled it with Diamond Head, pineapples, hibiscus, banyan trees and more. I used a variety of techniques to create the blocks. It was a challenge to decide what to use and how to create the blocks. Thanks, Kari, for another great class.
Terry McCaskey I enjoyed and learned something in every "Double Dipping" class this month: editing quilt layouts from the library, working more with Serendipity, simplifying blocks for actual piecing, etc. Here are my 4 favorites. . The last two pictured nly have one variation from Kari's class: I separated my curved lines by two inches rather than only one. That did make chubby/puffy curves but gave my eye/mind a place to rest and offset the complexities elsewhere in the designs. This must be my "traditional" brain trying to bring order into Double Dipping chaos fun.
These projects are a wonderful reminder that there’s no single “right” way to use EQ8—just endless opportunities to explore, experiment, and grow.
AccuQuilt Go! BOB (Blocks on Board) 2025 Collection
Electric Quilt is releasing a new AccuQuilt Go! BOB (Blocks on Board) 2025 Collection this week as an add-on product for Electric Quilt 8. This add-on includes AccuQuilt Go! BOB blocks released by AccuQuilt during 2025 and makes it easy to design quilts that are fully compatible with AccuQuilt dies.
In the free video tutorial included in this post, I demonstrate one approach to creating new variations of a block from this collection—while still ensuring the designs work beautifully with the related AccuQuilt dies.
A Key Tip When Working with Go! BOB Blocks
When working with blocks in the Go! BOB collection, it’s essential to maintain the original block size. If you change the block size, you can still design and sew the quilt—but the pieces will no longer be compatible with the AccuQuilt dies. Keeping the block size consistent ensures you can confidently cut all pieces using your dies. Creating Variations with Shadowed Dizzy Geese
Five Block Variations
In the video, I demonstrate how to use Shrink and Flip to create five unique variations of the Shadowed Dizzy Geese block. All of these designs can be easily cut using the 55926 Go! BOB Pinwheel Shape Set by AccuQuilt.
Quilt Layouts Using Variation Five
To take the design one step further, I also created quilt layouts using Variation Five of the block. Seeing a block in a full quilt layout often sparks new ideas and helps you visualize how the design might work in your own projects.
Watch the Free Video Tutorial
In the video tutorial below, you’ll see how to:
Check out the free video tutorial to see the entire process step by step. Final Thoughts
The blocks in the AccuQuilt Go! BOB add-on are truly fun to work with, and one of the most rewarding aspects is creating variations that result in a quilt that feels personal and uniquely yours—all while staying compatible with AccuQuilt dies.
The AccuQuilt Go! BOB 2025 Collection Add-On can be purchased directly from Electric Quilt for $15.95.
Whether you’re inspired by the student showcases, the block variations, or the quilt layouts, I hope this post encourages you to explore new possibilities in Electric Quilt 8 and confidently make each design your own.
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Kari SchellElectric Quilt Expert and Educator and Pattern Designer. Categories
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