Rotating and Fussy Cutting Large Scale Fabric Using Electric Quilt 8

Last week I created a new block that I called "Sashing and Block Combo" and set it in a quilt.

The circle was drawn and quartered with the Ellipse applique tool and I set and rotated one fabric for the four quarters of the circle.

Most of the fabric used in the quilt were from from the Waters Edge fabric collection FREE download from Electric Quilt.

You can find last weeks tutorial on drafting the block and quilt here.

When I went to play with rotating and fussy cutting some of the Waters Edge fabric pieces, I quickly realized some of the fabrics had a very large repeat.  This first piece in the collection was 25 inches square -- and it isn't even a full repeat of the design.

Waters Edge by Brett Lewis for Northcott (SKU 26719-49)

Trying to rotate and fussy cut a 25" piece of fabric in a 2-1/2" quarter circle, did not work very well for me.  So I knew I needed to approach the process a bit differently.

I thought about the time I did a One Block Wonder quilt (a real quilt -- not an EQ design) where I cut the theme fabric into strips that were exactly the same section of the fabric (essentially cutting the repeats).  I then aligned each of the strips and sub-cut them for each of the blocks.  Then sewed together for a kaleidoscope type of design.

The approach I chose for fussy cutting in my quarter circles in the Sashing and Block Combo EQ quilt was similar to that.  However I chose to cut my strips larger than needed.  Then I could have more options for fussy cutting the design to pick different elements to highlight. 

I found that I could cut the 25" fabric swatch into 25 different 5" segments -- more than I need for the  Sashing and Block Combo quilt.

In this weeks video tutorial, check out how I created smaller fabric swatches, rotated fabric and fussy cut in the quilt.  

Here are my updated blocks.  Check out the circle designs in each of them.  The first 8 were from the fabric image shown above.  Can you find the designs in the full fabric image?

Click on each block for a close-up view.

The last four were from the following piece.  This is also from the Waters Edge fabric collection.  This one had a full repeat both horizontally and vertically.  The single repeat was 16-1/2" by 12-1/2".

Waters Edge by Brett Lewis by Northcott SKU 26711-86

Here is the final quilt.

Sashing and Block Quilt with Rotating and Fussy Cutting of Theme Fabric

I look forward to seeing what you choose to do with fussy-cutting.  Feel free to share a block (or two) in the Learning EQ Facebook group.

Learning EQ Facebook Group Fussy Cut Design Post

What to do about Pixelated Fabric?

When I reopened the Sashing and Block Combo Design project file after last weeks video, I noticed that some of the fabric in the sketchbook, looked pixelated and appeared to have lost its color. (See the last three fabrics in the picture as an example.)

After some experimenting I found that if you use this fabric to color a quilt, it will look "normal" in the quilt.  The pixelation is only visible in the coloring tools and in the project sketchbook.

Pixelated Fabric Problem

I reached out to Electric Quilt who shared with me that it was a known issue.  I suspect related to these super large fabric swatches.  The workaround is:

• Close the project.
• Reopen the project.
• The first screen you will see is the Project Sketchbook.
• Select the Fabrics tab before doing anything else.  Scroll over and note that the fabrics should now be able to be viewed correctly.

I was able to fix this project.  However I did find that it doesn't work 100% of the time.  So we may need to deal with a few "pixelated fabric swatches".  FYI -- I didn't find any issues after cropping the large pieces.

Tech Know Quilters Working with Fabric Class

The first Tech Know Quilters class is all above working with fabrics in Electric Quilt 8.  In addition to learning how to import fabric from multiple sources, you will even learn how to photograph and scan your own fabric.  Won't that be a great stash busting option!

If you would like to join Tech Know Quilters ahead of the next open enrollment period, send me a note and I will send you information on getting started in September -- back to school for you.

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Happy quilting.

​Kari

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