That Special Touch - Adding Applique to a Pieced Quilt

7/28/2018

Reeze Hanson of Morning Glory Designs is partnering with me on lessons focused on converting Electric Quilt designs into formal patterns. Our first collaborated lesson appeared this last week in the Tech Know Quilters Modern Quilts session. More will be added during future months.

Reeze is a talented pattern designer specializing in designs that incorporate both pieced and applique components. I know you will want to hear her story.

Reeze Hanson of Morning Glory Designs

EQ is the reason I became a designer. Hi, I am Reeze Hanson and my design career started because I needed help drawing blocks and arranging them in quilts.

When I was learning to quilt I joined several online quilt groups and we participated in dozens of block exchanges. Before long, my sewing room was spilling over with bags of swap blocks and I needed a way to turn them into quilts. A friend told me about EQ4, I got a copy and taught myself to use it. I designed settings for all the blocks I received, and then designed settings for others in the group. They liked my ideas and wanted instructions, so I started writing patterns!

I started teaching with EQ5. It was the first Windows version of EQ and was vastly improved from the earlier DOS versions. I offered classes at my local quilt shop and soon began teaching all over the midwest.

Then, my local quilt shop challenged me to come up with some table runner patterns they could sell and kit, and that was the start of my professional career. I designed 12 table runner patterns featuring one-patch centers, and applique borders. I called them Charming Botanicals as a play on words.
Here is the EQ image of one of the first of these table runners. This the September Asters and Morning Glories runner. I designed the linked diamond background to look like a trellis and wanted the flowers to be wound in the trellis. I made this flower to look like an aster.

Initial EQ Design for Morning Glory and Asters Quilt Quilt by Reeze Hanson

Embroidery Inspiration

It wasn’t exactly what I wanted. I kept researching photos of morning glories. I finally found an image I liked in an old embroidery pattern. This image had the flower shape I wanted, the leaves, buds, and tendrils.

It was just the look I wanted with the two flowers mixed together. I drew each flower, leaf, vine segment, bud and tendril separately, and composed the completed vine on the quilt worktable. That way I could manipulate the placement, rotation and size of each of the elements of the vine.

Final EQ Rendition by Reeze Hanson

September Morning Glory and Asters Table Runner by Reeze Hanson of Morning Glory Designs

I made the quilt, wrote the pattern, and helped the shop cut kits. They sold out almost immediately and ordered more. It is still one of my best-selling patterns and has become something of a trademark quilt for my pattern company, Morning Glory Designs. (www.morningglorydesigns.com) The pattern is available for purchase on my website as a digital download pattern.

Learn more about Reeze's fantastic block of the month quilts along with other patterns.

Reeze Hanson Electric Quilt Tip
I drew each flower, leaf, bud and tendril separately as a MOTIF using Patch draw applique. On Layer 2 I placed one of each Motif. Using the Adjust Tool I copied each Motif and moved them around until I had created the vine. By saving each new vine and flower placement to my Sketchbook, I had a series of images to choose from when finalizing the quilt. It was a great way “see” the finished quilt before cutting the fabric.

Shoot for the Stars with EQ8

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 $25 (regular $35). Join now.

Tech Know Quilters Show

Enjoy some of the quilts created this week by the talented Tech Know Quilters members.

Join the wait list for the next open enrollment period of Tech Know Quilters.

Susan S.

another Susan S.

Susan J.

Sharon O.

Sharon B.

Shann W.

Sarah B.

Paula M.

Nicola M.

Micheline H.

Mandy M.

Madeline B. (Fabric Images class)

Linda Carlson (Fabric Images class)

Kristy S.

Kathy A. Ice Fishing

Judy G.

Joyce B.

Inger B.

Cheryl J.

Cheryl A.

Adrienne Q.

Mandy M.

Kathy A.

Cheryl A. Star Trail

Sarah B.

Shann W.

Sharon O.

Happy quilting.

Kari

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2 Comments

Vernia I Clements

7/28/2018 04:43:48 pm

Please tell me where the design came from on the email of the pointed stars (green) with the black diamond shapes. I did not see it any where when i opened the page.

Kari Schell

7/28/2018 11:59:03 pm

The design was a variation of a design from my Tech Know Quilters Modern Quilts class. The lesson was on a 3D Illusion block. Inger Blood added her own block in the center and did some incredible shading of the block and then placed it in a horizontal layout with border blocks. You can look at a close up of the quilt in the Tech Know Quilter show today. It is a breathtaking design by Inger.