dhsewsalittle

Hi, everyone! I have already searched all the old threads and Googled this question until my eyes crossed … Can someone who uses EQ7 please tell me if it is possible to create an entire quilt using free-form piecing? (Or whatever the program calls it when NOT using blocks to design a quilt.)

I have a quilt design that works like a Mondrian design: It’s all squares and rectangles that intersect in a visually random pattern. The entire quilt is, basically, one giant block made up of a few hundred pieces. There are no rows or columns. The Mondrian window image below will you an idea of the challenge I am facing. (Easy-peasy, right?)

If anyone's tried anything like this in EQ7, a shout out would be appreciated.

Thanks, all!

QuiltnNan

yes, it is possible. it's called custom set blocks. i don't really use it because it seems a little fussy to me.

Jennifer23

I've seen a couple tutorials on designing Mondrian-style quilts, and they all used Excel rather than EQ. Basically, you make the cell size horizontally and vertically match the width of your black lines, then fill in the cells with your desired colours. The quilts are assembled into subunits (not really blocks) of whatever size works, then those are joined.

I looked to see if I could find a tutorial, but no luck. I know I have seen it done this way at least twice, though!

Barb in Louisiana

The custom set is the only way you could do the free form Mondrian quilts in EQ. I think you could do better with graph paper, following some of the designs that you will find below.

Some of the Mondrian quilts are actually same size blocks that just look different. https://www.pinterest.com/sonalees/mondrian-quilt/
There is a lot of variation with this quilt. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/11329436537694651/
This one shows the different sizes of the blocks. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/154740937177111867/
Modern City blocks is another example. http://www.lynbrown.com/modern-city-blocks-quilt/

cathyvv

EQ7 has several quilt layouts that are called irregular quilt blocks. but I don't see a way to easily make the irregular blocks. There are blocks under the category of stained glass blocks that might work for you, though.

Have fun!

rusty quilter

I have found EQ to be wonderful in customer support....Why not pose the question to them?

quiltingshorttimer

basically I think you could design it in EQ7 much the way I do a t-shirt quilt with irregular block sizes--via a custom set block as Quiltin' Nan says--one suggest I would give is to not put the color in before you duplicate because when I do, I lose the grid with measurements visible in the layout screen for the "sashing".

Warbler

You can design a Mondrian quilt and it would be a custom design. EQ7 has a learning curve that requires patience and some dedicated time to work design functions. EQ offers classes and there are many online tutorials. I have never made the quilt you describe but I think it would be simple enough, if not time consuming because of the irregularity of the design.

I searched Pinterest for images of Mondrian quilts and some are quite irregular and some appeared to be broken into large regular segments, but color placement made it look more random and irregular. What stunning quilts they make and with the right quilting designs could be a fabulous work.

dhsewsalittle

Thanks, all, for the replies and ideas. I've looked at the available info on EQ7's "custom set" function, and its primary purpose seems to be to allow individual blocks to be set and sized anywhere on a quilt top. There is some block-drawing capability, but I don't trust that it will fully suit my needs.

Jennifer, how interesting that I'm not the only quilter using a spreadsheet program for quilt design! I actually created the design in Excel by making all cells the same size (approx. 1 inch square) and coloring/bordering multiple cells as needed. That was pretty straightforward, but figuring out how to print sections, when many individual pieces won't fit on a single printed page, is giving me a headache. I'm beginning to think getting my hands on some oversize graph paper might be my best bet.

Gay

I have done a couple of quilts using variety of sized blocks, usually joined by strips of 2" pieces. You can do this by selecting 'Custom' type, or even with the 'photo patch'. You can draw up and save 'motifs' - for applique - and probably use these as blocks ( not sure if you would have to create a jpg image of them for the photopatch quilt as I haven't tried) but all the blocks can be resized to suit.

This is the last one I did last year, with my DIL who does not sew. She did well.
Is this what you are asking about?
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