Designing a quilt
 

boy I haven't been on here for awhile. Getting back into quilting after the busy Christmas season. Just wanted to know how you go about designing your own quilt. Do you make up a lot of squares triangles so forth and arrange them or do you use graft paper? I am having a hard time with graft paper I just can't seem to visualize it in my heard. Your help would very much be appreciated. Thanks to all and Happy New year to all!

I am in the process of designing my first quilt from scratch. Usually I just adapt things from other quilts that I have seen. I am using EQ5. I had a vision in my head of what I wanted and then worked it out in EQ. I'm not sure it's quite there yet...not quite as 'stylized' as my original vision in my mind. It's a challenge for me.

If I did not have EQ, for me, I would probably make up some colored blocks/pieces and arrange them accordingly. I don't know that I'd be overly accurate in the pieces I made up initially. You could always work out the exact measurements/layout on graph paper AFTER getting the visual you want.

I doodle with paper and pencils, I have colored ones if I want it kinda sorta accurate with my fabric choices...

If it's just a vague thought, I use paper and pencil to sketch - esp. if there's a secondary design I'm hoping to see. I have EQ, so if I have a better idea what the block wants to look like, I'll use that. But I find it a bit restrictive for the initial sketching. I used to sketch and then work out the sizes on graph paper, before I bought EQ.

Much easier than graph paper and much cheaper than EQ, is to copy photos of the quilt blocks you like and save them to your computer (there are a ton of websites with small sample images). Then copy and paste the ones you are considering using to Excel (or Publisher if you have it). You can then make more copies of the ones you want to use, move them around, turn them on point, whatever you like. It's like having a mini design wall with whatever blocks you want available.

Publisher will let you group all the blocks into one unit and save that as a jpeg file that you can then print out.

I often start by using graph paper & colored pencils for the block design, then refine it in EQ7 or Adobe Illustrator, using one of them to repeat & rotate the block.

I am not very good at designing my own quilts. I've done a few with ok results. I have a very basic design program called Quilt Wizard- it's like the embryo version of EQ. Joanns used to carry it- it's under $30, but it has a library of blocks, fabrics, layouts etc. that you can twist, turn, combine. It will also give directions, yardage etc for the quilts and then you can print it out in color or outline. I've done the outline and then colored in with colored pencils. If Joanns still carries it and you can use a coupon, it would be an inexpensive fun thing to have.

I use EQ7. Most designs start with something I've seen and develop from there with changes to the blocks, the layout, the borders, etc.

I sketch them out on paper (regular scratch paper) then fine tune it in EQ7. The big benefits to me using EQ7 is it does the math for me (woot!) and I can play with the colors. I can even save all the color versions and keep going back to them.

The biggest benefit is the math.
Oh ... I can even print paper copies if I want to paper piece the blocks.

I usually see a quilt pattern that I like on the internet and then draw the design into EQ5. I had previous versions of EQ so once you learn how to use the program, it is much better than drafting (by the way, I took extensive drafting in college), Once you get the block drawn, you can make the block size anything you want with just a click of the mouse. Used copies of the program are normally easily found on eBay. EQ does allow ownership to be transferred as long as you have the program ID.