I started with EQ6 and now have EQ7. I usually start with a known pattern but change the layout, borders, etc.

Ii usually imagine it in my head first then draw it on paper and color it with crayons or markers. I decide what size and go from there. If there is something I do not like when working on it I change it right then

Beautiful!!

I use the label maker that I have on the
computer. You can write in your own message,
or use what they have along with photo's and
clip art. Betty Lee

I had a bunch of blue batiks left over from a dolphin quilt I made my niece. I had a photo of a turtle from the aquarium so voila!

This is awesome!

I use graph paper and a pencil. If I don't like it, I can just toss it away in the recycle bin.

I too, am a graph paper and colored pencil designer. I toss away a lot of things that do not work. LOL

I enjoy designing my own quilts. I get an idea and sketch it roughly. Sometimes, I see fabrics I like that would go together well, or a group of fabrics that create a theme. I then look for a pattern or design online that I like and make the quilt.

Laura H.

I have EQ 6 and have a brain that has a terrible time learning it. I heard that EQ7 is more user friendly; is that true? Maybe I just need spend time and learn to use it?

kwiltnutt

If you don't know EQ6 then EQ7 would probably be just as hard for you to learn. They do have some great tutorials within the program, but you don't get a chance to ask questions. When I first got EQ I took some of the classes at http://www.quiltuniversity.com/ They were great... you could ask questions if you didn't understand something, but the teacher was very good a explaining how to use the program. And there are different levels, so as you get better you can take more advanced classes.

I started out with EQ5, then EQ6, then EQ7. I occasionally will draw out a design on paper (when I am "killing" time somewhere) but then it ends up in EQ. I haven't made a quilt in years that was not drafted out first in EQ. I have found the program easy to use and when I need to figure something out, I open the book or look at the tutorial. (I have a degree in technology, so being able to integrate my comuter knowledge with my hobby has been so much fun. I find I spend as much time on my computer designing as I do actually making quilts.)

I use EQ7 (love it!) for most of my designing these days. I've been an EQ user for a long time, each version gets better and has more capabilities than I will probably ever use. I do still sketch out some of my designs on paper, especially if I'm having a hard time visualizing how to draw something in EQ... but I love the fact that I can "see" my quilt before I start by using quilting software.

I bought Quilt-Pro Version 2 for Macintosh several years ago. Had a lot of fun with it, but haven't used it lately. It was wonderful for printing patterns complete with 1/4" seam allowance, adjusting sizes, sashings and borders, etc. I'm sure it's been updated if it's still around.

I'm still new at quilting so I do my designing either on the cutting table or on graph paper with colored pencils. There is a lot of trial and error involved, believe me. LOL
I don't know the math rules for quilts, except the basic seam allowance ones. With my fibromyalgia, I need to get them in nice clear format and print them up so I can easily refer to them. On foggy days, I can't remember the rules about much of anything. LOL

Yes. YES! YES! The only times in 1 1/2 years I have used a pattern as per say was my initial quilt in class, and doing a buckeye patter, very similiar to round the world. It is a scrappy quilt with a definite color pattern, needs to be followed row by row. Everyone in my Scrappy group had problems with it including instructor. All turned out beautiful. Usually I do a take off of a specific idea and do my own thing. I enjoy it so much more. I know poeple who can not make as quilt with out a pattern, and they have been quilting much longer then me. The creating part is part of the fun. I guess I am gifted in the design part. I have been designing things all my life, also makes improvising easier.

I bought the first EQ at the Houston Quilt Show way back when and have kept it updated so now am using EQ7. I use it a lot but don't hesitate to rough-draft on plain or graph paper.

I do both. I have EQ6 but sometimes I get frustrated and just draw it out on graph paper. I've only had the EQ for a year so I'm still learning. The graph paper I've been using for a Very Long Time. :lol:

I am amazed that so many of you design your own quilts. I thought unless you were a designer for fabric company everyone just used patterns they found. What exactly is EQ and how does it work? Do you start with a basic pattern like churn dash, nine patch, etc. and go from there? I know I am showing how green I am about quilting but hope you don't mind. :?: :?: :?:

Graph paper if I can find it. Cant afford a program. And they always end up altered in some way, so I keep a diary of them start to finish.

I use Quilt Pro. They just came out with a new version - QP6. I really like it. It is not too hard to learn. I also have EQ7, but I don't like it as much. I am having a hard time learning how to use that one.
What I like about computer programs is you can set up the basic quilt and then easily change the fabric, the settings, anything about the quilt with just a few strokes of the keys. Then you can save the versions you like.
I often draft blocks that I see and save them for future use.

I bought the EQ7 and I love it, I have made 3 quilt tops already that I am trying to finish up. I have scanned almost all of my stash into the library and Iam using that to design my quilts, what great fun I have been having.

Electric Quilt is a wonderful program that lets you create your own blocks, quilts, etc. From designing your own blocks... putting in your own fabrics, and even putting your quilting stencil in the color of thread you want to use, so you can get an idea of what your completed quilt will look like, before ever taking a rotary cutter to fabric. It has hundreds of blocks already in the program, with other add on programs from people like Karen Stone (New York beauty type blocks), Judy Martin (Stars) and many others. You can take a block to the worktable, and add or delete lines and alter them in almost any way you can image.. as long as you can still sew the block it can be done in the program.

If you do machine embroidery, you can put a representation of your embrodiery design on your quilt, so you can see what it would look like. You could design your own applique designs. If you do memory quilts, you can put your pictures on your virtual quilt to see how everything will look before you ever print out your pictures on fabric, so you dont' waste fabric trying to get the "right size".

Do you want to see what your blocks would look like on point?? Click..Click and you have an on point layout. Want to see how the quilt will look with multiple borders?? Click Click.. presto.. more borders. What about if you want to add sashing.. how would that look.. click click... cool!!!! Need to create a quilt a specific size??? Just alter the size of the blocks, border, sashing.. and you can control the finished size of the quilt.

The one thing the program DOES NOT DO... and this is important for new quilters... it does NOT tell you how to sew it all together. You won't get step by step instructions on how to cut your fabric, how to sew it all back together, or how to finish your quilt. So you do need some basic understanding of how to construct a quilt. BUT.. you CAN print out foundation papers for paper piecing blocks, Rotary cutting diagrams that show how wide to cut strips and then what size to cut into subsets. Templates for applique, and as long as you colored in your quilt with the correct colors you are going to use, it will even give you estimates on how much of each fabric you will need to make your quilt. As well as print out a picture of your completed quilt, so you have a picture to refer to or keep for your records.

Hope this explains a little bit about what the program can do. If you have any more questions.. don't hesitate to ask.. I'm sure someone here will be able to answer them.

Thank you mailmanldy for the wonderful explanation...that is surely one thing for my wish list. In the meantime hope to get more comfortable just making quilts from someone else's pattern.

:D :D :D

The 'math' is my husband's job! I just cut and sew! He enjoys putting the quilt on the frame too. Nice guy, isn't he?

I've been quilting for ten years. I've used 3 store bought patterns: Turning Twenty (had no fat quarters, used yardage), Trip Around the World (before I saw how easy it would be to make), and a quilt called Night Weave, using an X-Block ruler (had to have instructions to know what to do with the ruler.) Other than those 3, I have designed all my blocks/quilts on graph paper and/or EQ5. EQ5 has kept me from constructing a quilt with fabric choices in the wrong spot! I love having my own fabrics show up in the layout, so I see how they play against each other. I've never upgraded from EQ5, since it's expensive and 5 does all I need to do. Love it!! Once it's designed, I use a lined notebook and write down all my cuts and assembly order, plus notes to myself in case I ever want to repeat the design! I doubt I ever will, but now that I've started teaching at my LQS, those notes are valuable!!

I do it in my head and use post it notes. I figure the size pieces I need, a draw a little sketch and off I go.

The post it work great when I go through my stash and bundle some fabrics together, design on post it note and put it all together in a bag for later.

I do design some of my quilts. I have bought the new edition of the electric quilt but haven't used it. What I have used is Bernina's Designer's Plus, their latest version has a quilter's section. Before this, I used graph paper. The software is neat as it will tell you how much fabric you need and also what sizes you need to print with triangles, squares, etc. Looking forward to trying out the Electric Quilt.

I do design most of my quilts; it always starts with ' I want a blue, green, red, purple, etc.. colored quilt' then I decide what block(s) I'll make, next is the size. Then I just keep making blocks until I have a size I'm happy with.
I currently have a 'red white & blue' quilt in the making, it'll use EPP , big stich, and applique with sashing between the blocks.

I do a lot of my own, and I use graph paper and colored pencils, or once in awhile, the Paint program on my computer.

Right now I'm working on a baby quilt with hot air balloons. The balloons are pieced, my own design. Easy to draft on graph paper, the pain is adding seam allowances. The other pain has been the arrangement of the balloons on the background. So I made some "to scale" drawings on post-it notes and have been moving them around the graph paper, trying to figure out the best composition.

Could I ask what is EPP? :?:

Could I ask what is EPP? :?:[/quote]

English Paper Piecing

i have dh, the engineer check my math... just like he did all the kids math & science homework... i'm wrong quite frequently, but he never is... doesn't use a calculator either...

EQ6 Just recently loaded it. Needed to upgrade my computer before I could use it. Previously had EQ5

Dear quilter, I use graph paper most of the time. I start out with the size of the backing to determine the finished size of the quilt. Many times I have to increase the size of the back. The area I work in restricts me to quilts from 42 to 44 wide to 70 to 72 long. This helps me determine the size of the blocks to be used. If it works well, the graph design is kept for future use. God bless you. Quilting Joan

Yup! Leaving the computer off is the ONLY way to get anything else done. This board is way too much fun!:lol: :lol:

I'm bad, i don't know where to start for design your own, I just see a pattern or fabric i like, (never buy enough) and try to put it together in some sort of layout. I have only done 2 of my own, and a quilt as you go, that was a class one and the 2nd i used up the scraps. I will eventually get more involved into the planning and set out of it, i suppose. But working full time, i don't get the time to concentrate on the designing until i am ready :)

I play around with designs in Quilt Wizard and recently got EQ7, which I'm still learning what all it will do...and how to get it to do all it's good stuff!

Mostly for actually doing a quilt I just sort of play it by ear and let it happen. Sometimes I really like how it turns out, other times not so much...the main reason I got EQ7 was to be able to put my fabrics in for a 'test drive' to prevent some of my more 'blah' (not enough contrast) outcomes. I have a tendency to have all the fabrics too close to the same "medium" colors.

please I am new to this site and wonder what is EQ?

Is there a pattern for the I Spy quilts that you make ? My 4 year old grandson loves "reading" the I Spy books with me. He would love a quilt made by Mema