A 7-page PDF guide to the basics in both EQ5 and EQ7, showing buttons and screens for common tasks like setting blocks, re-coloring, and printing.
This handout was distributed at the September 2011 guild program.
Category: FAQ
Round Robin Quilts
Let’s first answer the question: What is a Round Robin quilt? A Round Robin quilt may be described as fun, challenging and exciting. Each quilter makes a center block and hands it over to another quilter to put a border around the center block. The new border might be plain, pieced, appliqued, or embellished. It might not even go around all four sides. Then the center block is passed to a third quilter to add a 2nd border and so on to each member of the group. After the final border is added, the quilt top is returned to the center square maker to finish the quilt. The challenge is each quilter will be designing and putting a border on each quilt. It may be the 2st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. The exciting part is the maker of the center block does not see her block until the final border has been added to it.
The rules for a Round Robin quilt may vary from guild to guild and from group to group. Two facts that do not vary are that the quilter does not see his or her center block until the last border has been added and that each quilter is asked to do his or her best work. Each quilt is passed along in a non-see-through container. A label and/or journal should be included win the center square so that each quilter can sign the label and make notes in the journal. One guild also suggested including a disposable camera with the quilt square to take pictures of each step in the progress of the quilt.
Here are results from our 2013 round robin:
How do I draft a 3.5″ block in EQ?
Drafting a block to a different size is a common mystery for EQ (Electric Quilt) users. In truth this is a breeze in EQ, but so different from pencil and paper.
The short answer? Design the block any way you like, then print the block from the quilt worktable, checking the “size from quilt” box.
Here’s a longer answer, with pictures. Note: the screen shots are EQ5, but the prose works with all versions.
- Go to the block worktable. Don’t worry about size; just get the block design you want into your sketchbook. If you’re designing it yourself, use a size like 6″ with 24 subdivisions (grid dots).
- Change to the quilt worktable.
- On the layout tab, set up a simple layout that blocks the exact size you want — 3.5,9, 17.75 — anything.
- On the layer 1 tab, use the set tool to place the block in the quilt.
- Now it’s all about printing. Still on the quilt worktable, get the “select” tool and click on the on the block on the quilt.
- Choose “print” from either the tool icons, or the menu. You’ll get another menu to choose from…
- Block: I use this all the time for appliqué, but it’s also prints a good paper piecing foundation.
- Rotary Cutting: this tells you exactly what strips to cut for 1 block.
- Block: I use this all the time for appliqué, but it’s also prints a good paper piecing foundation.
- For whatever you print — rotary cutting instructions, foundation patterns, templates, etc., make sure you choose “size from block” so that it’s scaled to the size you chose. You should get results like these…
SQG 