Teen

I have been wanting to purchase this program for awhile now and this week I finally did. I just downloaded EQ8 tonight and did the first lesson. Read this complete thread....very helpful. Probably make more sense once I dive in and recognize some of the terms and functions you'all are talking about. Lol... I'll be watching tutorials over the next few days and I'm just going to play. So excited.

eparys

The best way to learn it is to use it! I love mine and use it all the time. In addition to doing the lessons, EQ has a great Blog -

https://doyoueq.com/blog/

In the blog they have links to "Lessons with Lori", "lessons with Yvonne", "Design and Discover" and "Block Spotlight". All worth while looking at!

Teen

Thank you for the direction, eparys! Watched a few videos last night. So much to learn.

oksewglad

Well I can guarantee that you will be spending "quilting" time at the computer now! A productive way to stay out of packed boxes, Teen! Enjoy your journey with EQ..I have soooo many quilts in the program. I love it for when I put blocks together and need to figure out borders...especially with on point blocks. It does all the calculations for you and I can easily figure out how much fabric I minimally need to cut those borders and if I have enough in the chunk of fabric laying the pile of possibilities! I really need to get comfortable with custom designed layouts, but that's a discussion for another day. Enjoy...enjoy...enjoy!

Teen

Well..I dove right into the deep end with this program and about 85% done on a custom design. I have been making a series of Paper pieced blocks of all different sizes for some time now. When I see a vintage pattern, I just buy it or print if freebie and use my vintage fabrics....I've amassed a bunch of blocks but had no clue what to do with them.....so, I'm designing a quilt for them. Had some glitches but, for the most part, I watched tutorials and played. I imported my fabrics and uploaded my blocks. Overall, I think I did fairly well. I've got some additional blocks to make for fillers but I now know the sizes I need to make and the colors to use. I'm pretty excited.

I have one question tho...The original layout was 48x48 (default)..Since I had no clue how big to make this, I started setting blocks and adjusting them. When I realized I needed to make it bigger, I went to the layout tab and resized quilt size, check marked the box that locks in the block sizes...however, when I returned to the quilt design tab, all my blocks resized to odd measurements. What did I do wrong?

Edit to add: not sure if this info is needed but I set my grid size for,2 inches. This did not change when I reconfigured the quilt size.

QuiltnNan

Not sure I understand all that you said. I start with making a block. I set the block size and then tab over to snaps and make those 4x the block size... this usually covers all diagonal lines. then save the block drawing, go to Color and save that. Next I go to the quilt layout. If you are using the default layout, I than go to the layout tab and choose my rows and columns of blocks, checking the size in the bottom, getting it close to what I want. I nudge to my desired size with sashing a borders. I hope this helps with what you asked.

cindyb

OMG I bit the bullet and just got EQ8 a couple of weeks ago - and stumbled through a couple of ideas. I wanted to insert another row on the left (like in Excel) and couldn't figure out how. So, now I haven't been back into the program. So glad to see this thread and I'm anxious to go through the whole thing tonight when I have time.

eparys

If you choose one of the standard layouts like horizontal or on point just changing the number of row or columns will not affect the block size. My guess is that you are in Custom which is a bit trickier. If all your blocks are the same size you may want to use a standard layout. I played around with Custom this morning and could not recreate what you described, so I myself do not have a clue -lol. I would start a new quilt and try it again. My guess is that one of those many little options in the Adjust tab under Block Tools got inadvertently changed.

In Custom I start off with mine set at 1/2.

Teen

Thank you both, QuiltnNan & eparys..

I will try to recreate and see where I went wrong.. Because my block sizes are all different and will be a scattered design, I started in the "custom design" layout. I must have clicked something, as you've said, eparys. I've finished the design but I'm sure I'll be designing custom again. I can see how setting grid size to 1/2" would be more helpful. That was so fun.

cindyb....have fun...it is so addicting and this thread so helpful.

Teen

I know you'all warned me but...seriously...EQ8 is so addicting. I finished the quilt that I did the custom design on and it's at the LA now. I had to figure out how to design it in sections so I could assembled the thing easily. Really helped me visualize the segments more easily. Lol.. I am so excited about my quilt. I mean, I Didn't design the blocks themselves ...Other designer's block patterns...but bringing all those different sized blocks, adding filler designs, etc. was all done by me. I learned a few things I would do differently now that I know the program a bit more. Short cuts I didn't realize etc. I have watched so many tutorials. Anywhoo...thought I'd share and will share picture of quilt with board when binded... I played more today designing a pattern for some ombré fabrics. So fun...