Blog Anniversary Give Away #1

Announcing the first of several great giveaways for the month!


As many of you have guessed the first giveaway is your very own EQ7! I know everyone wants to get their hands on this gem of a program and here's how you can get in the drawing.

You must be a follower of Craizee Corners to enter, but you don't get an entry for that (I can check very easily), it's just a pre-requisite.

For your entry go to the Fabric of the Month page on the EQ7 site and vote for your favorite palette, then come back here and tell me which one you voted for. Simple as that...no jumping thru hoops with a bunch of ways to enter.

And while you are there why not check out the other fun things EQ offers to go along with the program.

This giveaway will end on March 13th at 11:59 PM. I will call Tyler the next morning and ask him to pick a number randomly for the winner, it only seems fitting that he be Mr. Random for this giveaway since it is his quilt, Floating Squares, that I showcased earlier. 

Thanks to the Electric Quilt Company for celebrating my blog anniversary with me! Be sure to check out my blog post on the Quilting Design Wizard
So get to voting and good luck!

My EQ7 Adventure

Yesterday Sally shared some things she came up with when playing around with EQ7 and today it's my turn.

One of the things I love the most about EQ7 is the ability to take the same block or blocks and manipulate them different ways to decide on what you like best.

When I was designing the Floating Squares Quilt for my son I knew I wanted to use bowties and 4 patches. I wanted it to be an easy pattern to make. But that was the only thing I knew. So I started out with every other block a 4 patch and every other block a bowtie. Then I added a little color based on what colors I know he likes. It was as simple as coloring in the blocks. There's this wonderful function in EQ7 that lets you color in all the blocks at the same time or every other block at the same time. So after a few key strokes here's what I had.

When I started out I had no idea this was how it would look but I knew I was onto something Tyler would like.

Another thing that is great about the software is that you can move your blocks in different directions very easily and you can change the blocks slightly. Here's a few ways I played with the design

Using connectors on all corners



Opposite colors

Different Colors

Girl colors



After seeing all these choices I knew which design I liked best and luckily Tyler agreed. The rest fell into place. I added 2 borders and had my design. I do my own quilt math since I usually make my blocks a little different, and this one was very easy.

I also knew that I wanted to make this in girl colors at some point (It's almost finished by the way).

Here's my finished quilt

Since Tyler goes to school in Baltimore I knew this had to be a warm quilt. I backed it with flannel and its very warm, he loves it. By the way it's not really crooked, I just didn't pin it on that side.

Stay tuned for my first giveaway announcement later today!

 

Quilt Design Wizard

A couple of weeks ago I contacted The Electric Quilt Company. I told them I was starting to design patterns and would love to test their product. They sent me the Quilt Design Wizard to try. I had never heard of this program, but I thought it would be fun to try.

The package came in 2 days, that impressed me. They get 1 star for that.




I was very excited about this new software to play with, but I had 2 quilts to finish so play time would have to wait. Fast forward 2 days and it was finally my time. The installation was easy and fast. Another star for that.

There's a bunch of videos to watch to help get you started. From choosing the layout of the blocks to printing it there's help there if you need it. These are short videos and took no time at all to zip thru them. There's also a Learn tab at the top that has step by step directions if you forget something. I find these helpful. Another Star.

Then I felt confident enough to see what I could design. I have been working on my second pattern and wanted to see it on the screen and see what this program could do for me. Here are the steps of quilt designing with The Quilt Design Wizard.

1. First you choose the layout for the quilt. There are 4 different layouts to choose from. All I have been working with so far is horizontal and on-point layouts, which are 2 of the 4 choices (the other 2 are medallions). You can also choose the quilt size, and the great thing is if you want to make a twin size quilt all you do is click twin size and it figures it out for you. You also choose if you want sashing and how big you want it and the block size you are using. The choices for block size are limited to 8", 9", 10", 12". But that can be changed in the 'tailor this layout style' drop down menu. I found the layout to have a lot of ways to customize your quilt...another star.

2. Now onto Borders. there are 6 different styles to choose from that can be tailored to whatever size you want. I know it seems like I am giving away stars like Craizee, but thats who I am.

3. What I was really excited to do is chose the blocks I will be working with. There are over 200 blocks all sorted by their types. There are also projects you can download from the Quilt Design Wizard web site. The new quilt I am working on is made out of bowties. For some reason this block is not in the database, although there are a lot of great blocks choose from. On to plan 2...designing another quilt, just for fun. Choosing another block was easy as putting it in the quilt. You can add the blocks one at a time, all at a time or to every other square. You have complete control over what goes in each square. You can also rotate or flip one, all or every other block.

4. Another fun part was choosing the fabric for the quilt. There are over 3000 fabric choices from solids to big prints. They might not be exactly the fabrics that you have but with 3000+ choices youi will get close enough to give you a good idea of what the quilt will look like. And like the blocks you can put fabric in 1 block, all or half. I like the control I have over the fabric and the ease of changing the fabric in the quilt. Star!

5. Then you are ready to print the quilt. Everything you need to know to make the quilt is available in the print function. You can print a picture of the quilt, yardage info, rotary cutting directions, foundation piecing or template design information. I found this the most helpful part of the process. I would give this part 2 stars if I could.

Here's the quilt I designed. I am working on a quilt for my oldest son and this is one idea. What do you think?

So you are probably wondering if I would recommend this program to you. If quilting is your hobby then this would be a fun tool to have. The $29.95 price point is very affordable. Its also a good 'stepping stone' tool for new pattern designers. The only think you are limited by is blocks, but they are adding more free blocks every month that you can download and the 200+ blocks in the library will keep you busy for a long time. Knowing the yardage needed, rotary cutting directions and a picture of the quilt design really helps and is well worth the cost to have that.

Now for some fun! The Electric Quilt Company has given me a Quilt Design Wizard to giveaway! Here's how to enter
You must be a follower of Craizee Corner, but you don't get an entry for that, it's just a pre-requisite.
For your entry go to The Electric Quilt Company's Project of the Month archives and tell me which quilt you would love to be able to make. There's a lot to choose from going all the way back to 2003.

Simple as that! Mr. Random will pick a winner on Saturday, October 8th.

Sha :)