quilt designing second post

All of these images came from my limited knowledge of Electric Quilt 6. Click on any image to see a larger image. I choose a 4 patch block 8-inches square. There is method to this madness. I want to use up some more of the gingham blocks Mother had made and the next group is pink.

In this quilt design I decided to use the 4 patch in every other space and use a light pink fabric in the plain 8-inch square. The dimensions for the finished top are 64" by 88". Which is real close to the chart in All-in-one Quilter's Reference Tool book for a twin with a 12" drop. It's okay but what can we do with it.



Well no. 2 is a 4 patch for every block. Ah, no thank-you! Next!



No. 3 is a little easier on the eyes. What I did was rotate ever other block, but still not what I'm looking for.



No.4 back to every other block and added a 4-inch border. Nicer I could live with this. Wonder what sashing between the blocks would look like?



No. 5 no border, a 4 patch block in every square with 1-inch sashing and cornerstones. This is way better than No. 2. I think it could be improved upon though.



No. 6 same thing with a 5'' borders on the sides and 3.5'" borders top and bottom. Once again improvement but it still doesn't float my boat.



No. 7 added a second border sides 4" top and bottom 2.5". I could probably live with this. What else can we come up with?



No. 8 is a definite, wonder what that would look like. The 4 patch blocks and 1" border are the same size as the top of a twin mattress. The orchid border is the 12-inch drop. I would have to see this laid out on a bed before I could give it a yeah or nay.



Okay let's look at these blocks on point. No. 9 doesn't hurt my eyes, could be livable but it doesn't make me want to make it, as well as it is too small at 56.5 by 79.2-inches.



No. 10 has a border with 3.25" sides and the top and bottom at 4". The contrasting solid blocks also help a lot.



No. 11 this is what happens when you add green sashings and black cornerstones with 4 patch blocks to each blank square. More visual interest. I started to get excited here, this one is do-able for me. Would a border improve it?



No.12 this border is entirely too wide. It is not a multiple of the block. The multiples of 8 are 1,2,4,and 8. Borders and sashings that don't fall into multiples of a block tend to jar the senses.



This leads us to No. 13. I added 2 more borders to break up the one large one. The inside border of black is 1"; the middle border is 2". The outside border is actually 3" it looks pretty good to me so I would have to audition the last border before I cut and sewed it on. I would fold a piece 3" wide lay it against the quilt top and then a 4" piece to see what I liked best. I also figured out how to get the miter feature to work in EQ6. Yeah!



This is how I design a quilt. Lots of trying different lay-outs until I come up with one that I would like to put together. I'm sure there are easier ways to do design, I just don't know of them.

I like the last one the best so in the next post I will show you how to figure block sizes and how much fabric I'll need. Add then how to pick fabrics to complement the gingham I am working with.

Have a good day!

Judy

P.S. It may take me a few days to get back to the computer. The ground looks like it has dried up enough for me to get some gardening done. Judy