Learning EQ7 - Part 2

Find a list of all the articles in this series on the Learning EQ7 Series page. The sidebar also has a link to the series page.

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Video 3 - How to Use the Libraries

Duration: 4 minutes, 18 seconds

Open a library by choosing it from the Libraries menu on the top menu bar. This opens a window where you view the library contents.

Categories are listed in a column on the left and you scroll up and down through the categories. Expand a category to display the styles it contains by clicking the plus (+) sign next to the name. For example, a few styles in the category Contemporary Pieced Blocks are: Fans, Houses, and Kaleidoscopes.

Items from one style at a time are displayed and there is a horizontal scroll bar to scroll through the items in the style. The name of the current category and style are displayed at the top right of the window.

To use an item in a design, you click on it and then click "Add to Sketchbook" to take it out of the library and put it in the sketchbook.

Video 4 - Using the Project Sketchbook

Duration: 5 minutes, 54 seconds

Once you have added design elements to the sketchbook, you can use them in your quilt designs. To add blocks to your quilt, first close the sketchbook.

In "work on quilt" mode, click the "Set Block" button on the right column. A window with the blocks in your sketchbook appears. Click on a block to select it and the outer border is highlighted. Then click on the quilt to set the block.

The top toolbar has 2 Sketchbook buttons. "Add to Sketchbook" has a big red arrow pointing up and "View Sketchbook" has a pair of glasses. Be sure to locate them because they are used frequently.

Tip: if you want to know what a button is for, move the mouse cursor so it's on the button and hover there. Information about the button will appear in the status bar at the bottom of the window.

When you click the "View Sketchbook" button the Project Sketchbook window displays. You choose between viewing the following items:

• Quilts
• Blocks
• Fabrics
• Colors
• Embroidery
• Photos
• Thread

The list is similar to the list of available libraries, except the sketchbook stores Quilts (i.e., designs) and the library has (quilt) Layouts ready to fill with blocks and fabrics to create a design.

To add fabrics to your quilt, click on one of the coloring tools in the right column. Choices are: Paintbrush, Spraycan, Swap All Colors and Eyedropper. The Paintbrush is the easiest to use

Clicking Paintbrush displays the default palette of fabrics that are always available to use. Use the scrollbar at the bottom of the fabric palette to scroll all the way to the end and find the fabrics you added to the sketchbook. Click on a fabric to select it; then click on a patch on the quilt design to set the fabric in the quilt.

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So far, the EQ7 videos have covered basic concepts and functions of the software. All very simple, yet incredibly important to understanding how to design with the software.

I only did very simple designs in EQ6. I used a couple of blocks from the library or drew my own very simple block. I used the default palette of fabrics. I knew you could add more fabrics to the library, but I never took the time to figure out how to get more fabrics into my design!

These videos make adding more fabrics to your sketchbook so you can use them so clear. I added blocks to my EQ6 sketchbook. I don't know why it never occurred to me to add fabrics from the library to my sketchbook. I feel like a bit of a dunce.