Craft University

Imagine my surprise when Craft University sent me a request to try one of the many classes offered on their site.  I am a huge fan of online classes, and have taken many "artsy" classes.  So of course I said yes!  and the hardest part was choosing which class to take....there were so many that tempted me.  I made a list of the ones I thought I would learn the most from, then narrowed it down and decided to take Design Quilts with EQ7 and Nancy Mahoney.  It was the perfect fit for me, even though I have used EQ since it first came out.  Recently, I had purchased the EQ7 and I knew there were so many things I wanted to learn to continue using it.

First off...Lesson 1, pretty much the basics.  But I took it anyway and was tickled with all the things I learned!  So if you take this course, do not skip ahead!  In this lesson, a simple horizontal quilt was made, as well as learning to add fabric to the fabric library.  This was very useful to me, as I design quilts for magazines, Island Batik, and I am a Moda Bake Shop Chef.  This enables me to place the fabrics I plan to use in my quilt and decide which I like best, then send the mock up to the magazine or to the fabric company.  The rest of the lesson dealt with sashing, recoloring, using the symmetry tool...one of my favorite tools!

Here is the horizontal quilt I designed in EQ7, lesson one.

A simple block such as Mosaic #5 colored in with Olive's Flower Market from Moda.  The fun is in the coloring, and all the possibilities of such a simple block design.  I was able to add the fabric to my library of fabrics and see how the quilt would look.  I can spend a lot time just playing with the coloring....my very own adult coloring book!

Love playing with a simple block and the Symmetry tool.  Very fun!  Using this block I was able to create many quilt sets.  Here are a few...and all use the same block.

So how much fun is this?  And this is only lesson one!  Each lesson runs 45 minutes up to an hour.  Nancy is very easy to listen to and explains every step very well.  The great thing, is I can stop the video, go design in EQ7 with the material she has covered, and come back and continue or rewind if I need to.

I don't want to overwhelm you today, so come back tomorrow to read about Lesson 2.

grace and peace....Sharon