On Friday I signed up for a course from
Quilt University called 'More Patchwork Illusions' with tutor
Karen Combs. I'll be learning how to draw and piece a quilt giving the illusion of 3D. Today I settled down to draw some blocks and colour them in on isometric (triangular) graph paper which was great fun. When you join a Quilt University group you can join a discussion group with other students and your teacher and also upload pictures to a gallery. This is a great way to share what everyone is doing and to have feedback from the teacher - just like a face to face class! By the way: it's not too late to join this class which costs a very reasonable $36 (£22) for 4 weekly lessons - but you'll have to hurry!
After playing a while with coloured pencils and paper I had a play with Electic Quilt 7 as someone else on the course mentioned they were using it. I discovered you can create blocks which look like 3D cubes by choosing the 'Baby Blocks layout.
You can adjust the size of the quilt and drop blocks from the block library into the diamond shapes which make up these tumbling blocks just like any other quilt layout. You can also rotate or flip blocks and of course colour them in with different fabric choices. I love EQ7!
Here are some more blocks I played with:
This is all very well but I wouldn't know where to start to actually make a quilt with these designs. That's why I need to do the course!
I've added a link to my EQ7 project file on my Electic Quilt page - just click on the tab above to download the file. If you create more blocks let me know. I'd love to see them.
Now go and visit the
Quilt University website and check out the classes!
Beautiful blocks & what a wonderful way to spend Sunday.
ReplyDeleteHave done the previous course and knowing how to do the diamonds for the Baby blocks I can foresee some fiddly measuring and cutting never mind the accuracy of the seams required!
I'll second Hazels support of QU as I have now done at least fifteen of their courses as well as having had one of the teachers as a personal guest at my home
Oh that sounds like a lot of fun. What a striking quilt that would make.
ReplyDeleteExcellent post Hazel. I've had great experience with QU too, always at an amazing value. Glad you like this class. I was wanting to sign up but had too many things going on in this window. I hope they'll repeat it again. Love what you are creating and eager to hear more about this class from you.
ReplyDeleteI also want to let you know I'm working on creating a page to network quilters with modern tools:http://sewcalgal.blogspot.com/p/bloggers-with-tools.html
SewCalGal
www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com
They look great! I have played with that layout but never thought about putting a block in each segment! I wonder if it would take a long time to make a quilt with those blocks.
ReplyDeleteHi Hazel. I am in the illusions class. My class name is Carol, Ontario and my pictures come up as Carol Cann. I have figured out in EQ7 how to draw the cubes blocks and how to get the rotary cutting instructions to work for any size strip I want. I am not planning on sharing it with the class at this point, since I think it would disrupt her teaching techniques. But I thought you might be interested in what I have figured out. My e-mail is pewterandsteel@gmail.com if you want to chat about some techniques off line.
ReplyDeleteBTW York is one of my favourite English cities, have been there on a number of occasions. I grew up in York county in Ontario, which I would assume was named after your city.
Carol