Three Ducks Shopping Cart - Officially Retired!

I have just flicked the switch on the Three Ducks Shopping Cart - it is now history! It is a sad, but I have had months to prepare myself and now I am more than ready to move on.

I am grateful to one and all who took advantage of the great sale prices during this last week's liquidation sale and I can see those orders beginning to arrive through my Canada Post delivery notices. You have some beautiful Jo Morton fabrics coming your way. I, too, have a nice collection as what remains now goes into my own fabric stash - bonus!

EQ 7 & EQ6: Part I - Designing a Block

(This tutorial was originally written after the release of EQ6, however it can be applied to EQ7 since this newest version of The Electric Quilt Company's quilt design software is built upon EQ6. The tutorial first appeared on the Three Ducks 'Home' website.)

The Electric Quilt Company does a thorough job of listing all the wonderful features of its new Electric Quilt 6 design software and I see no need of repeating that information here on the Three Ducks site. Instead, I thought I would take you on a tour of EQ6 while I design a small quilt. In my pre-EQ days, I made a wall hanging that I was quite pleased with and I had the chance to visit it recently and I still like it very much. So, please grab a cuppa and join me as I reproduce that quilt using EQ6.

A new feature in EQ6 is the 'Tip of the Day' that appears after the opening splash screen. A new tip appears each time you open the programme. Don't skip them. They may not make sense right away but will as you use EQ6.

EQ 7 & EQ6: Part II - Designing a Quilt

(This tutorial was originally written after the release of EQ6, however it can be applied to EQ7 since this newest version of The Electric Quilt Company's quilt design software is built upon EQ6. The tutorial first appeared on the Three Ducks 'Home' website.)

I am ready to begin designing my quilt now that I have constructed its main block. To start, I clicked on my EQ6 desktop icon, read and closed the 'Tip of the Day,' clicked the 'Open an existing project' tab on the project helper and clicked on my 'West Coast Blues' project and clicked 'OK.' What immediately appears next is my project sketchbook above. Every project that you start in EQ6 will have its own sketchbook that will hold your block designs, quilt layouts, fabric choices, etc for that particular project. The buttons on the left are the different sections in the sketchbook with the bottom three being new to EQ6. The programme now has a large library of embroidery images from Cactus Patch, Pfaff and Viking. These are only images though and you still must purchase the patterns from the manufacturers. With the 'Photo' section, EQ is addressing the popularity of using photo images in quilts. You can now import your photos and store them in your sketchbook or use a small selection of photos in EQ6's library. The 'Thread' section will hold your colour choice of embroidery and quilting threads that you choose from the thread library. All the major thread manufacturers and their most popular lines are available.

EQ's BlockBase

This is BlockBase user interface when you use the programme on its own outside EQ's quilt design software (EQ7/6/5). Here you can research a name or a block's printing history, look for a block that you vaguely remember from your grandmother's quilt, seek blocks within a theme or patch size, or explore and then dream of a quilt to be.

EQ's BlockBase - Linked to EQ7/6/5

(First posted on the original Three Ducks website, this tour of EQ's BlockBase was written using EQ5 design software. However, the information will also apply to both EQ6 and EQ7.) 

The beauty of the BlockBase programme is that it can be used on its own or it can be linked to the EQ5 software programme. When linked to EQ5, BlockBase is accessed through the Block Libraries and the screenshot below shows you where BlockBase appears within those libraries.

Once linked, you can now use BlockBase as any other library within EQ5 and I will now show you how I found a perfect block for my imaginary doll quilt. I needed a block to fit with a four patch already in my sketchbook and so that is the category I went to in BlockBase. From the subcategories, I decided 'Block is a Star' might offer up something interesting and the block I chose is highlighted in green. According to Barbara Bachman's research, this block appeared under the name 'Optical Illusion' in the Farm Journal, a publication established in 1877.