Happy Friday! Often on Fridays, I share refreshed versions of some of my patterns by recoloring them in new fabrics. Sometimes I feature a specific pattern and sometimes I feature a specific fabric collection. Today, I'm going to do something a little bit different and share a little about how I create those refreshed mockups.
Note: This post contains affiliate links. I may receive a commission if you click a link and make a purchase.
I use Electric Quilt 8, also known as EQ8, by the Electric Quilt Company. I use EQ8 to design all of my patterns and I use it to recolor those patterns in lots of different fabric collections.
I've actually used EQ8 (well, it was EQ7 back then) long before I ever thought about designing my own patterns. I had a ton of fun recreating other designers' quilts using the instructions in their patterns and then trying out different fabrics. Unless I was using the same fabric as the pattern cover, I almost never made a quilt without "making" it in EQ8 first.
While I enjoy sharing my refreshed patterns in other fabrics every now and then, you might want to try out your own fabric ideas before jumping into making one of my patterns.
With EQ8, you can try out almost any fabrics you'd like!
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| Metro in Stay Gold |
Let's say that you are thinking about making my Metro pattern in Ruby Star Society's Stay Gold collection and you are considering a dark blue solid for the accent. You create the quilt in EQ8, add in the Stay Gold fabrics, and while you like it, you're not quite sure about that dark accent.
You decide to try out a lighter accent and use a Ruby Star basic, Spark in Shell Metallic. You might decide that you like that better! Add back in some of the navy Stay Gold prints that you left out due to the dark accent and it just might be perfect! Without trying it out in EQ8 first, you might have moved forward with the dark blue accent and regretted it too late.
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| Metro in Stay Gold |
If you want to read more about using EQ8 to test out fabrics, you can read a blog post that I shared last year that goes into a little more detail. You can find that post HERE.
Another way that I often use EQ8 is to decide which pieces from a fat quarter bundle I want to use. There might be a particular color or print that I'm not sure about and I want to see how it looks before I start cutting.
One of my favorite collections recently is Hand Stitched from Figo Fabrics. There is one print that is sort of a reddish or dark orange and it really stands out among the blues, pinks, and yellows. Should I trust the fabric designer and use it, or will I be happier leaving it out?
With EQ8, I can be confident in my decision. Below is my Besotted pattern in Hand Stitched. I used 12 fat quarters instead of a layer cake because I don't think Figo Fabrics collections have layer cakes. I made a mockup that included the reddish orange print first.
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| Besotted in Hand Stitched |
It looks pretty good! But just to be sure, I switched the the reddish orange print for one of the prints I hadn't used yet.
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| Besotted in Hand Stitched |
I really like that too! I'm not actually making this quilt, but if I was, I'm really not sure which version I like better. If I was making the quilt, it would be a tough decision, but at least I wouldn't have to worry about ending up with a quilt that I don't like!
Sometimes a quilt will have sashing that is different than the background fabric. I always have trouble imagining what a particular color or print will look like as sashing for a quilt. EQ8 comes to the rescue again!
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| Good Fortunes in Cozy Up |
I originally used this blue text print for the sashing for this Good Fortunes quilt in Cozy Up by Corey Yoder for Moda Fabrics. I leaned towards the blue print because I had used blue in the cover quilt for this pattern.
But if I were to make this quilt in Cozy Up, do I really want to make another blue version or should I change it up? I definitely won't buy yardage without being sure! Maybe a low volume version would fit the bill!
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| Good Fortunes in Cozy Up |
I used another text print (I kind of have a thing for text prints!) but I went with the multi-colored text on a white background. I love how light and airy it feels!
So have I convinced you yet that you need EQ8 even if you have no plans to design your own quilts? If so, you might want to hurry because you can save 25% sitewide at the Electric Quilt website until the end of November (don't forget to use the coupon code shown on the website!)
If you're new to EQ8, you can find lots of information in the user manual and on the Electric Quilt website. You might also want to check out some other older blog posts that I wrote about using EQ8. You can check those out below:
EQ8 - Importing Fabric Swatches
EQ8 - Flip Flop Fabrics Quickly
That's all for today!
Until next time,
Amanda
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