I have been using The Electric Quilt software (EQ8) to design my blocks and quilts for years now and am currently working with EQ as a Media Partner for a few months. I have been posting some short videos in my Instagram feed, and today, I want to share a quick tutorial. Last month, I was able to give away a copy of EQ8 courtesy of The Electric Quilt Company. I asked the winner what she’d like to learn! She loves paper piecing and was wondering how to adapt a block that is traditionally pieced for paper piecing in EQ8. Here goes!

First, I went to the Block Library and selected the Mosaic, No. 4 block to use as an example. I rarely piece anything traditionally, if I can paper piece it, simply because I prefer paperpiecing. When I look at a block like this, I immediately see seams that I do not need if I am paper piecing (provided I am keeping this color placement).

I clicked on “Draw” so that I could start making changes to the block pattern. Meanwhile, I opened a screen shot of the colored block in Photoshop so that I could view both screens at once. I needed to remember where the colors were placed so that I could decide which lines to erase.

I clicked on “Pick” and then on the lines that I wanted to erase and then selected “Delete.” The block was divided into four sections across and down. If you look carefully, you can see that I deleted all the horizontal and vertical lines that create the quarters, leaving the block divided into two sections across and two sections down. Learning how to section and number paper pieced blocks takes practice. Once you have sewn a number of paper pieced blocks, you start to understand. There is really a lot less piecing involved when paper piecing this block!

Next, go to “File” then “Print” then “Foundation Pattern,” and finally, choose the “Sections” tab. You will see this screen. EQ8 has already divided the block into sections for us. You can see that each section is represented by a different color. If the sections are not correct, or done the way you would like, you can check the box “I want to section & number myself without EQ’s help.” And then click “Start Over.” Then you would click on each piece that you want in one group and then the “Group” button. Repeat until you have all your pieces grouped in sections.

In this case, because the sections looked good as is, I selected the “Numbering” tab. The numbers all look ok as well. If you wanted to change them, you can select the “Change Numbers” button and redo the numbering order.

In order to print the foundation paper piecing templates, I then selected the “Options” button. I selected “Custom block size” and made my block 10″ wide and 10″ high. Under “Options,” I typically check everything for paper piecing. I want the numbers to print on my templates, I want the units separated for paper piecing, I want mirror images (in this case, it doesn’t matter since the block is symmetrical) and I want the block name. I named the block, by typing in the name at the top, next to the “Apply” button, where it said “Worktable Block.”

I then clicked on “Preview” and clicked and dragged my pattern pieces until they all fit nicely on the pages. Once that was done, I could print!

I hope that this tutorial has helped you!

If you are interested in purchasing EQ8, I would love to share my promo code with you. It’s EQ8AMYF and it will give you a 20% discount on all products found on The Electric Quilt website. The code is good through June only!