> ~ Insights by SewCalGal ~

Monday, May 3, 2010

EQ6 Pieced Drawing (and insights on EQ7)




















I want to "shout out"  that the EQ6 Companion Books are excellent books for those that are EQ6 users, as well as future EQ7 users.  As such, I want to share insights with you on the EQ6 Pieced Drawing Book, and provide examples of how following the lessons in this amazing book are easy to follow and a great way to learn about the Pieced Drawing features in EQ6 and EQ7!    

The EQ6 Pieced Drawing Book, written by Patty R. Anderson, focuses on the Pieced Drawing functions of the EQ6 software.  To clarify, this amazing book provides far more in-depth insights on the Pieced Drawing functions than what is provided in the EQ6 User Manual.  It also provides a large number of exercises that are well written and contain great visuals.  I liked the variety of exercises and how the lessons are structured to such that you can easily stop, save your EQ6 (or EQ7) project file, and pick up the rest of the lesson at a future time, if needed. 

Chapter One provides insights and exercises to teach you all about the PatchDraw feature that allows you to create beautiful pieced blocks, such as Eight-Point Stars, Octagons, New York Beauties, etc. all using special grids and a click-n-snap feature.












Chapter Two provides insights and exercises to teach you all about the EasyDraw feature where you will learn to create Double Irish Chain Blocks, Tree of Life blocks, Drunkard's Path, Sawtooth Star, Pieced House blocks, Log Cabin Blocks and more.










Chapter Three provides insights and exercises to shows more advanced features of EasyDraw, where you'll learn merging, partitioning, staggering, deleting, flipping and rotating to create new blocks as well as edit existing blocks.  This includes learning to make a Giant Dahlia Block, Curved Geese Block, Mariner's Compass, Dresden Plate, Fan blocks, Winding Ways Block, Prairie Braid Strips, Wacky Cabins, Stars & Pineapples, and more!












Chapter Four provides insights and exercises for making 45 and 60 degree blocks, as well as learning how to create a ball with swirl effects and frame blocks with perspective. 












My conclusion is EQ6 Pieced Drawing, by Patti R. Anderson is a "must have" for any EQ6 user, or future EQ7 user.  It is reasonably priced and packed with well written insights and exercises that will help EQ6 & EQ7 users take advantage of Pieced Drawing features in their software, to design more spectacular quilts!

I have been going thru various exercises in the EQ6 Pieced Drawing book, performing the same exercise in EQ6 at the same time I perform it in EQ7.  This book clearly benefits both EQ6 and EQ7 users. 

While I'm still working on my Mariner's Compass blocks, in both EQ6 and EQ7, I thought the photo (below) would provide you an example of how this book can help in EQ6 or EQ7 to learn to the Pieced Drawing functionality of this software!















If you are familiar with EQ6, you'll find it an easy switch to EQ7.  While a few buttons may appear slightly different (e.g. design and color of the UNDO button has changed), all the knowledge you have in prior versions of EQ carries forward to help you in EQ7.














You will see differences in EQ7 that may not be addressed in the EQ6 Pieced Drawing Book, such as the "Tracing Image" feature.  But, this feature really doesn't have anything to do with the Pieced Drawing features found in EQ6 or EQ7.  Insights on the "Tracing Image", and other new features of EQ7 will be covered in the EQ7 User Manual.














Other new features in EQ7, like the Photo features, will also be covered in the EQ7 User Manual. Actually, there are 79 new features in EQ7 and they'll all be covered in the EQ7 User Manual. To clarify, the "EQ6  Pieced Drawing" book, along with all the other EQ6 Companion Books, will continue to be fantastic books that EQ6 and EQ7 users will want to have in their library.  They are all excellent tools to help expand your EQ skills.  And, SewCalGal definitely recommends the EQ6 Pieced Drawing book, by Patti R. Anderson.

You may also want to take advantage of a free lesson from this EQ6 Pieced Drawing book:    http://www.electricquilt.com/Shop/EQ6Books/imgs/SamplePiecedDrawing.pdf

I do hope you will pick up a copy of one, or more, of the EQ6 Companion Books soon.  I'm sure you'll also value these books for use in EQ6 and/or EQ7.  And definitely get a copy of EQ6 Pieced Drawing, as this is an amazing book for EQ6 and EQ7 users!


http://www.electricquilt.com/

2 comments:

Retrogirl said...

Wow! Thank you for the in depth review of this book. I'm thinking I could use a manual or two and am wondering about the applique version. If you've already reviewed, would you mind pointing me to it?
Thank you,
Heather

PS LOVE your barn quilt designs! Good luck with the contest =)

Linda said...

This is such a great post, especially with the diagrams you've provided for us. Thank you so much for doing this!