May doodles

May already! “Birds Nest” is our chosen block for doodling and, following our tried and true Doodle traditions, here is the default colouring of the block in the EQ Library –

All very monochrome but lots of possibilities nonetheless –

Choosing to stay with the classic blue and white palette but ramping up the shade of blue –

Forward to the block settings where the changes really show up –

This reminds us very much of our beloved Minton tiled floors, so much so that we can feel a quilt coming on straight away!

We were about to fall down the rabbit hole of on-point settings when we had the brilliant idea that we could, just this once, suggest that if you tip your head either right or left you can get an impression of what on-point might look like. The usual quilt colouring sheet can be downloaded here to play with colourways of your own.

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April doodles

We’ve chosen “Bluebell” from the EQ Block Library for our April doodling – here’s the default colouring of this floral block –

This would be a great block to foundation piece with lots of options for graphic arrangements. Here’s just a few block colouring choices to start off –

On to multiple blocks! Begin with that default colouring with all blocks following the same orientation –

The urge to start twirling blocks around was too great to resist – the results were maybe slightly predictable but we thought they looked really good!

So we’re off to choose blue fabrics from our stashes. You can download a Bluebell quilt to colour here while you are deciding which arrangement to make!

Meadowside blocks

One of the blocks featured recently over on our Meadowside Designs blog was one called Thrifty – rather appropriate we felt in these times. It’s very simple – just lots of squares.

But you can make some interesting quilt designs with it by changing the lights and darks around

Then we thought what happens if you combine the 6 inch block from Meadowside with a 12 inch block? We called it Double Thrifty!

You can download the rotary cutting instructions for a 12 inch block here, for a 6 inch block from Meadowside Designs here and a Double Thrifty quilt to colour in and play with here.

Once you start moving the lights and darks around in a quilt design it gets very interesting indeed! As each Double Thrifty block is 24 inches you have a big quilt in no time at all. Here the quilts are set 3 x 3 instead of 4 x 4 (so 72 inches square instead of 96 inches) without borders.

To be very thrifty remember that you don’t have to use all the same fabrics throughout, just the same colours (more or less), so it worth hunting through the scrap bags to see what you can find.

Stellar Sampler

Last month our stellar sampler looked at Ohio Star and some of its variations and this month we continue that theme – one of the reason we love the basic block is that are so many ways to alter it, colour it and create a new (or new-looking) block.

One variation we looked at was Swamp Angel, but what if you split those corner triangles, or use a wide stripe? The resulting block is called Jacknife or Treasure Chest

Or you could split the outer triangles into a square and two smaller triangles and make Aunt Dinah – note too the change of colouring in the ‘star’ units

Or divide the inner triangle into two smaller triangles to make Mystery Flower Garden

Or split the corner squares with a thin strip from the inner to the outer corners – which makes a block called Old Snowflake

You can download the cutting instructions to make all these blocks at 12 inches and we have included colouring pages for each one as well – the colours shown above are the EQ default colours but there are plenty of opportunities to make these blocks your own.

September Doodles

The EQ Doodle this month has gone all autumnal with the oak leaf and acorn block.

This is the default colouring in EQ8 but over on our Doodle page you can find some other ideas and some ideas for quilt settings too.

How would you colour yours? Will you stay with autumnal colours or go wild with rainbow leaves? Download the colouring sheet and have a play.

Tile Tuesday

It’s so easy to get side-tracked!  Especially on, with or by social media.  Today’s Tile  Tuesday post presented itself via the Instagram account of David Wade (dav.d_wade) where we found many lovely things.  This is a screenshot from his account –

No, we’re not suggesting replicating this tile pattern in full but with a little time spent in EQ8 we came up with this interesting block taken from part of the pattern above –

But, if you follow the grid lines of the block, this is not terribly easy to piece.  Back to the EQ8 drawing board and there are 2 redrawn versions, both of which are much more pieceable –

Visit David Wade’s website – https://geometricism.com/  and be inspired and reminded of the breadth of his work. Our heads are still in a whirl!

Scrappy Sundays – EQ Doodles

November already and time for a new EQ Doodle post. Our block this month is based on an eight-pointed star and is called Checked X. Have a look on the Doodles page for lots of ideas for using this block in a quilt.

Over here on Scrappy Sunday we need to look at the quilt made with scraps – and in fact it does seem to work. This is just a straightforward 4 x 4 block setting. If you want to colour a quilt, or design your own then you can download a quilt to colour here; and if you want to make a block, or even a quilt, you can download the templates to make a 12 inch block here.

Scrappy Sunday – EQ Doodle

Its time to look at our September EQ Doodle and magically turn it from greyscale to glorious scrappy technicolor. Our block this month is Drunkards’ Pinwheel (download the templates to make 3inch units here) which in colour could look like this

Or you could use different shades of the same colours

or you could use lots of colour (or scraps!)

And then put them into quilts

You can download a quilt to colour here – print it out, chop it up, re-arrange it, colour it in, have fun playing with ideas and no fabric will be harmed!

Scrappy Doodle Sunday

Its July so a new EQ Doodle has magically appeared on the EQ Doodles page. This month we look at a simple on-point Autograph block. You can make these as ordered or not as you wish, keep the centre strip plain white for autographs, or just mix up the colours and have fun with it all.

Over on the Doodles page we have kept our ideas to greyscale but here on the scrappy post we can go a little mad with colour. In these examples we have kept the background triangles the same colour,  but used different prints; you could try mixing these colours up too and make other designs where the blocks meet.

Download a colouring sheet here to play with. The easiest way to make this block is not to worry about the finished size but to worry about the size of the strips – especially if they are to have autographs scrawled on them. Cut strips to a suitable width, join three together and then cut into squares. Add setting triangles to the four corners to turn the strip square on point – you can download an information sheet about how to do that here.

Scrappy Sundays – EQ Doodle

The May doodle is called Jungle Flower – a variation on Drunkards Path. You can download the templates to make a 12 inch block here. Over on the Doodles page we have just shown the block and possible settings in grey-scale, such as this one –

We have shown various possibilities for shading but not for colour and the quilts use the same – or at most two – shadings. So what could the blocks look like with a bit of colour added?

And if we used lots of colour, making each block different, and then put them together in a wonderful colourful scrappy quilt?

Download a quilt to colour here – and remember that you can print it out as many times as you like, cut it up, turn the blocks around and generally play with the possibilities yourself.