Snakes in EQ

It's not that I like actual snakes so much. I saw a garter snake on the patio this week. I admired his stripes and ran back in the house.

He looked like this example I found on line.

Two snake quilts from the 1930-40's

But I love to come across the quilt pattern because of the possibilities for rotating the blocks and getting such different effects. Electric Quilt on their Fun Stuff web page has taken some of my snake pictures and some of the snake patterns in BlockBase and combined them to do a lesson on pattern rotation. 

Click here to see "Playing with Snakes," their July lesson: 

http://www.electricquilt.com/Users/FunStuff/Lessons/July.asp

You could use this lesson for any directional block--- baskets, trees, Drunkard's Path....

BlockBase #700 Cactus Pot

#765.01 Tulip

#3307 Fan

#3340 Milady's Fan

#3346 Fan

But turning fans into snakes might be the most fun.

I recently saw this top on an on-line auction. It's a subcategory we tend to call rattlesnake today.

You can use BlockBase #3314 (or any spiky fan)

And color the blocks 3 different ways

Here's my post on snakes

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2011/04/snakes.html

See Marcia Kaylakie's post on rattlesnake quilts here:

http://www.texasquiltappraiser.com/rattlesnake-quilts.htm

And click here to see the ultimate rattlesnake from the Quilt Index
http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=4F-88-102

Here's one that was sold at auction from Jonathan Demme's folk art collection. Imagine what it looked like when it was new with all the backgrounds as red as the one surviving red on the right side. The border was once as green as the greens in the center of the quilt.

Digital Toys in Arnold's Attic

It's been fun waiting for my Arnold's Attic reproduction collection for Moda to arrive. It's scheduled to be in shops in August. I've been digitally doodling with my Electric Quilt and BlockBase programs and the swatches available on the Moda website.

The colors in the line tend to be earth colors: muted orange, brown and green with a lot of blue.

Here's a traditional Spider Web design that I found in my BlockBase digital library of patterns. The pattern was fairly popular about 1900, the time period we are recreating with the prints.

I found the pattern in BlockBase; transferred it to EQ (Electric Quilt) and recolored it with the new fabrics. 

If you have EQ you should try loading pictures of the individual prints into your color palette like I did. See the link to a tutorial below. What you want to do is save pictures of the prints as jpgs and then create your own fabric library.

An easy way to load pictures is to buy the EQ Stash program. The Spring 2010 edition includes Arnold's Attic.

After doing several mockups using BlockBase's traditional patterns I started thinking about doing a "Modern" quilt. I noticed Karrie Lyne's pattern for a quilt she calls Random Reflections on the Moda Bakeshop website. She's used 2-1/2" Jellyroll strips of Fandango fabrics plus yardage to create this strip quilt.

See her tutorial at the Moda Bake Shop by clicking here:
http://www.modabakeshop.com/2010/07/random-reflections.html#more

I drew her 10" blocks (36 of them) in EQ and filled in the strips with prints from Arnold's Attic. I turned it on it's side too.

One important part of Karrie's quilt is the solid contrast. She used plain white in hers.

Arnold's Attic doesn't have any solids.

I didn't whine, however. I realized that I don't need to have solids in every collection of fabric I design....

Because Moda has Bella Solid Basics. Above I used Rust (#9900-105)

I found some basic plains that coordinated with the prints but that were brighter or lighter to provide necessary contrast. This one is Figtree Olive (#9900-69). I love that Figtree palette and this color goes perfectly with the prints.

I tried 2 different shades of blue-green. The light one is Sage (#9900-35); the darker Dusty Jade (#9900-38). Karie designed this quilt to be made of 2-1/2" precut strips, Moda's Jelly Rolls, plus yardage.

If you are a digital doodler I suggest you do your planning by copying the Moda prints and plains into EQ. Click here to find out more about the Stash program that updates your digital drawings with the latest prints.

http://www.electricquilt.com/Shop/Stash/StashWEQ.asp

Here's an online tutorial about loading the jpgs yourself:
http://www.electricquilt.com/Support/FAQ/eq6FAQ/eq6_fabricLIB.asp#web

Here's where to find the swatches to save at the United Notions/Moda website:

For Arnold's Attic

http://www.unitednotions.com/jpg_arnolds-attic.zip

For the Bella Solid Basics

http://www.unitednotions.com/un_main.nsf/mf_basics

And here's where to find information about the Electric Quilt program, the BlockBase pattern library and the Stash fabric library.

http://www.electricquilt.com/

http://www.electricquilt.com/Shop/BlockBase/BlockBase.asp