Printing Tips

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Be sure to visit our tutorial page for more help.

How can I avoid having the ink set when I mark my quilt?

Spray your quilt with starch before marking it. The marks don't "set" into the fabric, but sit on top of the starch. By the time you've finished quilting, the starch has softened.

How do I make Quilt Stationery?

There is another way to work with EQ and your word processor for quilt stationary. Make a quilt layout with a large blank rectangular center and a border of rectangular blocks. Place your quilt blocks in the border. Take a snapshot of this quilt making it into a bmp. Go to your word processor. Type your letter. Place a text box or frame around your letter. Insert your quilt bmp into the text box. Send this behind the text and scale it so that it isn't covering your text.  If you are using Corel Word Perfect, use the "watermark" option. 

In the sketchbook, highlight the block and click on edit.  With the block in Patch Draw or Easy Draw, go to the Select Tool and eliminate all of the pieces of the block that are repeat pieces. .

If I use the "Big & Little Point Out" border, how do I get the measurements for the triangles?

Try setting an X type block with only one section colored.  Rotate the block so only one color is showing. The rotary cutting instructions for this block will give you the cutting instructions for this color.  

I rotated several blocks in a quilt, but when I printed the quilt, they rotated back! How can I correct this?

EQ doesn’t recognize your rotated blocks when you print an outline drawing of a quilt. So trick it, by coloring your whole quilt white, then choosing the printing option "showing fabrics." You'll get a printout of a white quilt — therefore an outline drawing -- with blocks rotated. Your printout will not unrotate your blocks as you had before with Outline Drawing. .

Metafiles

To import your block into a word processing program (Word, Word Perfect) or drawing program (Corel Draw, Illustrator), here are generic instructions.

Draw your block in EQ.  From the block worktable click on File/Export Metafile. You will need to enter the correct size of the block in EQ otherwise it will revert back to the EQ default.

Click on Save as Metafile. Import the new file to your program (usually File/Import or Insert/Graphics).  Click on the drawing with the pick tool and click on the ungroup button or choose Arrange/Ungroup (Ctrl+U). Depending on the program, you may have to double click on the drawing and chose from those options to pull the individual sections apart.   You can color them and add comments with the text tool. Seam allowances can be added in Corel Draw using the Effects/Contour tool.

More Metafiles Help
(Excerpted from the tutorial at Piecepatcher)

Exporting a Windows metafile is possible from the Block worktable only. When you click on the Export Metafile tool on the Projects toolbar, a dialog appears with options for saving or copying.

• Save as a Windows metafile 

Choose this option to display a dialog for naming the file. The snapshot will be written as a Windows metafile with the name you give it. EQ will automatically add the three-letter extension emf.

• Copy to Windows clipboard

When you choose this option, the snapshot is copied to the Windows clipboard. You can then paste the snapshot into any Windows application.  Open the publication or document you want to paste the file into and choose Paste. The default keystroke for most Windows applications is Ctrl+V.  This type of file displays an image using lines, arcs, rectangles, ovals, etc. In EQ, you can export a metafile for a block, but not a quilt. The  file created consists of the line drawing only, not the colors or fabrics that may be in the block. When you place the file in another application, you can manipulate it by pulling apart the block one patch at a time. 

Windows metafile format is understood effectively by many graphic, illustration and word processing programs although some applications may be happier manipulating the image as a single unit than as individual patches.

How do I use Metafiles in WordPerfect?
(Excerpted from the tutorial at Piecepatcher)

1. With your block on the Worktable, export the block(s) as a metafile from EQ. The button looks like a hot air balloon. You can specify the size, or just choose something arbitrary for now and you can resize it in WP to fit in with your text. Choose Save as Windows metafile. Add a name for the .emf and remember _where_ you save it! The click Save. NOTE: Enhanced metafiles export as blank blocks, but you will be able to color it in WP, and for handouts, gray-scale will work better for copies anyway.

2. Open a new document in WP, or open the file of the document to which you want to add the quilt graphic. Click on the Insert Menu, and point to Graphics and click on "From File". When I do this, it automatically goes to the WP ClipArt file, so I have to navigate to the folder to find the .emf I want. By default "All files" is in the Files Type box, you can change this to EMF if you want, but it's not essential. To navigate to find your file, click on the down arrow beside "Look in". Once you find your file, click once to highlight it and so that the name appears in the File Name box. Then click Insert. The graphic will be added to your page. You can move the graphic anywhere you like when it's highlighted (Edit mode).

3. Now for taking it apart and other good stuff.... Double click on the quilt block graphic to go into Drawing Mode. All the wonderful graphic, paint and text box tools will appear. The frame around the block changes to rulers and an outside frame with little black squares. Grab one of the corner squares and enlarge the work area, so you'll have room to take apart the block. Point & click at the part of the block you want to move, and then move it (duh). EMF automatically has made each part of your quilt block a closed shape. If you want to keep things neat and tidy and even, turn on the Snap to Grid. If you can't spot it on the tool bars, look in the View menu under Grid/Guides/Snap.

4. You can color your block pieces before or after you take it apart. You can add text. In vers. 9, I choose Text line (as opposed to a Text box) to add lettering to the blocks or something like Figure 1, etc. You can change the lines, you can add fill texture and color, you can draw more "stuff" like dotted lines to indicate stitching, you can add arrows, shadows, shapes....and on and on.....

5. Once your done editing your block, resize the work area to enclose your finished quilt block graphic so that it will take up as little space as possible on your page. Click off the block anywhere, and then move the block to where you want it on the page. Click off the block again to return to typing your document.

Other hints:

Copy & paste.

If you want to show piecing a block in stages, just copy and paste the .emf after clicking ONCE on the block graphic, then edit each one as needed.

Word wrap.

RIGHT click on the image and select Wrap from the menu and choose how you want your text to wrap around the image. The default is set on Square/Both sides. There's lots of other choices, depending on where you place your graphic in your document.

How can I change the colorway of a print?

Click on the paintbrush to get the box that has the colors and the fabrics in it. Click on your print, then RIGHT click on it again (the small version, not the one in the larger window). Click on Add Colorway. You will see 2 boxes under the fabric sample that comes up. Click on the arrows under the boxes.  You can watch the changes as you click through the possibilities.  This even works with multicolor prints and Designer fabrics. Click on Add, then Close. The new fabric will be at the end. 

first click on a block on Layer 1, 2, or3 with the Select tool (arrow).  Then click on File / Print.  There, for Size of Block, you would click on the box  next to Size from quilt, and your block will be printed out accordingly.

How do I get the templates for a block in the border?

You can print a template for a full block set into a border just by clicking the Select tool, clicking the block, and choosing "Size from quilt" rather than typing a block size in the print dialog box.

How do I Print Many Small Blocks?

First make sure you saved your block after you colored it.  Click the right arrow button under the block preview window in the "Print Block" window so that you can see the block in color. You may have the click the button a couple of times to bring up the block coloration you want to print. Once your block appears in color, the "Show fabric" options becomes available for selection under "Printing Style". Just click the circle to select this option and then click the "Print" button. Your block will print in color.