Learning Loads at AQS Charlotte

I’ve been looking forward to this week ALL summer! This week Josh, James and I have taken off for Charlotte, NC to visit AQS Charlotte show and I think this has been one of our best vacations ever!

 I’m taking classes and it’s been loads of fun just focusing on being a student this week. Yes, even teachers need to learn and build new skills and this trip has been all about building new skills in arenas that I’m definitely interested in, but just haven’t taken the time to learn.

My first class today was with Barb Vlack on designing with EQ7. Just in case you’re not familiar – EQ7 stands for Electric Quilt and it’s a program you can use to design quilts, print templates, and calculate yardage.

I’ve had this program for more than a year, but never clicked beyond the starting screen. Does that sound familiar? Most other students in class reported the same issue! Taking a class on using this software was a great investment because it forced me to take a whole day, focus on just the program, and be patient while I learned all the steps.

There’s still loads I want to learn – like how to draw custom block sizes and applique shapes and quilting designs – but I got the basics down pat and even started laying out some old quilts that would be nice to have in pattern form.

It might not be much, and it certainly needs a bit of tweaking, but I feel like this is a huge accomplishment! I have to hand it to Barb Vlack for running such a great class.

She kept everyone on track and was infinitely patient with over 20 students and all our various computer skill levels. I wish I had more room in my schedule for more EQ7 classes, but for now I’m satisfied with understanding the basics and learning by trial and error from here.

It turns out Barb is the awesome creator of all the EQ7 challenges in Club EQ. If you really want to test your skills at the program you can design quilts or blocks for the monthly challenges and post them to the website here. It’s a great way to build skill and make amazing block and quilt designs!

Let’s go quilt,

Leah Day