More Blocks and Playing with EQ7

I finished up my Friendship blocks on Tuesday. This pattern is Mississippi Mud, Mary Huey's version of the Mississippi block. These blocks are for Laura who gave us the fabric squares already cut. All we had to do was the construction. My favorite quilts are scrappy quilts with many colors and as many different fabrics as possible but I love this done in batiks. It has a more cohesive look and a much more sophisticated character. I am not sure if the whole quilt is blue or if other people had other colors.I missed the meeting last month so I didn't  see what everyone else had. 

 Mary Huey used to own a local quilt shop and taught this class in her shop. I seem to be the only one of my friends who never made this quilt. I may remedy that in the next year.

I have been playing in EQ7 with ideas for my black and white and red Basement Diva challenge, these are two photos of my computer screen with 2 layouts. None of the fabrics are what I will actually use but rather they represent value and color. You can check my post here on the Basement Divas  blog to see what I have settled on as my challenge.

I play in EQ with every quilt I ever make even the very simplest ones. It helps me understand the cibstruction or work out the construction problems.  I am able to see how changing something, maybe adding a line or eliminating a line might change everything. Maybe changing the value placement will make a difference. EQ helps me estimate yardage which was always a big deal for me. It also sparks my creativity. After I play on the computer for a while and have a pretty good idea of what I want to do, I start working with the fabric and of course everything changes.

None of my ideas are cast in stone and when I am working with the fabrics on my design wall I see new possibilities. I am already thinking that this may lead to another series. We'll see how it goes. Right now I am thinking that constructing this will go smoothly. If it doesn't, I will have to decide if there will be a series .