EQ8 lettering, photos and embroidery when you move

How EQ8 puts them on a quilt

EQ8 builds a quilt in three layers, and these three extras sit on top of the piecing:

• Lettering is made with the Set Applique Text tool, which works only on Layer 2. It uses the TrueType fonts installed on your computer, and once placed, the text becomes an appliqué block.
• Photos go on with Set Photo. On Layer 1 a photo fills a block; on Layers 2 and 3 it goes on at its own size and you move it with the Adjust tool. In the Sketchbook, Copy to Fabrics turns a photo into a fabric.
• Embroidery goes on Layer 3, which EQ8 keeps for stencils and embroidery. EQ8 can’t design or digitize embroidery: it shows designs from its library, or ones you import (Melco .EXP files, or transparent PNG pictures), so you can see them on the quilt.

All of it is saved in the project’s .pj8 file, with the rest of the quilt.

What happens when you open the file elsewhere

Most quilt design apps don’t open EQ8 files at all. QuiltLab, which does on its paid plans, says its import brings fabrics, pieced blocks and quilts; its pages don’t mention lettering, photos or embroidery, so try a copy of one file before you rely on it.

Here’s what Quarter Inch does with each, in the words of the report you get for every file. The counts are from 252 real EQ8 and EQ7 files, 384 quilts, read with the same reader that opens yours.

Exact means just as it was in EQ, drawn. Not yet means it’s kept safe in your original file, but we can’t draw it yet. Your original is never changed.

At the cutting table

Nothing EQ placed on top is quietly left out of the cutting chart. Each is cut, printed or stitched, and the chart says which:

• Letters are cut. Each letter is an appliqué template at true size, reversed for fusible when you want it, and its fabric is in the yardage.
• Photos are printed. At true size with the seam allowance, as many to a sheet of printable fabric as fit, ready to sew onto their squares.
• Embroidery is stitched. A page shows where each design goes, and the squares to stitch are cut large so they fit your hoop.

Curves

Curves that are parts of circles, like a Drunkard’s Path, come back as true arcs, exactly. Curves EQ drew freehand are drawn just as EQ has them. When you want to change one of those blocks, Edit a copy of its shape asks how its curves should come across:

• Smooth them into arcs: never more than 1/32″ from EQ’s, and you can bend them. Their templates get notches.
• Keep them as EQ drew them: exactly EQ’s shape. You can color the pieces, but not reshape the curves.

The copy goes in My blocks, and your quilt keeps EQ’s block until you place the copy in it.

If you change the quilt

You can make an EQ quilt bigger or smaller, or change its borders, and its lettering, appliqué and stencils stay as EQ made them. A change that wouldn’t leave them in place, such as appliqué under a new block size, is refused, with the reason. Changing an EQ quilt and lettering, photos, embroidery and curves from EQ explain what each part can do.

For every other part of an EQ quilt, see what comes across from EQ, feature by feature.