'Baltimore Album' from Three Ducks on a Roof

 
 

Classic Appliqué
Patterns for EQ Software

Baltimore Album

 

It would not be a surprise to learn that today the most cherished and sought after antique quilts are Baltimore Album quilts. These intricately and densely appliquéd works of art were the ultimate testament to a quilter's design, composition, and needling skills.

This CD collection brings to you 160 Baltimore Album block patterns from 1846 to 1852, the span of years this amazing quilt style developed in Baltimore, Maryland.

As with the Folk Art Album, this EQ Classic Appliqué CD is an EQ5 software add-on and its blocks can only be accessed through your software's Block Library once the CD has been downloaded.

Here is my Block Library. As you can see, the Baltimore Album blocks have been downloaded to a new Classic Appliqué Library. Following the Baltimore Album is my Folk Art Album. You may also notice I have BlockBase in my Block Library and this incredible resource is explained elsewhere on the website.

Now, after I downloaded this CD, I decided to give it a test run. I clicked on the Complex Bouquets category and clicked on the lower right hand block which is why it is highlighted in green. I then clicked on the Copy button below the block and the block was placed in my Sketchbook. In the Sketchbook, I clicked on the block and then clicked on the Edit button and the block was placed on my Block Worktable.

I decided that this block was a tad too complex and since it is a PatchDraw block I could easily remove pieces from the pattern. To do this, I first clicked on the Select tool (the arrow button at top of the right -hand toolbar) then I clicked on the patch and it was highlighted by a dotted box. I then clicked the Scissors tool at the top of the left-hand toolbar next to the drawing and the patch was 'cut' or 'deleted' from the drawing. I did this with all the pieces I wanted to remove.

This is the beauty of the Electric Quilt Company's products: once the blocks are accessed through the software you can truly make them your own. After I finished deleting, I then clicked on the Colour tab and proceeded to 'paint' my block with my chosen palette of fabrics. I think my block looks quite nice, don't you?

As this is an appliqué block, I was given only the template printing option when I clicked the printer icon on the far left toolbar. When I clicked on this option, the print window to the left appeared. After setting my block size, I clicked the Preview bottom and with the resulting window I proceeded to show EQ5 how intelligent I was. You see EQ5 is smart but not that smart and offers a template for every piece that is in the block! It is up to you to whittle the number down.

Here are the templates I chose to print. There are likely a few extra circles but I lost count and since I did reduce everything to two pages I was satisfied. That red circle was the last template piece I moved and the blank sheet of paper will be ignored by the printer.

This is but a cursory glance at how the Baltimore Album Blocks CD functions within the EQ5 software and I hope I've given you an inkling of the potential that exists with this wonderful EQ product.

Happy Quilting
Anita

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