Quilters Creative Touch Gold Card Access Tutorials

Ready to learn more about Quilter's Creative Touch Gold Card Access level? In this quilting tutorial, we will dive deep into the different Gold Card features and tools and how to get the most from this computerized quilting software.

Concepts you will learn from this post:

1. Gold Card requirements for your QCT quilting software.
2. Overview of all tools added with QCT Gold Card.
3. How to use Pattern Eclipse and Multi-Pattern Placement

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We clip out the design by creating regions, then telling the software to either:

1. Keep In - This means the clip region is outlining the space inside which the design is contained. If we are quilting a donut, you would use "keep in" to quilt a design inside the donut hole.
2. Keep Out - This means the clip region will cut off the design and stop it from flowing into a space. If we were quilting a donut, this would stop the machine from quilting over the donut itself. This is very useful when background quilting and you want the design to not flow over your block or applique.

The more accurate you place the marks for the region, the more accurate your clipping will be. Sometimes Pattern eClipse will quilt over the clipped marks, which may mean travel stitching on quilting lines, edge stitching around appliques or stitching in the ditch. For this reason, you should always take your time with Pattern Eclipse and slowly create your clip regions with precision.

You also have a choice of selections:

1. Sew Continuous - This means the clipper engine will clip your design, but try to keep the lines continuous to minimize thread breaks.
2. Sew eClipse Border - With this selected, the clip region you create will be stitched on your quilt in addition to the design.

Play with these settings - you can turn them all on, or all off, and click "Apply" and "Preview" to see the effect. You may not see much difference in the quilting, or you may see a dramatic difference depending on the algorithm.

Note - if you really dislike what Pattern eClipse is giving you, click "Cancel" and return to the sew screen, then go back into Pattern Eclipse again (Plugins > Pattern Eclipse). Your clipped regions are saved within this screen and you may find the quilting path has improved. 

Because of the algorithm creating it, it's virtually impossible to recreate a clipped design exactly. If your QCT program shuts down while you are quilting, you can recover your last design by clicking "Plugins > +Recover."

In this video, we're using Pattern eClipse and Multi-Pattern Placement to quilt the sashing spaces of a quilt panel. By using both Gold Card features, you'll save time placing, clipping and quilting your designs.

Multi-Pattern Placement is a Gold Card feature that will significantly speed up the process of placing and quilting individual designs on your quilt.

With lower levels of the software, you must place and stitch one quilt block design at a time. This is time consuming and tedious.

With Multi-Pattern Placement, you can place all of the blocks that will fit within your quiltable space, then quilt them in the order they were placed.

Will the designs be continuous? - Probably not. Quilt block designs can have various starting points and for this reason, there's no guarantee your design ends will line up to connect from block to block.

Even if you do have thread breaks between each design, Multi-Pattern Placement will still be a time saver. You can focus on the quilt while placing all of the designs, then work on another project while they are quilted.

And yes, with practice, and with some designs, you could potentially place blocks, then marks to connect the designs into a continuous line. The more you understand the nuances of this computerized quilting software, the more you can do with it.

Your computerized quilting designs will only ever be as good as your placement. Here are some tips to help you place your designs accurately on your quilt top:

1. Place Designs within the Space - Do you want a little space between the edges of the block and the quilting design? How much space would you like to leave open? Leaving 1/4-inch gap around the seamlines ensures the design will fill the area nicely without overflowing into another space.
2. Stand Up Straight - What does your posture have to do with anything? If you lean on the rails of your frame while placing, you could be moving the quilting frame slightly. When you stand up straight, the rail will go back to normal position, and change the location of the quilt, and thus, the quilting design you just painstakingly placed.
3. Clear Off the Quilt - Just like leaning on your frame rails, resting a phone, ruler, or scissors on the quilt top can alter the placement of the designs if you were to move these objects off your quilt.  To ensure nothing changes between placement and quilting, keep the quilt free of clutter.
4. Have Plenty of Time - It may take 30-60 minutes to place 5 block designs with Multi-Pattern Placement and clip out with Pattern eClipse. Don't allow yourself to be interrupted or distracted before the design can fully stitch out. Give yourself plenty of time when quilting with these QCT Gold Card features.