July 4th is a holiday in the US. The EQ Company will be closed Friday, July 3, 2009.
If you’re ordering online, your order will be processed Monday.
For tech support, don’t forget to check the Frequently Asked Questions on our website and the forums.
Have a great weekend.
HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY! Are your hot dogs ready for the grill? Sparklers waiting to be lit? I think we’re all in the spirit for a little celebration so to kick off your Fourth of July weekend take a peek at Daphne Stewart’s 13 Stars and 13 Stripes quilt, featured in Quiltmaker this month. She designed this quilt in EQ5 and presented it to Quiltmaker back in 2004! Quiltmaker jumped on the chance to show case the quilt and now we finally get to see it in 2009.
Here’s what Daphne tells us about designing her quilt:
“I remember I started with the idea of a horizontal quilt, sort of like a rectangular flag. I had sewn a small flag with one star and scrappy red stripes in the days before I had EQ and I thought I’d expand on that idea. In that file, I had about 18 versions of the 13-star segment paired with horizontal stripes and thought I was making progress. But as sometimes happens, a “better idea” took over.
~ Daphne Stewart
Well it certainly turned out great, Daphne! Daphne says in the Quiltmaker magazine;
“I liked the way a simple change of color in the small stars creates a frame for the big star. Red, white, blue and stars - That’s a happy combination for me.”We agree!
Quilts hold a story
Each block tells a timeless tale
Of life’s great journey
by: Micki Butler
Our guest judge Gyleen X. Fitzgerald has selected 5 winning haiku. Congratulations to:
Carolyn Laukkonen
Micki Butler
Jacquelyn Jacobi
Arizona Lagousakos
Jodie Witherell
Each winner will receive a free Quilting Designs CD of their choice.
This was a hard contest to judge because your entries were all SO creative! Who knew you were as poetic as you are artistic?! See the winning entries, along with ALL the other terrific haiku here.
Special thanks to Gyleen X. Fitzgeral for juding the contest and doing the hard part! How did you ever choose, Gyleen!?
Flipping the pages of Irish Quilting Magazine I was stopped by the image of fabulous fabrics by designer Erin McMorris! Her new collection Wildwood is now available through Free Spirit Fabrics.
In our May Newsletter we told you about the ClubEQ challenge: designing with virtual swatches of the new Wildwood fabric line by Erin McMorris. And in April’s Newsletter Erin responded to the challenge, picking out quilts for special mention in our first-ever “designer feedback” for ClubEQ. (You can also read our interview with Erin from 2007.)
Julie Pieri of Erie Pennsylvania wrote us a while back to tell us about the quilt she had design in EQ6, Fly by Night. It was to be published in an upcoming issue of Quiltmaker… and while browsing through the July/August issue of Quiltmaker, there I found it! Vibrant and nearly glowing! Julie told us, “I love your software and can’t imagine designing without it!” Thanks Julie! We are so excited to see your work published so beautifully. Congratulations!
Julie tells magazine readers a little about how she works with color:
“I love working with color combinations and seeing how they play together - like blue and orange against black. I call this “Fly by Night” Because the corner blocks remind me of butterflies and the center looks like their flight path.”
This quilt and Peggy’s story was worth sharing:
This all started because I needed a challenge and a bit of discipline in my life. My better half, Jim, was going though some really difficult health issues and I needed focus. So DJ came into the mix.
The book that inspired the quilt is by Brenda Manges Papadakis “Dear Jane - The Two Hundred Twenty Five Patterns from 1863 Jane A. Sickle Quilt”. Also EQ has put out the Dear Jane CD and manual, and this makes doing this quilt a possibility of a finished effort. If not for EQ one would have to draw all the blocks and work out the math and she (DJ) would probably just find a corner or shelf and lay there forever unfinished. But with EQ you can create the original size blocks of 5″ to finish at 4 /12″ or make larger blocks. My effort is from my stash and all the 4 1/2″ blocks are different fabrics. The triangles on the borders are often repeats of fabrics in the blocks. I haven’t had the “want to” to find out just how many different fabrics I used, but maybe after it is quilted I will.
The first block was started on Jan 27th, 2008 and I finished the last triangle for the border yesterday on June 23rd, 2009. A lot has happened in this year and a half. I started marking in the book as I worked on the quilt, some notes of what was going on and where some of the special fabrics came from and who shared them with me. These are good memories to look back on. There was a long time when nothing was happening with the blocks, this is when Jim, my husband, passed away and so the world sort of stopped. But you can only put life on hold for so long and then it is time to get on with the great and wonderful future. So once again Dear Jane called and I started on the road to recovery and a finished project.
As you can see my effort is call Obscene, Insane Dear Jane and while it is not the traditional colors and fabrics of the period it is what soothed and fed my soul.
Peggy Raley
The results of the EQ Haiku Contest have been decided and will soon be revealed! But not without a little tease 
Janice Parks was one of the EQ Haiku contest entries we received. She went above and beyond by sending us a quilt that went along with her haiku and so we wanted to share it with you:
Computers EQ
Fabric stashes for many quilts
Favorite things
~ By Janice Parks
We received so many great haiku poems! We are excited to share them all with you. Look in your next EQ Newsletter for the winners!
Over the weekend The EQ women all gathered to celebrate another anticipated arrival… yes now I, Sarah Shriver, am pregnant… EQ baby number 7! My husband and I are expecting our baby girl named Ashtyn Elizabeth on August 3rd. The baby shower was beautiful and every corner was decorated but the highlight of the decor were the Peel-N-Stick onsies with Ashtyn’s name on them that hung above the fireplace. Yup, that’s Peel-N-Stick spelling out her name. It was so cute and what a fun use for the sticky fabric!
JoAnn sent us a quilt she made with EQ Printables and EQ. So fun! It’s a documentation of her trip to Alaska with her family. I hope it sparks some fun ideas for you all. Enjoy reading her story and thank you for sharing JoAnn
This was the first (and only so far) time we had ever been to Alaska and the whole time we were there all I could think about is how I could document this wonderful and beautiful trip in a quilt. I wanted to make blocks that would remind me of the beautiful sites.
All of the blocks were created in EQ5 - that was before EQ6’s time. The flower blocks are my interpretation of the Alaskan Fireweed and are paper pieced. We saw these all over and they were just beautiful. Of course I had to make a whale block, trees, fish and Mariner’s compass which were all paper pieced as well. The bear paw block was pieced using the rotary cutting instructions from EQ5 and the glacier is appliqued also created in EQ. The border shows the flying geese and the sun setting on the top right (which only set for a few hours during the summer while we were there).
I left empty spaces where I could applique photos from the trip. I love using EQ Printables. They always turn out so beautifully and stay bright and colorful. I own both an Epson and HP printer and both handle the sheets without any problem at all.
I also use EQ Printables for memory pillows and applique wedding/engagement photos for gifts as well as memory pillows for friends who have lost a loved one. They usually cry when I present it to them but they love the pillows.
I cannot say enough wonderful things about all the EQ products. I am totally hooked on EQ and don’t know what I’d do without it.
~ JoAnn Banks
Kathy Carlson recently installed her EQ6 and got to playing. She shared with us her design for a Barn Quilt that we thought was a really neat use for EQ! Kathy writes:
Thanks for writing Kathy!
We just wanted to tell you about this wonderful blog we were introduced to by Sindy. She sent us her blog link so that we could check it out and what a fun find! Her blog, Sindy’s Stuff, is filled with EQ projects and she even makes the patterns to her projects available to you! Visit her blog and then check out her FatCat Patterns site to browse all the PDF pattern downloads that you can take advantage of. To the left is one of her most recent patterns, Native Flair.
Thank you so much for sharing, Sindy!
Sindy will have a free “Mother Hen” project for EQ6 users in our July 2009 EQ6 Newsletter so if you don’t subscribe already, get signed up here.
If you are drawing a block in EQ and would like to paper piece it, here’s a quick note that may help that came from an EQ user’s question this morning. When you click File > Print Foundation Pattern, you may see the message “This block has a patch with an inside corner, so it cannot be automatically numbered for paper piecing.” This means there’s some spot in the block where foundation piecing it would be impossible. If you’d still like to paper piece it, find these spots in your drawing. Then extend lines from those spots to the edge of the block, or the next section and you’ll be ready to sew!
Can I just say, “I am sooooo EXCITED!” This mystery quilt has been a blast and I love seeing the pictures you’re sending.
Pat Huston just sent in this beauty:
She writes:
What a great surprise! I love it!
When the project was introduced it sounded like a good opportunity to not only add to my EQ skills, but also to use up some of the batik fabrics in my stash. Andrea kept warning that the project could get busy, and I should have listened to her advice. At first attempt to lay out my pieces I kept saying “too busy, too busy”. But, playing with the pieces was great fun - just like playing with a kaleidoscope as a kid. The center block from month one did not end up in the center at all. For June I chose a block called “Shoe String” which was much quieter and ended up being inserted in the middle round. In the end, I’m happy with it and could easily become addicted to making quilts this way. The possibilities are absolutely endless. Thank you for sharing your quilt with us, Andrea.
Oh Pat, you don’t give yourself enough credit. This quilt is amazing. Your lights and darks are really effective. I think you have a fun yellow-accent going on too.
Check out my previous post to see other kaleidoscope mystery quilts.
Want to make your own quilt? All you need is EQ5 or EQ6 and the Kaleidoscope Collection. Then follow the lessons on our website to get all the pieces needed.
We received an email from Sarah Moon of FabTalk who told us about an Amy Butler Softwares review she had written. We were flattered and blown away by how well she knew the program. She does a great job of explaining some of the different features and advantages to using the program and so we thought we’d share the review with you
Read the full review on the FabTalk blog! But here’s a little excerpt:
All-in-all, Softwares is a great value, even if you just make the projects as the come on the CD. For less than $30, you get more than 20 beautiful Amy Butler patterns. However, it’s really the added features that intrigue me the most–the ability to design and plan a project with a light-weight version of Electric Quilt 6, using inspiring Amy Butler fabrics. In order to get the most out of Softwares, you would be well-served to spend some time getting used to the way the program works, so you get really start working with your own interpretations of Amy’s designs.
There are also a couple of hidden gems in Amy’s sewing glossary and in the “inspiration” section of CD as well. The glossary has clear, easy-to-understand explanations of all the sewing techniques you’ll use for the projects on the CD. And I got lost (in a good way) clicking through the inspiration images–they made me want to break out the sewing machine and get started on a project right away.
Thanks for sharing Sarah!
At the beginning of this month we revealed the Mystery Quilt we started with the Kaleidoscope Collection.
Instead of just sewing blocks, we actually used all the triangles in an interlocking larger kaleidoscope pattern. It was a lot of sewing, but sooo worth it. Here is my quilt top:
Made by Andrea Bishop
We want pictures! We’ll do the “befores” and then in a few months after the border lessons, we’ll do the “afters”.
The quilt top below is made by Judy Best. She says:
I spent the weekend sewing up a storm and have my “wedges” done for the mystery quilt, I’ve attached a picture of the wedges laid out on the floor. You suggested using fun fabric so I did, starting with a pink, white and black stripe fabric that caught my eye and added to it a check, small stripe, pink print, tone on tone purple, dark pink and black. To make it more challenging some of the fabric was from my stash and there’s a limited amount but so far I haven’t run out, but getting close. As always, I have learned a number of things along the way and enjoyed speculating what the layout would be. I was amazed and delighted with the layout setting and the ideas for more quilts using this technique are flowing. I’m sure this project was a lot of work for you but you did a wonderful job and it is much appreciated.
Made by Judy Best
Judy, we love the checks and plaids and stripes you chose. It’s cool the way you alternated the mirrored blocks in row 2 to create dark and light pink V’s. I wouldn’t have thought of that.
Have you been sewing along too? Send us a photo of your mystery quilt to webmaster@electricquilt.com.
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