Behind the Mouse: The Electric Quilt Blog

Hello Villa Rosa Designs followers! You’re here because today is our day to post in the Villa Rosa Blog Hop! Villa Rosa Designs creates “Fast & Fun” quilt patterns featuring pre-cuts like 1/2 yards, fat quarters, 10′′ squares, 5′′ squares, 2 1/2′′ strips, fat eighths, and fat sixths, as well as other fabric cuts, including panels. Tricia Maloney, known as the Orphan Quilter, who formats all of the Villa Rosa Designs, uses EQ8 for each one, and designs her own patterns in EQ8, too! EQ8 Giveaway AND other fabulous prizes! There are wonderful prizes available from the various sponsors for this blog hop, including a set of cards, fabric, patterns, notions, and other goodies! For our part, we’re giving away one EQ8! To be eligible for any of the prizes, please click on the Enter Giveaway button, fill out, and submit the form by Sunday, March 24, 2024. We will

I am desperate for spring to come.  I am tired of the gray and cold of winter.  Since I can’t change the weather, I will use my EQ8 to brighten my day by creating my spring quilt pillow design. Launch your EQ 8 program, make a new project, and name it ‘DESPERATE FOR SPRING’.  Click OK at the bottom of the box. Thinking ahead, I want to depict both the gray colors of winter with the bright first colors of spring flowers blooming.  I can accomplish this by using my EQ to create my fabric for the background and then adding applique fabrics to the foreground to show the contrast between the darkness and brightness of the days. The first step is to create the gray background fabric that I want to use.  I will use the EQ patterns in the library to design my fabric.  At the top of

We’ve recently added some new employees and so we had a quilting class (taught by Jenny) to make sure we all know how to quilt! (And maybe infect some newbies with the quilting bug ) For even more fun we thought we’d make the blocks from our sewing class into a sew-along! If you’d like to sew along with us and get more details about the project, check them out here. Each month, we’ll feature one staff member and their block in the quilt. This month we’re featuring Ben! Ben writes code for improving EQ software products and he’s been here about three years.  Ben says he likes working at EQ because of the people! “The team here were so welcoming when I started and continue to be a joy to work with.”             Ben hasn’t sewn much before. He said, “I’ve only patched some holes and put a button

Now that everyone can purchase EQ add-on downloads, we wanted to highlight two of our European designers! Annika Kornelis The first designer is Annika Kornelis from The Netherlands. Annika has a fun blog where she writes about quilting, in general, and her quilt designs created in EQ. The blog is named Stof Genoeg, which is Dutch for “plenty of material,” though I’m guessing she always has room for more! Check out her New Year’s EQ8 quilt design, Fantasy Chinese Dragon, made up of simple quilt blocks. When asked how and when she got into quilting, here’s Annika’s response. “My mother got into quilting when I was a girl, and she still quilts at 86! Out of her five kids, I am the only one who was interested in learning to piece and quilt. I sewed a log cabin block when I was 10 years old. Even when I was a

Two classes are already full! Have you saved your seat at EQ Academy yet? If you’re new to EQ Academy, we can’t wait to meet you! Here’s what you can expect… 1. Learning! EQ8 classes are offered Thursday, May 2, Friday, May 3, and Saturday, May 4. You can come for one day, two days, or all three! There are half-day classes and full-day classes to choose from. Take a class that’s based on quilt style like, New York Beauty Quilts, Medallion Quilts, T-Shirt Quilts, and Non-Traditional Quilts.   Take a class based on a technique or feature like FPP Block Drawing, Design with EQ8 and AccuQuilt GO, and Adding Photos and Fabric to EQ8.   Want a quick beginner class? We’ve got a half-day Intro to EQ8 Quilt Design class on Saturday!   2. Fun! We kick off the fun right away! Upon arrival to EQ Academy, you’ll be

Welcome to the EQ8 Block Spotlight! Each month we highlight a block from the EQ8 Block Library with a few design ideas. Then we want you to show us what you can do with the block. We hope these posts will inspire you to try something new and expand your EQ skills! This month’s block: Simple Design Where to find it: 03 Foundation Pieced > Flying Geese Design ideas to spark your creativity Using the Simple Design block as a guide, I drew another simple block to pair it with. I edited the Simple Design block to the worktable and then converted it to guides before drawing my new block. This helps me know I’m drawing something that will work well with the original block. I alternated the two blocks in a 4 x 4 horizontal layout and then used the Symmetry tool to find this rotation of the blocks.

Thank you to everyone who participated in last month’s design challenge! So many creative designs were shared, and we loved hearing how everyone expresses their voice! View all the beautiful quilts submitted here. Winners Two winners were selected by collection designer Scott Flanagan! Congratulations to…. Winner 1: Jodie Solorio “It grabbed me right away and love how it looks like a mosaic floor.” – Scott Flanagan Winner 2: Jenny Hull “I love samplers and flying geese and this makes a striking looking quilt!” – Scott Flanagan Honorable Mentions Don’t forget to look at all the amazing submissions to this challenge. Here are a few honorable mentions! More Chances to Win Ebony Suite by Barbara Brackman for Moda is March’s Fabric of the Month! Download the collection and enter in our design challenge for another chance to win some fabric!