Behind the Mouse: The Electric Quilt Blog

The new ClubEQ Challenge is Red and White! ClubEQ leader, Barb Vlack, says: “Inspired by the recent very popular quilt exhibit in New York City, sponsored by the American Folk Art Museum, “Infinite Variety: Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts.” Let’s make a new collection of red and white quilts! Use only solid red and white to color the quilt. Do not reproduce a quilt from the exhibit, if you can help it. Design something new.” Each month Barb creates a challenge. No one sees each other’s work. They only see Barb’s example quilts. During that month anyone can send in an EQ project that fits the challenge topic. We create an album of images for everyone to view. Participants of that month get each other’s project files. So, send in a red & white quilt and get tons of red & white quilts back! Click here for more

The green man created quite a stir on Facebook when John Ellis posted the pic of his latest EQ design he was working on. Well a BIG THANK YOU to John. He’s offering to share his EQ7 project file with our users. Thanks John!

Thanks to everyone for submitting blocks for the April Block of the Month. It was difficult choosing from the 48 amazing entries from all over the world. This month’s winner is Mary Markworth. She submitted block #11: Congratulations Mary ! You’ve won a free Judy Martin Star’s & Sets . We will be contacting your shortly about shipping your prize. May’s block (May Merriment) is ready for your entries. Submit a picture of your May Merriment block before June 1, 2011 8am Eastern to webmaster@electricquilt.com for a chance to win a free Quiltmaker Quilting Designs Volume 4 software in June.

As promised here is BLOCK #5 of our 2011 Block of the Month on our blog. It’s called May Merriment. Deadline for submitting your block picture to webmaster@electricquilt.com for a chance to win is June 1, 2011 8am Eastern. Click here to download the EQ7 project for May. Use any fabrics you want! Use your favorites! Challenge yourself with a new color scheme! If you have EQ7, you can try out the colors before cutting the fabric for the block. Here are some colorway ideas: Download rotary cutting in this colorway. (PDF) Download rotary cutting in this colorway. (PDF) Download foundation piecing. (PDF) Download foundation piecing. (PDF) Download templates. (PDF) Download templates. (PDF) Download rotary cutting in this colorway. (PDF) Download rotary cutting in this colorway. (PDF) Download foundation piecing. (PDF) Download foundation piecing. (PDF) Download templates. (PDF) Download templates. (PDF) Sew the block and send your picture to webmaster@electricquilt.com.

Don’t forget entries for the April Block of the Month are due by May 1, 2011 8am Eastern. This month’s prize is a free Judy Martin Star’s & Sets software. A winner will be chosen on May 2, 2011 for April’s block. Get the pattern here.

Have you tried playing with thread in EQ7? It’s not just for changing the thread color on quilting stencils and embroidery. In the example quilt below you can see how the thread makes the block look different each time. (Click the image, if you need to see it larger.) top-left = original                               top-right = thread chosen close to patch color bottom-left = thick, black lines        bottom-right = contrasting, dotted stitch lines You can use this feature to change the thread color on blocks or entire quilts before you export images for example. If you don’t see the Set Thread tool on your toolbar, right-click the toolbar, choose Add/Remove buttons, check it to add it, and have fun playing.

Ever wonder where we get all those amazing fabrics for the palette of the month? Well they are just a portion (10%) of all the fabric scans available from the full STASH software program we produce twice a year. You are missing out on over 4,600 scans. We’ve been hard at work once again scanning thousands of swatches from the newest fabric lines about to hit the market. All the fabrics are cropped, labeled/notecarded, color-coded, category-coded, and grouped ready for you to view, search through, and use in your digital quilts. Update your EQ6 and EQ7 Fabric Libraries with the newest fabrics. STASH Spring 2011 gives you an all new collection of over 5200 new fabrics from 27 different fabric manufacturers — the best fabric in the quilting industry. Click here to view the lines included.