Behind the Mouse: The Electric Quilt Blog

One of our new friends, Brett Lewis (you may know him as Natural Born Quilter!) has a super fun fabric collection with Northcott called Stag and Thistle! You can download the fabrics (and coordinating Colorworks Solids) for EQ and participate in our design challenge! One lucky person will receive a fat-quarter bundle of Stag and Thistle and coordinating Colorworks solids! EQ Design Challenge & Giveaway To Enter Design a quilt in EQ using Stag and Thistle fabrics and coordinating Colorworks Solids then submit an image of it by 11:59pm ET on April 30, 2020. (Instructions for how to submit an image are at the bottom of this post.) Download the free Stag and Thistle fabrics (and coordinating Colorworks Solids) for EQ here Rules Your EQ Quilt must only use Fabrics from Stag and Thistle and the coordinating Colorworks Solids. One entry per person. (If a second entry is submitted within 24 hours of the original entry, we

An EQ8 feature you may not know about is Photo Patchwork quilts. The style of quilts made with this feature is sometimes called pixel quilts. There are not many steps to create a Photo Patchwork quilt in EQ8 but to get results you like you may need to do some experimenting and try out different options. The first quilt we are going to create is based on a block I drew in EQ8. You can use any image you would like. Here are a few options.If you would like to base a pixel quilt on a block… Open the block to your Block Worktable Click the PRINT & EXPORT tab > Export > Image Name and save the file or, you can use my example… Right click on the block below Choose Save Image As… Name and save the file Click Design a Quilt from scratch Under NEW QUILT click

Welcome to the DESIGN AND SEW ALONG WITH YVONNE Lesson 5.  This is the final lesson in this series.  We will add a block border to our previous blocks and explore how the EQ8 program helps us to accomplish this.  I often do not think of a border until the center of my quilt is constructed.  This way I can try out different border options to see what will work best with the center blocks I have designed.  Instead of posting our blocks to the blog page at the end of this lesson, I am asking that you post the image of your completed quilt layout for others to see. Launch your EQ8 program from your desktop. On the opening page, click on ‘open an existing project’ and navigate to your DESIGN AND SEW WITH YVONNE project. Confirm that you have your project open by seeing the title of the

Did you know that EQ8 has placemat options already built into the program ready for us to personalize and use for our favorite festive occasions?  It makes designing and sewing these mini-projects really quick and simple. Launch your EQ8 program from the desktop. Click on the folder on the left side of the screen and name your new project ‘Holiday Placemats’.    Look at the top of your screen and make sure the named project is at the top.  This way, all the work you do on placemats will be in this one project folder. Click on LIBRARIES>Layout Libraries at the top of the screen. In the layout library box, on the left side of the box, navigate to EQ8 Libraries>Layouts by size>Placemats. Select the third layout in the pane by clicking on it.  A blue selection box will appear around it.  Add it to the sketchbook. NOTE: Most of

Welcome to the EQ8 Block Spotlight series! 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. Whether you’re a brand new EQ8 user or a seasoned pro, come join in the fun! This month’s block: Two Little Flowers 2 Where to find it: 05 Contemporary Applique > Flowers A couple design ideas to get you started First, I super-sized the block to make it a wallhanging. As I was playing around with the borders, I thought it would be fun to make the flower break out of the quilt center and overlap the borders. So I converted the Two Little Flowers 2 block to a motif and set it on Layer 2. (For more info on converting an applique block to a motif, visit our support site.) My second quilt

Welcome everyone to the DESIGN AND SEW ALONG LESSONS WITH YVONNE.  This is lesson number four(4).  I think you may have noticed up to this point that we can accomplish designing quilt blocks in several different ways.  You will determine what is your favorite way to use in the future.  This lesson will challenge you a bit more in thinking about how to create a quilt block/layout and how you will be able to print the pattern. Open your EQ8 program and then open the existing projects folder   to find the DESIGN AND SEW LESSONS WITH YVONNE project. Close the project sketchbook when it opens. Confirm that the project name is at the top of your screen.  This is a good double-check to make sure you are indeed in the correct project for this lesson. Click on the block worktable icon on the upper right side of the screen. We will