Behind the Mouse: The Electric Quilt Blog

I love having a quick and easy Easter design handy for the grandkids.  I don’t always have time to make a quilt, but my EQ8 program will produce an easy outline to help the kids be creative with paints or crayons to color a design I create. Open your EQ8 program and name a new project ‘Easter’ on the opening page. At the top of the screen, click on LIBRARIES>Block Library In the bottom of the library box, click on the word ‘search’ > “by notecard”. When the notecard box opens, type in the word ‘bunny’ and then click on the word ‘search’ at the bottom of the box. The results box will list how many items you have in EQ8 that fit this word.  Click on the OK at the bottom of the box to see the results. Scroll through the search results and click on any one 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. We hope these posts will inspire you to try something new and expand your EQ skills! This month’s block: Uneven Cross X Where to find it: 02 Contemporary Pieced > Good Alternate Blocks Design ideas to get you started This first quilt uses a vertical strip quilt layout. The strip styles alternate between Pieced Blocks and Half Drop Blocks and the Uneven Cross X block is set in all the spaces. My second quilt uses the Hexagonal – 1 layout from the Layout Library (Layouts by Style > Hexagonal). The featured block is used in the six center block spaces. What would you design with the Uneven Cross X block? Post a quilt

EQ Academy is three weeks away and we can’t wait! We’ve got lots of fun goodies to give away and the local quilt shops are ready for a surge of shoppers! Classes are filling, but there are seats left! Enroll now > Leave room in your suitcase for the trip home. These are just some of the items that will be in student welcome bags or daily giveaways! Local Quilt Shop Fun After a great day of learning, go have some fun at local shops and save! These fantastic shops are offering special discounts just for EQ Academy students! The Quilt Foundry in Maumee (10 minutes from class) Special discount and extended hours for EQ Academy students! Busy Thimble in Bowling Green (17 minutes from class) Special discount for EQ Academy students! Perfectly Pink Quilt Studio in Elmore (30 minutes from class) Special discount and extended hours for EQ Academy

In November we announced that we’ve teamed up with the Quilts of Valor Foundation® (QOVF) for a special 8-month collaboration! We’re requesting both an image of your EQ-software-QOV design and a picture of the accompanying finished Quilt of Valor®. Scroll down below to read more details about this fantastic event! Michele McCusker-Whiting A few days after we announced this amazing collaboration, we received several spectacular submissions from Michele McCusker-Whiting! Reaching out to her to check if she’d like to be the focus of a future blog post, she wasn’t sure if she was “worthy.” Indeed, she is worthy, as are all those who make quilts for this caring organization! Thankfully, she agreed to be the featured designer and we’re so happy to introduce and talk about Michele! The seeds of Michele’s story start when she was very young, and her mother taught her to sew. Her interest first turned to quilts when her mother-in-law, EQ-user Juanita Whiting

Are you participating in the Scrappy Celebration Quilt Along hosted by American Patchwork and Quilting? It just started so you can still join in! The designer of the Scrappy Celebration quilt is an EQ user so we’ve provided the EQ8 project as a free download!   Whether you’re sewing along or not, download the free project and play with colors! We came up with these 4 different colorways. Which one is your favorite? All Quilt-Along details are on the American Patchwork & Quilting website here.

Welcome to our blog series, Do You EQ Too? Each month, we will spotlight a different EQ user and their quilts! If you haven’t already, you can read our introduction post here. This month we are spotlighting Pamela Pandolfi! Pam uses EQ8 to design custom quilts that utilize fabric, thread, paint, and ink to create beautiful pieces of art. “As a part of a multi-generation family of crafters — and 19-year proprietor of an alterations/costume design business,” says Pam, “it wasn’t until participating in my first quilting retreat in 2007 that I recognized quilting as my passion and avenue of personal artistic creativity. Although I do not hold an art degree, and never considered myself an artist until recently. In learning about quilting, I discovered that quilting has more to do with ‘trouble shooting’ than perfection as long as it looks good to the viewer (totally my opinion). Art also follows that same ‘perfection