Simonetta Marini: Designer, Teacher and Quiltmaker

I am Italian and I live with my husband, two teenagers and two cats in Bologna, home of the oldest University in the world and mother of tortellini and mortadella.

Here in Bolonga I work with my husband in our Studio as Engineer and Architect: we project houses and calculate them to resist to earthquakes.

I have been quilting for 15 years. I saw “How to Make an American Quilt” with Winona Ryder and then, after some time, I began to read magazines where I saw wonderful quilts and thought: thatʼs my destiny! I bought a sewing machine and I began to try to quilt. It was love with the very first quilt. So I began to take classes, read books, created and then taught others. A real passion was born.

I am a member of the Italian National Guild Quilt Italia and it wasn’t long before I became its regional Coordinator with the goal to spread quilt knowledge to Italian people. I organize quilting days, lectures and classes in important fairs to show how beautiful Italian quilts are.

I was then introduced to EQ software when it was only version 4. As many of us I have a chronic lack of time and EQ was the right way t o help me. Immediately I fell in love with it. EQ staff and EQ mailing list members helped me to improve very quickly. I was so interested in it that I wished to show it to other Italian quilters. Only I had a great handicap to my goal: the language trouble. The software was in English! So I decided to translate the EQ User Manual to Italian! And this is what I have done: it was a great success.

Moreover I began a business of providing personal assistance and classes on the EQ program (see more about this on my site www.stoffinstoffando.it).  I also show EQ demos anytime I can. Today I teach quilt techniques and I am the main EQ teacher in Italy. This photo below was taken during one of my lectures about the history of patchwork from Egyptians where I also incorporated using EQ7 to recreate them. I love to create blocks in EQ and it was in this way I won the Rose of Sharon contest in 2010: my block is the first in the quilt and my other blocks were inside the first 100. (Get the Rose of Sharon winners EQ library download on DoYouEQ.com).

I have won many EQ challenges and contests but the Rose of Sharon contest is one that I truly cherish. Aside from EQ7, I like also to use BlockBase from Barbara Brackmanʼs work, Judy Martin and Angie Padilla software.

I also use EQ7 to create my lessons and demos. Moreover, some Italian quilt shops ask me to create original pattern for them to sell with fabrics kits that I also create with EQ7 and other Electric Quilt software. (See this lesson on how to export images from EQ7 so you can make your own kits!)

I ‘d like to show you some of my work created from an EQ project. This Dresdan heart is the logo of my group and site. I create it with EQ (on the right) and then use the pattern to make pins on the left.

This quilt “4 Blooms for 4” was designed by me and three of my friends as a group challenge. We divided it into four equal parts. Each one is finished and then we stitched all the parts together. When the contest ended (we arrived 4th!) we divided the quilt again so each of us could have back his parts to remember this experience.

Here, I wish to give you an EQ7 file of a simple calendar created with EQ blocks. In the middle there is the star we have as the logo in our National Association Quilt Italia.

Download the EQ7 file here.

 You can see more about me and my friends on www.stoffinstoffando.it