Elizabeth Dackson of Don’t Call Me Betsy! is the focus of our User Spotlight today. You can find Elizabeth’s beautiful designs everywhere (Quiltmaker, Modern Quilts Unlimited, and Quilty- just to name a few!) and she recently released her first book called Becoming a Confident Quilter. She’s quite the busy quilter, so I’d like to thank her for taking time out of her busy schedule to chat with us!
Showstopper (EQ design left, finished quilt right) by Elizabeth Dackson
How long have you been quilting?
I’ve been quilting pretty much as long as I’ve been sewing, almost four years. I didn’t start sewing until I became a stay-at-home mom and wandered into Jo-Ann’s one Sunday morning in search of a hobby. I bought my first sewing machine, and haven’t stopped sewing since! I devoured library books, teaching myself everything I could about sewing, and then I stumbled upon blogs and made my first quilt. It was love at first stitch.
How long have you used Electric Quilt software?
I’ve had EQ now for about a year and a half, and I’ve been actively using it for the last year. I put off using it for a good while, intimidated by the learning curve I’d heard about from friends who had used the software.
Wheel of Fortune (EQ design left, finished quilt right) by Elizabeth Dackson
What do you like best about designing with EQ7?
My favorite part about EQ is getting to play around with colors and fabrics. It gives me so much more flexibility to find fabrics that truly make a design sing. I love being able to import swatches of fabrics in my real stash to use in EQ. I also love the ability to make my foundation paper piecing templates through EQ, and even to custom number them in the way that I think makes the most sense.
Color My World (EQ design left, finished quilt right) by Elizabeth Dackson
Anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
One of my EQ designs recently hung at Fall Quilt Market, in Denyse Schmidt’s section of the Westminster Fabrics booth. It’s a very simple quilt, sewn up with Denyse’s upcoming Modern Solids collection for Free Spirit, and we went through several different variations, with colors placed in different ways, before we found the “right” version of this quilt, and EQ made that process much easier than it would have been if I had been attempting to play with the layout with real fabrics! Don’t get me wrong, I still love to play with fabrics and alter my plans on the fly, but EQ gives me the ability to try out fabrics or color combinations I might never have thought of.
Denyse Schmidt Solids Quilt (EQ design left, finished quilt right) by Elizabeth Dackson
Also, I’m wrapping up my first foundation paper piecing block of the month club on my blog next month, the Lucky Stars Block of the Month club, and I just announced that the club will run for another year for 2014! Subscriptions are available through my Pattern Shop.
Be sure to stop by and visit Elizabeth’s blog where she’s hosting an EQ7 giveaway this week!
You can find out more about Elizabeth and her quilts here:
