The Electric Quilt Company is 30!
The Electric Quilt Company’s Story – How It All Began
We’re celebrating 30 years! Since the pearl is the traditional symbol for 30 years, we’re sharing EQ Pearls of Wisdom from our friends! See all Pearls of Wisdom posts. We hope you enjoy the tips and tricks you learn along the way and discover some new quilters or catch up with your favorites! Also, we’d love to hear about YOUR journey with EQ so feel free to tell us your story in the comments on any post! A big THANK YOU to all our customers for your support over the years. We’re looking forward to many more!
This week’s featured friend: Patti Carey!
Tell us a bit about yourself Patti!
I am Vice President – Public Relations for Northcott where I’ve been for 35 years – what a ride! In my other life I am the owner/designer behind Patti’s Patchwork, with an extensive line of quilt patterns using efficient and time-saving techniques. I also design fabric for Banyan Batiks (a division of Northcott) and travel (sometimes virtually) to quilt guilds to inspire and educate quilters with entertaining trunk shows and tip-filled workshops.
When did you start using Electric Quilt and how has it changed your quilting life?
I have been an EQ user since EQ4. Once EQ5 came along I started using it for every quilt that I designed – it is my “pen and paper” of quilt designing. Each iteration is better than its predecessor. These days I pretty much cannot design a quilt without it, whether it’s a pattern quilt, one for a magazine or even for personal use. In the role of Marketing Director at Northcott, I guided many pattern designers through using EQ to bring their quilt designs to life. Because of my extensive use of EQ, Northcott has included a “Download Fabrics for EQ” button on all fabric collections on their website – correctly-scaled fabric images without tape measures, ready to import directly into EQ. It has made designing with Northcott fabrics and EQ a perfect marriage.
What is your EQ “Pearl of Wisdom” for EQ users?
There are so many! I have 2:
a) My favorite tools are the Fussy Cut tool and the Rotate Fabric tool. They blew my quilt designing wide open and revolutionized my quilting world. Those 2 tools allow me to create a digital quilt that is as realistic as the actual finished quilt.
b) EQ classes: I took Kari Schell of On Point Quilter’s Tech Know Quilters series and it seriously upped my EQ game.
What are you up to now and what do you have coming up?
What am I up to? I am currently hosting my first Quilt-along through my website, and will be hosting the Cottage Lake Sampler QAL starting in December in conjunction with the release of Canoe Lake, my 2nd fabric line. (Patti’s Canoe Lake fabrics are part of our latest Stash! You can download them, and lots more for your EQ!) This is a lead-up to the huge QAL I’ll be hosting next year for Northcott using their Quilts of Valor Stars & Stripes collection – all designed using EQ8 of course. I also participate in the monthly Quilt Block Mania blog tour that includes 20-30 designers providing a free block pattern using the monthly theme.
Giveaway
I’m giving away the EQ8 file for the September ’20 Quilt Block Mania blog tour. The theme was back-to-school and my “Rithmetic” block is perfect for math whizzes everywhere. I carried the arithmetic patchwork into the sashing for an “I can’t see where the blocks end” effect.
Hope you enjoyed this “pearl” of wisdom. Feel free to share your EQ story or a “pearl” of your own in the comments! Stay tuned for our next post!
10-26-2021
2:15 pm
I’ve had EQ since 4 as well!!! But I really started using it when I got EQ5 and now have EQ8. I need to branch out a little more yet though!! Love your quilt designs!!
10-26-2021
7:23 pm
Hi. I am very new to quilting and am not sure what “EQ” is all about. Is it something that you need to take classes in to learn how to use? I really enjoyed reading your recent blog post. I absolutely love the cottage lake sampler and am looking forward to seeing Canoe Lake fabric line too. I really appreciate my friend Cathy for referring me to your blog and website. Thanks for sharing your knowledge, talent and skills with us!
10-27-2021
4:44 pm
Hi Laura! In EQ8 you can design quilts and blocks of any size right on your computer! We offer lots of free lessons/resources to help learn the software.
Here is a link to a demo of EQ8 software: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq6WPuTUl9M
11-11-2021
12:03 pm
I love how you framed the elephants.