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 Anderson!
Tell us a bit about yourself Patti!
I have been sewing since I was a little girl, and I have been quiltmaking for over 30 years. I spent many years making quilted items to sell in a local craft co-op, under the name Patchpieces. I quickly grew tired of selling everything I made, so I switched from selling to teaching quiltmaking. I also began to design my own quilt patterns, and kept the name Patchpieces for my pattern line, as well and for my website.
Scrappy Flowering Snowball designed by Patti in EQ
When did you start using Electric Quilt and how has it changed your quilting life?
When I began teaching and designing quilts, I wanted to purchase software that would make the process easier. I applied for and was awarded a grant from a county Arts & Heritage Council. I used the grant money to purchase Electric Quilt, CorelDRAW, and fabric. The Electric Quilt Company was just ready to release EQ2, so I wasn’t sure what to order. I remember calling and talking to Penny McMorris – she was so nice and helpful!
Purchasing the EQ software took my quilting career in a direction I never expected! I joined the mailing list, Info-EQ, and connected with other EQ users around the world. I quickly learned the software and started uploading EQ tutorials to my website. I had a knack for pushing the software to its full potential and beyond, and Penny McMorris took notice. A few EQ versions later, I was asked to write a software companion book for EQ5 on block drawing. And leading from that venture, I also began to teaching online classes at QuiltUniversity.com, which was owned by Carol Miller — another EQ user that I met through the Info-EQ mailing list.
Scrappy Flowering Snowball designed by Patti in EQ
What is your EQ “Pearl of Wisdom” for EQ users?
What are you up to now and what do you have coming up?
I retired from teaching about two years ago, except for teaching few local quilt classes. I currently do quilt pattern graphics and drafting for several quilt shops, as well as for Shop Hops in my area. I always use EQ8 first for planning the blocks and/or quilts, and then use CorelDRAW for the illustrations and written instructions. Being able to export a metafile from EQ saves me a lot of time!
I spend most of my time now making REAL quilts (as opposed to virtual ones!). Despite having to stay at home for most of 2020, I made and finished more quilts than ever before. My biggest love right now is machine quilting using rulers and templates on my domestic machine. By the way…I also use EQ8 to help me plan my quilting designs!
Giveaway
My giveaway is my project file for the Flowering Snowball quilt. It includes several quilting motifs (on Layer 3). I also have a short YouTube video demo-ing how to stitch out the double Egg & Dart motif with rulers. Watch the video here!
Flowering Snowball designed by Patti for EQ
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!
12-14-2021
9:55 pm
I love how you show how the quilt will be quilted using tools. I need to plan more how I will quilt my design. I worked last night trying to copy an idea. Most of time I can, but this time I really going to have to think. So I agree, I have learn more by drawing the blocks and even the finishing quilting design makes one learn the program. Love your scrape quilt.
12-14-2021
11:47 pm
Patti — You have been a try inspiration to me. I took your classes at Quilt University and still have your EQ5 Drawing book on my shelf. Thank you for sharing your love of Electric Quilt over the years.
12-16-2021
10:48 am
that is a wowser of a quilt! Love it and your quilting really shows it off well! Great tips. I have been using my EQ8 to draw up BOM for my guild’s monthly raffle/charity blocks (we give quilts to any family experiencing a natural disaster like fire, etc) and wish I could figure out how to digitally send the block print directions/picture to my newsletter and website ladies. Still working on that!
12-16-2021
12:31 pm
The easiest way to digitally send directions and pictures is by converting them to PDF files. There are free programs on the web that convert to PDF and the recipient has to have Acrobat Reader to open the files. Acrobat Reader is a free download from Adobe Acrobat, but just about everyone already has Acrobat Reader nowadays.