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Myra Harder and Cori Derksen of Blue Meadow Designs just told us about this really cool contest they’re holding and it’s totally worth checking out. Basically, they want you to submit your unfinished quilt projects where upon they will choose one as the winner. That quilt will be changed, finished, and returned to the owner with a fresh look! How cool is that!? Here’s the explanation from their site: The Concept In the back of closets, hidden deep in drawers and tucked away from everyone’s sight, are unfinished projects that have gone horribly wrong. We all have them (Myra has a drawer full) and we all wish that they would go away. They seem like such a waste. These projects were once exciting and you were eager to dive in, finish and display them with pride. However…they went wrong and now when you come across them in your closet you

We recently received an email from Sarah Smith, known quilt artist, blogger, and published contributor to popular quilting magazine’s to name a few. She’s read a review copy of Gloria Hansen’s new book Digital Essentials and had plenty to say about it! “I just got a copy of it for review, and OMG…. I can’t imagine knowing even a fraction of what went into this book, but boy am a glad Gloria wrote it! I’ll do a full review on my blog next week when I’m back from teaching in Lowell, but having looked at the book already, all I can say is BUY IT! (Preferably from Gloria as royalties on books are not huge, so she gets some income from sales, but no matter what from someone! She’ll have it on her website in September.) The books is astonishing in its depth and scope, but it is nevertheless clearly

[David Butler, Amy Butler, Jenny Novinsky, & Andrea Bishop] As our July 22nd meeting with Amy rolled closer and closer, much discussion could be heard between Penny, Jenny and Andrea about their upcoming road trip. Oh my gosh, what am I going to wear? What are you going to wear? Do you think we’ll get to see her studio? Where are we going again? We arrived around noon and were greeted by Amy at the door. Her studio takes up an entire gorgeously-restored 150-year-old home just off of downtown. With a mix of timeless, splash of modern, and just all-around Amy vibes everywhere… it was so pleasant and peaceful as we toured room by room and met her staff. (As you can see from the picture, even the landscaping outside was inspirational.) We sat down around a long farm table with rectangular white plates as the center pieces (filled with

We’ve been working hard here at EQ to come out with 2 new books: Digital Essentials by Gloria Hansen Blending Photos with Fabric 2 by Mary Ellen Kranz Both books deal with digital images but in different ways. Together you get a really good idea of how to work with images and what you can do with them after they are on your computer. Check out the links above to see more information.

OK. Grab the box of tissues. This one came into my mailbox over the weekend and really got me this morning. [sob] Andrea Lester in Oklahoma wrote to tell us about a recent project she did using EQ. Here’s what Andrea says: “I want to share a project I made using the shirting templates in EQ6. A few months ago my friend Marilyn asked me to make her a quilt using her husband’s ties (Harry had just recently passed away). There were only nine ties to work with, not really enough to make even a lap sized quilt.” “To make a long story short, I browsed through EQ6 shirting templates and came up with the attached design. I had nine ties, nine tie clips many silk “hankies” to use in the pockets I added. Red was Harry’s favorite color so I used the red ties in the center blocks, red

Last month Sherry Herringshaw wrote in about an opportunity quilt she did with her guild (designed in EQ of course). That was one cool medallion. It must be a popular use, because Jan Steinhoff wrote to say she did the same. Here is Jan’s original EQ design: Jan says: This is the quilt that Amador Valley Quilters will market in order to raise money for the guild. We use it primarily to buy materials to make and give away over 500 quilts a year to local shelters We sell tickets to other guilds and at local quilt shows, such as Pacific International Quilt Festival in Menlo Park. The appliqué on the borders is based on patterns from Gwen Marston and Pat Campbell (who also gave permission to me to use them). Here is the finished quilt: Hopefully this opportunity quilt gave you just that – the opportunity to do a

I hope you all have had a chance to play with the star layouts in the EQ5 or EQ6 library. Beth Davis did… and wow. You should see the spectacular “Star Burst” quilt she came up with. Here’s what Beth says: “I thought you might enjoy seeing a quilt that I just completed. It is called “Star Burst” and is 102″ X 102″. I designed it using EQ5. I used one of the existing quilt layouts from the library. I used a pineapple block with commercial fabric for the 8 pointed star and radiating star points. I tried different pieced blocks for the plain block areas but nothing was working.” Beth’s “Star Burst” quilt “Last summer I took a Shibori class with Marjie McWilliams at Quiltuniversity.com. When I auditioned the star burst hand dyed fabric in those plain blocks, I thought the quilt came to life. I was able to