Behind the Mouse: The Electric Quilt Blog

The Line tool The Line tool draws straight lines one segment at a time. To Draw a Line Segment 1. Position the cursor where you want the segment to begin. 2. Press the left mouse button to anchor the initial node. 3. Drag the mouse and the line will follow from the initial node. 4. Release the mouse to drop and anchor the end node. The Line Tool Precision Bar With the Precision Bar turned on, click the Snap to Grid Points  button. This will snap your line segment to the grid points on the worktable drawing perfect line segments. You can also activate Snap to Grid Points through the Drawing Board Setup on the Block worktable, or the Drawing Board and Hoop Setup on the Stitching worktable. All segments of the drawing must connect with each other and the drawing must connect with the block outline . When EQ

[This contest is closed.] Carmen was nice enough to offer a free EQ7 project for everyone AND a copy of her new book to one lucky person! Details are at the bottom of the post. As much as we like to find beautiful quilts that were designed with EQ7, we really like to find whole books of quilts designed with EQ7! We heard about EQ user, Carmen Geddes’s new book “Ten Quilts for Ten Sisters” and just had to interview her about these quilts. Read below to find out about Carmen’s TEN sisters, her design process and how she got hooked on EQ! EQ: Congratulations on the release of your new book, Ten Quilts for Ten Sisters! Tell us about it! Carmen: Thanks so much! I’m very excited about my first book– we self published, so I have really learned a lot! There are actually ten girls in my family!

I really don’t like to think of Christmas before the month of December.  Everyone seems to start preparing for Christmas earlier and earlier every year.  I was in one of my local stores in July and they were all ready placing out their Christmas items.  By the time Christmas actually arrives I am really tired of it all.  I don’t like the commercial aspect of it.  But, as a machine embroiderer/quilter, I know it takes a good deal of time to create projects that you want to give away as Christmas gifts.  This is a quick and easy design to stitch with a Christmas theme. 1.  Open your EQStitch program and then click on the ‘stitch worktable icon’ and set up the machine applique worktable. 2.  On the artwork tab, click on the ‘oval drawing tool’ (heart shaped) and hold the icon down for a few seconds to get the

The Set Thread Tool The Set Thread tool allows you to add thread to blocks, motifs, stencils and your entire quilt. This feature makes your finished quilts and blocks look more realistic. Using the Set Thread Tool 1. Click on a thread in the palette to select it. 2. Choose from any of the thread properties to make the thread more realistic. 3. Click on the stencil, motif, or block to color the patch. 4. Click Add to Sketchbook to save the new block coloring in the Sketchbook. Please note: If you choose to modify your thread using the thread properties, be sure to put a check in the white box to select the property first. If you change the thread style or weight without checking the white box, the property will not be implemented. To color the same patch in all the blocks of your quilt at once, hold

Marian Pena is hosting a Row-A-Long! 20 great quilt designers are creating quilt rows and, not only will the designers provide a pattern for you, but they will also be featuring Electric Quilt tutorials! And, there are TONS of great prizes including an EQ7!  (See a list of all the prizes here.) Today is the first day!  (See the whole schedule here.)     Here’s who is posting today! Marlene Oddie at Kissed Quilts – Spring Lynn Zydon Provencher at Thimblemouse & Spouse – Winter Dorice Cotten Rice at The Quilting Queen Online – Summer Janeen van Niekerk at Quilt Art Designs – Fall Bea Lee at Be A Quilter – Filler Row Anneka Kornelis at Stof Genoeg – Filler Row Here are the prizes that start today! Northcott Fabrics: 6-8 yards of fabric in 1 yard lengths Fat Quarter Shop:  $25.00 gift certificate from each blog You Can Quilt Book:

This weekend a new submission popped into our Quilt Gallery that I had to share here on the blog too. Susan Hilsenbeck is a frequent contributor to our gallery. She shared her Big Cat, Little Cats quilt with us and it’s pretty amazing! The blocks are from Janeen van Niekerk’s Silhouette Cats collection and Susan combined them in this interesting study of scale. Click over to Susan’s blog to see how she combined these intricate paper pieced blocks. Have you submitted a design to our Quilt Gallery yet? We’d love to see your EQ designs in fabric! Just use the entry form on the side bar to add your quilt to this inspiring gallery!