Behind the Mouse: The Electric Quilt Blog

This week on Info-EQ there was a great design question about making a string-pieced star. The star actually had 6 points. After some searching on the Quilt Index for an idea of what such a quilt is supposed to look like, we came up with this: A Baby Blocks quilt setting with a few different string pieced blocks is all you need. CTRL+click a block in all the spaces. Then erase the diamonds with the Erase tool. Voila! Download the free EQ7 “String Star” Project. (Put it in your Documents > My EQ7 > PJ7 folder to find it easily in your list of Existing Projects.)

We’d like to announce that our Regular Inkjet Printable Fabric is now available on a 8.5″ x 120″ roll. It can be used with any inkjet printer that has banner-size or smaller printing options. No roll feed printer accessory is needed. Simply cut the fabric to the length you need, then print! Order online or call 1-800-356-4219 (M-F, 9-5 Eastern): EQ Printables – Regular Inkjet Fabric Roll (8½” x 120″)

The Karen K. Stone Quilts Book and Karen K. Stone Quilts Project CD are on sale until April 25, 9am EST. I love her quilts so much I decided to recolor Karen’s Unusual Lone Star quilt in EQ7. Check out this “Unusual Color Study” quilt.

So I was flipping through some magazines and came across this beauty, Interlocking Stars by Diane Nagle. It was in the Love of Quilting Jan/Feb 2011 issue… and not only was it in it… it was the cover quilt! Wow. What an amazingly colorful and intricate quilt. When I read further I couldn’t believe how easy Diane had made the quilt to piece. You should see how easy the blocks are! I wrote Diane to ask her if she had designed it in our software and she said: “You are always more than welcome to blog about any of my published quilts, because so far they are ALL designed in EQ7. With Interlocking Stars, I used blocks in EQ and simplified them a bit for less piecing. I’m always altering a block in one way or another.” I loved the quilt so much I mocked it up in EQ, fiddled

The TAB key on your keyboard really makes entering numbers in a toolbar go faster. You don’t have to move your cursor over to a number, double-click on it, type, move your cursor over to the next one, double-click, type… and so on and so forth. You can just type, TAB, type, TAB, type. Sometimes you may need to do TAB, TAB… but pretty much… whenever a number is blue you can type over it. (“Blue” is the highlight color on my computer. Yours may vary according to the theme you have chosen in Windows.) So here are my software tips using TAB. (The images below loop, pause, and then start over again.) Tip #1 – If I were starting a new EasyDraw block and I needed to change the numbers in the Precision Bar…     Tip #2 – Let’s try that again… ooops I missed a 7. You can

No fooling: April 1 was EQ the Mouse’s birthday. The mouse gained official EQ Mascot status by running across Penny’s desk one winter day, making them both scream. Guess what year that was. We’ll choose a winner from all correct answers. You may win a copy of Kaleidoscope Collection CD. To enter, send your answer (one guess per person) before April 18, 2011. To: sarahshriver@electricquilt.com Subject line: Mouse Birthday Contest Body: Your answer – the year EQ the Mouse became the official EQ Mascot Your Full Name: Your Email: