Behind the Mouse: The Electric Quilt Blog

OFFER DETAILS • Free shipping offer valid 12/08/2009 through 12/16/2009 (ends 9am Eastern). • Order must total $50.00 or more before shipping, handling and taxes are added. • Applies to Electric Quilt’s standard ground delivery service in the US only. • UPS 3-day, 2-day and Next Day Air delivery charges will remain unchanged from the usual rates. • Offer is not valid for purchases for International/Canadian delivery. • Offer cannot be used toward previous orders or purchases. Get it by Christmas (US orders): • Regular Ground – Order by 9am Eastern, December 16th • 2nd Day – Order by 9am Eastern, Dec. 21st • Overnight – Order by 9am Eastern, Dec. 22nd

This is really neat. Christiane is the moderator of the German Yahoo Group called “EQ_Hilfe”. She tells us that her group loves to use EQ with their Round Robin projects and that they even take the opportunity to turn each Round Robin project into an EQ lesson! They have completed a few Round Robin themes; “Winter” and “Summer”. For their “Winter” version the women learned how to set a custom layout and how to trace in EQ6. The group has a YouTube Channel where you can see the progression of their projects and it’s really fun to watch.  Christiane says, “The girls are very happy with their beautiful creations. We hope you are too!” Go check it out!

Fran Gonzalez, author of EQ6 Simplified, recently wrote us to share how she and her husband Larry used EQ6 to do their garage space: “We redesigned the garage/workshop in EQ6 before we moved a single thing. Larry was very impressed. We even inserted text to label all the carts, power tool stands, etc. Larry and I spent the last 10 days reorganizing the garage and setting up a woodworking shop for him. It’s really great now…so spacious and efficient. He’s happy as a clam, planning all sorts of projects. Now when I’m in here stitching, he’s out there sawing. Works out perfectly.“ Sounds like the best arrangement ever, Fran! How cool that EQ6 could help make the process easier. Thanks for sharing.

Barb Vlack has done it again, she’s picked another fun challenge. This month is Butterflies! Barb says: “Design a quilt with a butterfly theme. You may use blocks, motifs, or quilting stencils that are from the EQ block library or draw your own. Your quilt must have at least one butterfly on it. If you use butterfly print fabric, do so only if the project file size does not exceed 1 MB.” Projects should be submitted to penny@electricquilt.com by January 3, 2010.

CONNECTING TREADS Connecting Threads has made some of their own fabric collections available especially for EQ6 users as Library files. Find the collections here. 1) Download the file to your Desktop. Extract the zipped file (right-click, then click “Extract All”). 2) Place the .FAB file in your My DocumentsMy EQ6USER folder on your hard drive. 3) Open EQ6 and your fabric library. The collection will appear in your “MY LIBRARY” folder. MODA FABRICS Moda has new fabrics available to download as jpeg files, ready to be opened in EQ6. 1) Visit Moda’s site, click any brown dot in front of a fabric name, download to your computer (remember where it goes). 2) Go to LIBRARIES > Fabric Library > Import > From Image Files and import the fabric. 3) Add the fabric to your Sketchbook and use it, or save the fabric in My Library (see pages 143 and 144

EQ the Mouse is confused. The EQ Babies are growing up, and he can’t tell who’s who. Can you? Help him match the EQ Babies to their baby pictures. Spoiler alert: this is a HARD contest! Hint: baby pictures from past newsletters may help. When guessing, match baby numbers 1 through 7 to their older selves A through G. To enter, please send an email: To: penny@electricquilt.com Subject line: Match the Babies Body: Your Full Name Your Email Your guesses Please enter only once. Deadline: December 18, 2009 We will choose one winner from all correct answers. In case of no correct answers we’ll choose from those closest. The winner will win Amy Butler Softwares.

In the Fall/Winter issue of Quilt Sampler (page 26) Diane Nagle’s Out-of-the-Box Argyle quilt has a fresh almost spring-like feel. The fabrics are fun and nontraditional adding to the somewhat quirky look. She usually designs quilts for Benartex, P&B Textiles, and Quilting Treasures and most of the quilts end up displayed at Market. Diane made the argyle quilt for a family run quilt shop in Nevada called Quiltique which is also featured in the magazine on page 20. (www.quiltique.com) Be sure to check out the shop you are ever in the area, it looks adorable. Diane says, “I use EQ for all my quilt designs… I like EQ because I can quickly change up an idea or colorway, and it saves so much time.  My job would be much more difficult without EQ. This quilt was designed using a variable point layout, with a simple 9 patch block and 1/2″ sashing.