Behind the Mouse: The Electric Quilt Blog

I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to see everyone using my kaleidoscope blocks in their EQ quilts. It makes my heart flutter when I see your photos come in. I received the sweetest email from Janice Wall in New Zealand. She and her friends did the kaleidoscope mystery quilt lessons together. Janice writes: “Hi Andrea, What a wonderful kaleidoscope quilt that you designed, and what fun we had doing it. After buying the CD just before Christmas, I signed up for your kaleidoscope newsletters. When you started your mystery quilt, I contacted a few friends who were just as excited as me, and we decided to do it. At first we were going to have show and tell each time we met, but then decided that it would not work since you kept saying ‘no peeking’. Each time we met, we would try and guess at what

Our current contest ended this weekend. Thanks to everyone who entered. The contest was to guess our newest EQ baby’s weight and length. Ashtyn was a BIG BABY. She was 10lbs. 3oz. and 22″ long. Out of the 194 entries, we had 6 winners (a couple of ties). Congratulations to: Sharon Chmara & Barbara Bogert – correct answer Sheril Green – off by an ounce Linda Cooper – off by an inch Carol Campbell & Susan Dyer – off by 4oz. 1inch Each of these winners receive a free copy of one of our Quiltmaker Quilting Designs CDs. Thanks again for entering. Look for another contest coming soon. : )

We know Karen Combs as a fabric designer that has been in Stash over the years. In our 21st edition fo Stash she has two lines, Java Gems and Batik Cascade with AvLyn Inc. In the October/November issue of Quilter’s Home (p. 88). Karen has a beautiful quilt made of her own fabrics, her Batik Cascade line. Was the quilt designed in EQ? Of course! Karen says, “I’ve been a fan of EQ for years. It is my ‘go-to’ design software whenever I design quilts. In my Batik Cascade quilt, I decided to play with the quilt design in black and white first. I knew I was going to add light and dark values of different colors to the quilt, and wanted to design the ‘bones’ of the quilt without color.“ (Secret tip from Karen – in most scrappy quilt designs, it is the value that does all the work.

Back in July, we had a “Name that Block” contest. EQ staffer, Andrea Bishop, drew a new block with four baskets with interlocking handles holding stars in them. The contest had hundreds of entries and we offered the block as a free download on our website. (You can still get the EQ6 project.) Andrea’s EQ design Recently, longtime EQ-er Jo Moury wrote in to tell us she was making Andrea’s block. Jo’s EQ design Jo says: “I just ‘had’ to make Andrea’s basket design!! This is sooo cool the way the basket handles are intertwined. To me they seem to support each other in a circle. Of course I had to change the design a little… I took out the tiny pieced star and added a broderie perse appliquéd flowers.” Jo’s finished wallhanging Jo, thanks for sharing the picture and the idea. The appliquéd flowers are so cool.

From screen to reality… check out the next 10 quilts in our online quilt gallery. Each quilt was designed & printed in Electric Quilt, and sewn to make these beauties. If you have an EQ quilt that made it into fabric and would like to be a part of our online gallery, send your EQ project, high res quilt image, and story to penny@electricquilt.com. We’ll post new pages showcasing your work!

So I was surfing around today and found the Piecemeal Quilts blog. I saw what seemed like an EQ6 design and read further… and sure enough it was. Sandi Walton, works at a dinner theater/restaurant. She needed something to cover the bed for one of the scenes in an upcoming Nunsense production. So being the creative person that she is, she designed a quilt in EQ6 using the… wait for it… Sister’s Choice block. Sandi says: “I can’t wait to see my quilt on the stage. When I first presented the idea of the quilt, I showed several EQ6 illustrations so the director, set designer and costumer would have a better idea of what I was suggesting. When the costumer saw the finished quilt today, she was amazed at how similar it was to the original “rendering.” I love using EQ6 because you can really get a sense of the

We just updated our Class Listing page again. A Great Notion Quiltworks in Abbotsford, BC just let us know about four of their EQ6 classes coming up. Do you have an upcoming EQ class? Let our webmaster know. We’ll put it on our Class Listing page.