Behind the Mouse: The Electric Quilt Blog

Thank you to everyone who submitted to April’s design challenge! As always, we love seeing all the gorgeous quilts EQ users create! Be sure to see all the entries we received here! Winners Two winners were selected by Deb Tucker of Studio 180 Design!. Congratulations to…. Winner 1: Jill Peek “This is a Morning Star patch and I designed this with all the cooler tones in this fabric line. I’m very excited to make this quilt!” - Jill Peak  Winner 2: Lee Peterson “I am fond of compass quilts and this collection of fabrics works well with that design.” - Lee Peterson Thanks again to all who participated in this challenge. If you’re looking for another chance to win fabric, check out May’s design challenge!

Scroll down for pictures! Spring was certainly blossoming last week in Perrysburg, Ohio as we witnessed a new group of students (and some returnees) growing in their understanding of EQ8 during our 3-day EQ Academy! There were 62 students in attendance from all over the United States and even Canada! Some students were taught the beginning skills of using EQ8, while others honed their block-drawing and quilt-design talents! In different classes students also learned how to import their fabric stash, were taught the best practices for designing t-shirt quilts, and expanded their ideas for how to use borders! Overall, lots was learned, fun was had, and great relationships were formed! We can’t thank everyone enough who attended, including our awesome teachers! A special shout out and thanks to our incredible sponsors who provided us with goodies to create amazing welcome bags and daily giveaways! Our next EQ Academy is scheduled

Quilt artist Margaret Fleisher created a 100 day challenge for herself of making quilt blocks to match books, and the results were amazing! Here are just a few examples… I think that is a good way to stretch your EQ8 design muscles and learn to think about how to design elements you may not include otherwise. The first example we’re going to do is this book cover of A Wrinkle in Time. Open EQ8 and click Design a quilt from scratch Click the NEW QUILT tab > Horizontal Click the LAYOUT tab Under NUMBER OF BLOCKS enter: Horizontal: 6 Vertical: 7 Under FINISHED SIZE OF BLOCK enter: Width: 9 Height: 11.5 Click the BORDERS tab Click the Delete button Click Block Worktable Click NEW BLOCK > Applique > Motif Next, we’ll be importing an image to trace. In the example I’m using the cover to A Wrinkle in Time. If

This contest is now closed. Winner announced here. May’s Fabric of the Month is Freedom Road by Kansas Troubles Quilters for Moda! Featuring muted tones of red and blue plus beautiful vintage motifs, this collection is perfect for your next patriotic project! A bundle of these fabrics will be given away to one lucky winner! Submit your EQ design featuring Freedom Road below…all instructions and contest details are in this post. Good luck! To enter In order to enter for the giveaway you must submit a quilt using the current Fabric of the Month AND comment on at least one other person’s quilt you like by the end of the month. If you’re the first person to submit a quilt, make sure to come back and comment on someone else’s quilt before the contest ends. Instructions for how to submit an image are at the bottom of this post. Download this month’s Fabric of the Month: Freedom Road by Kansas Troubles Quilters for Moda.

Hello EQ8 Friends!  In this post I am sharing a great idea to use a variety of themed blocks and organize them using a Horizontal Strip Quilt.  Horizontal strip layouts are made up of long horizontal pieced or unpieced “strips.”   Strip Quilts can be very versatile adapting to different sized blocks easily.  I often use this layout for a Row by Row Quilt.  If you use the Magic of  Layer 2, you can even break the rules for block placement.  Let’s explore Horizontal Strip Quilts. Barnyard Day Quilt Skillset: Beginner/ Advanced Beginner Size: 62″ x 51″ Skill Builders: Learn how to setup a Horizontal Quilt Explore plain, pieced and spaced squares strip styles Use the Magic of Layer 2 to creatively place blocks  Let’s design the Quilt. Open EQ8. Let’s name the Project.  The project name appears at the top left of the EQ8 Window. Right now the project says Untitled

Welcome to the EQ8 Block Spotlight series! Each month we highlight a block from the EQ8 Block Library with a few design ideas. Then we want you to show us what you can do with the block. If you’re a brand new EQ8 user, I hope you’ll join in the fun! This monthly series is great motivation to dig into the software and practice your new EQ8 skills. And if you’ve been using EQ8 for a while, I hope these posts will inspire you to try something new! This month’s block: Twisted Log Cabin 2 Where to find it: 03 Foundation Pieced > Twists Design ideas to get you started This first quilt design is an on-point layout with sashing. I colored the outer patches in the Twist blocks with the background fabric to soften the hard edges of the block. For my second quilt, I used the Hexagonal –

March’s design challenge was full of so many amazing quilts, and we loved seeing all your comments to each other! Go see all the entries we received here! Thanks to all who participated! Maywood Studio designer Nicholas Lapp was also so impressed with your designs! “I want to encourage everyone here to keep quilting and designing, it’s a great creative outlet and in an age of high tech, I think things we make are still the most meaningful gifts.  Bravo all you artists!  Thanks for taking the time to work with my fabrics.”  – Nicholas Lapp Winners Two winners were selected, one by Nicholas Lapp and the other was chosen randomly. Congratulations to…. Winner 1 (Maywood’s Pick): Maureen Franz “Maureen Franz’ stunning appliqué on the dark violet which was just jewel-like. I could see it in a Gilded Age episode!  I can’t imagine how much work this much custom appliqué would take me!