Behind the Mouse: The Electric Quilt Blog

Here’s the lesson for month 11: Drawing a Twist inside a Kaleidoscope Wedge. If you have any suggestions for what you’d like to learn in month 12, leave a comment here. To see the complete list of lessons so far, visit the Kaleidoscope Collectors page.

The New England Quilt Museum shows both antique and contemporary quilts. In the permanent collection there are several Jacob’s Ladder quilts from the 1880’s. Christina Inge works at the museum and her Jacob’s Ladder quilt, “Cornflower Crossing”, is featured on page 81 of Quilt Magazine November’s issue. Of course she designed it with EQ! Christina says, “I find that EQ makes me much more productive as a designer; cutting the time it takes to design a quilt by over half. It cuts out all the need to calculate not just the size of pieces, but also yardages–that’s what I like the most. I also like to go through several color variations for the same quilt–it’s essential when doing a quilt on commission or for publication.” “Cornflower Crossing” turned out wonderfully. The quilt is made from reproduction fabrics. Christina added the blue saying it reminded her of “the cornflowers that bloom

Don’t forget to submit your EQ project to penny@electricquilt.com for the “Rotate and Fussy Cut” ClubEQ challenge. Entries are due by August 31. To submit a design: 1. Open up EQ6. 2. Start a new project (with 200908 in front of your name). 3. Design any quilt. 4. Color it with fabric. 5. Fussy cut or rotate any of the fabric. 6. Click Add to Sketchbook to save the quilt. 7. Name the quilt on the Notecard in the Sketchbook. 8. Design another quilt if you want (steps 3-7). 9. Write an email to penny@electricquilt.com 10. Attach your project from your My Documents > My EQ6 > PJ6 folder. 11. Send the email. Anyone who submits a challenge project will get all the projects for that month. So don’t miss out on oodles of fun designs. Submit your project now.

I was revisiting some EQ-related blogs I had bookmarked and found this post by Jan T. I thought, “wow… EQ tutorials… I need to check that out!” So I did… and there are quite a few on Jan’s website: http://jantsutopia.com.au/freetutorials/EQ/tutorials_EQ.html Jan writes a column called “Computer Quilts” in Down Under Quilts magazine. Kudos to you Jan! I’m so impressed. -Andrea : )

I’m still a newbie to quilting. I haven’t finished so many quilts yet that I am inundated with them and running out of wall space. I hope to be there some day. I came across this story on Denise Russart’s blog about “The Great Quilt Giveaway.” What do you do with your quilts? Leave a comment.

Do you have a lot of scraps, strips and chunks of fabric hanging around your sewing room? Who doesn’t. Merry May and Linda Hahn have a designed a string quilt in EQ6 that will help you use up your leftovers. It’s thrifty, frugal and somehow ends up looking extra cozy. String quilts date back to the 1880’s but in those days they never had EQ6 to play with! It’s a fresh look for a classic quilt. No Strings Attached is in the November issue of Quilt, page 76. Merry May says, “I made up several variations of the simple half-square triangle block in EQ, and then colored them in with different combinations of fabrics, some from the latest Stash.” Also, if you are interested in making string quilts, you might want to try EQ Printable Foundation Sheets. They would be great for that type of project. Linda and Merry have

Char O’Leary is quite the busy lady. She regularly designs quilts for Marcus Fabrics (previously Marcus Brothers Fabrics) with their new lines for quilt market. Of course she uses EQ6 to do so. Most recently her quilt, made with Marcus Fabrics’ new line Natural Effect, was featured in this summer’s issue Quick Quilts by Harris Publishing (page 10). The coloring is relaxing and so serene and the layout really takes advantage of the large scale fabric. Char also has a quilt that she designed in EQ6 included in the book My Stars: Patterns from The Kansas City Star by Kansas City Star Quilts. Char says, “I have pretty much done everything I ever wanted to on EQ6.” She scans in her own fabric (or gets it from websites) and she uses EQ6 to make and sell her own patterns. Her website, Quiltinghens.com, is being revamped but you can contact her