Behind the Mouse: The Electric Quilt Blog

Last month we revealed the Kaleidoscope Mystery Quilt. This month we’re planning layouts and borders. Joan Lucchese has been diligently sewing along with the Mystery Quilt. She sent in a picture of her work in progress. Joan’s center Here’s what Joan says: “The learning curve for this project was steep for me. I have not made many quilts, I am brand new to EQ, and I have never paper-pieced, so my seam ripper became my best friend. I learned so much doing this project. Not only about how to use EQ to design and modify patterns, but about using color and combining shapes. I plan to do another of these quilts when I am finished with this one, knowing that the wedges are being used in combination with each other, which will change my block and color choices. I used a dark chocolate brown for my background and a couple

ClubEQ is a free club any EQ5 or EQ6 user can join, simply by using EQ to design a quilt. To join, just submit your project and we’ll display it in the Albums section of our website. At the end of the month, all participants receive all the other challenge projects that month. So send in one project file, and receive many more in return! No sewing necessary! The current challenge “Diamonds are Forever” is super versatile and easy. Challenge leader, Barb Vlack, says to “design a quilt with diamonds – diamond patches, diamond blocks, diamond appliqués, or whatever else sparkles in your creative mind.” Check out the ClubEQ page for Barb’s example quilts. Here’s a quick one I designed in about 5 minutes: Design at most 2 quilts and submit the project to penny@electricquilt.com by July 31st.

Popular fabric blog True Up recently posted a review on STASH Sping 2009; our 20th Edition. It’s a very detailed write up by designer and blogger Kevin Kosbab and you should read it if you are interested in learning more about STASH and how it works. Read a little piece of it here and then check out the full review by Kevin on True Up: Stash is fun to browse through and a useful add-on if you like to keep your EQ6 library up to date with what’s in your actual, real-life stash… a full set of the Stash volumes would make an admirable fabric archive even without EQ.

EQ the Mouse joined facebook. We don’t know what he was thinking, but he started his own fan page. If you’re on facebook and want to become a fan of EQ the Mouse, try this: 1. Log into your facebook profile 2. Up near the Logout link type: EQ the Mouse in the Search box. 3. Click on EQ the Mouse and click Become a Fan. p.s. You can also find Electric Quilt on there using this same method.

Terrie Sandelin wrote us about a recent post of her blog. She was sharing her tips about the Serendipity tool with her readers and we wanted to past this good information along to you as well. She does a great job of illustrating a few different ways she merges and tilts blocks. The Serendipity tool is a great feature in EQ6 so if you haven’t already, try it out! Check out her blog, Bits and Pieces, to read up on how she uses the Serendipity tool.

Nancy Rink is an EQ6 quilt designer who was recently featured in the July issue of The Quilter Magazine. The large appliqué butterflies nearly jump off the quilt! I wanted to know how she designed the quilt and how she drew the butterflies so I asked her to tell me a bit more about the quilt design. She had some great EQ design tips that needed to be shared. Here’s what she writes: “As far as design goes… the appliquéd butterflies were inspired by butterflies in two of the fabrics featured in the quilt. (see swatch). On a sheet of plain white paper, I sketched the butterfly until I got a version I was pleased with. Then I imported it into EQ6 and resized it to fit a 12” block.  Using the “freehand” and “Bezier curve” tools I traced my sketch. After tinkering with the shapes a bit a finished appliqué butterfly block emerged. I

Have you seen our quilt gallery lately? We just added another page of designs: http://www.electricquilt.com/Users/Gallery/Gallery.asp This is a relatively new section to our website. It’s a chance for quilters, teachers, designers, and even EQ staff to show off their EQ designs. Not only is it fun seeing quilts that are identical to the EQ design, it’s just as much fun seeing how blocks or fabrics were switched on the design wall to make these spectacular finished quilts. Thanks to everyone who has submitted their photos, projects and stories so far to penny@electricquilt.com. Keep sending them! We have enough for 2 more pages right now… and we’ll keep adding them as you send them in. Thanks again!