Behind the Mouse: The Electric Quilt Blog

The next lesson for Kaleidoscope Collectors is up and ready! This month we’re going to play with color and learn how to make something either important and accented, or unimportant and hidden via the colors we use. For the “super-secret, mystery side-sewing project” … this is the last month of blocks before the project is revealed. Look for the unveiling next month on our website and blog. Go try the Color Theory lesson.

Attention STASH collectors! Ten chances to win our newest STASH! We’re looking for anyone who owns all previous 19 editions of our STASH fabric CD. Do you? Then email us a picture of you with the CDs and if you’re among the first 10 people to do so, you’ll be shown on our blog and win a free 20th edition STASH Spring 2009 CD, new this month. Email your photo to: penny@electricquilt.com. Subject line: STASH 20.

Ilona and Judy of Presque Isle Needleworks in Michigan called us a while back in need of some technical support for a pattern they were designing. Their lighthouse quilt designs are their trademark and they had decided to use EQ6 to help them design and create project kits for their business. Penny helped them over the phone with some issues they were having on their EQ6 and some time later we received a nice letter and a sample of their new lighthouse kit made with EQ6! “Thank you so much for you technical support with our recent quilting project. The EQ6 manual is well written, but you were so very patient in answering my questions and guiding me through several issues. We are pleased with the results and wanted to share them with you. We recently filled a small order for a quilt shop in Michigan, where we do most of our business.

As most of you know we’ve been working ’round the clock on Quilting Designs Volume 6 and Amy Butler Softwares - our two new CDs that are coming to Quilt Market May 15 (available for pre order now!).  But what you haven’t heard about is STASH Spring 2009 – OUR TWENTIETH EDITION! Yup, number twenty. That’s over 102,550 fabrics that we’ve scanned since we started this product in the fall of 1999. We are scanning all day long, creating libraries, sorting through boxes upon boxes of the newest fabric lines, designing packages, and throwing fabric at each other! Ok, maybe not that last part but we sure are surrounded by fabric everywhere you look. We know you’re all jealous Want to know more about our TWENTIETH EDITION of STASH? Read more here.

We recently blogged about Karen Witt, pattern designer and owner of Reproduction Quilts. We told you about her trip to France to teach a reproduction quilt class. Karen just sent me the design she created in EQ6 and a photo of the finished quilt top. Karen designed this quilt in EQ6. The black fabric is100% silk homespun and the other fabrics are from the line Colonial Williamsburg Providence by Windham. Karen and her daughter are selling the kit and pattern to make this quilt on their website. They also have a quilt made with this collection in Fons & Porters Easy Quilts Summer 2009 magazine that just came out! Congrats ladies! Karen’s daughter, Erin Witt, is also an avid EQ6 quilt designer and published quilter!Visit erinwittdesigns.com to see more of Erin’s Quilts.

We can always depend on the creative Jean Boyd to supply us with endless photo quilt projects! Here’s another project she’s sharing that includes an EQ Printables photo at the center surrounded by the sparkle of some beading. Check out Jean’s blog to read more on the project. Thanks for sharing, Jean!

Karen Witt is a pattern designer and owner of Reproduction Quilts who will soon be traveling to France to teach a class. How awful, right? This trip will be so neat for her students because Karen doesn’t just give you a quilt pattern to work on but fully immersed you in time period of the reproduction quilt that she makes. “In each class, we will listen to music from the era and discuss the lifestyles of women during the period – their clothing, culture, housing and, of course, quilts! My goal is for you to be immersed in the time period and enjoy the experience of making a reproduction quilt.” ~Karen The patterns she designed for her class in France are called Marquis de Lafayette and George Washington silhouettes and hopefully we’ll get to see the final product! Merci beaucoup et Bon voyage, Karen!