Behind the Mouse: The Electric Quilt Blog

The Electric Quilt Company has organized and sponsored two computer classrooms of hands-on quilt design software classes this year in Houston. Are you EQ savvy? Are you going to be in Houston this year? We are looking for volunteer helpers in the classes. You would be a *quiet* helper for those who fall behind, rush ahead or to just need help keeping on track during class. The complete schedule for both classrooms is listed below. If you are interested and would like to volunteer, please write to AnnRutter@electricquilt.com and let her know which classes fit your schedule, and she’ll let you know which classes still need helpers. Mon 27-Oct All Day Beginning EQ6 Barb Vlack Tue 28-Oct All Day Block Drawing in EQ6 Barb Vlack Wed 29-Oct 9-noon Learn New EQ6 Features & Tricks Barb Vlack Wed 29-Oct 2-5pm Advanced EQ6 Quilt Designing Barb Vlack Thu 30-Oct All Day EQ6

We’re really excited about the new Kaleidoscope Collection CD from Andrea Bishop. We’ve started shipping orders and stocking up for Houston too so it’s been busy around here. So now that the CDs are on there way out, you’re going to be getting started on all your new projects! So we’ve created the Kaleidoscope Collections Club on our website! This club is open to everyone who owns the Kaleidoscope Collection CD plus EQ5 or EQ6. Each month, Andrea will present something new that you can do with designs from the CD. One month you might learn to modify a block, or try out quilt design variations. Another month you may draw from scratch, or learn to rotate fabric to complement the Kaleidoscope design. The whole idea is to work together, using these Kaleidoscopes, to really design some cools quilts, and learn in the process. The first project will begin at

A year ago, my neighbor’s son Nick Mazza was killed in a car accident due to a negligent driver. Despite their obvious heart ache and readjusting to life without him, they were determined to find ways to cherish his memory. As an organ donor, Nick was able to give life to others in need and through the Community Tissue Services, Nick would be recognized for his continuing gifts. CTS contacted his parents about contributing a memory quilt block to the Connected by Giving remembrance quilt. The quilts are displayed throughout the community in memory of those who gave life to others and to raise awareness for donor need. I was asked to help design the memory block for Nick. I was honored and though it was difficult to feel the families pain with them, it was rewarding to have been apart of keeping his memory going. I wanted to share

For months now we’ve been getting ready for Houston Fall Market and Festival. Can you believe it’s almost time? Well, true to form, we’re bringing some new products with us so consider this a heads up! Oh yeah… and have we told you about the NEW BOOKS? They’ll be there too!

DIGITAL ESSENTIALS AND BLENDING PHOTOS WITH FABRIC 2 JUST ARRIVED! Literally, we just opened up the first few boxes and savored in the initial burst of “new book” smell. We’re moving at frantic speeds to pack and ship pre-orders and new book orders as they are coming in. So only a few more days now and you’ll have the much anticipated publications in hand! Yes, all the boxes you see there are only a small handful of the orders we’ve been able to pack today. We sympathize with the UPS guy.

Talk about a testament to the EQ6 manual! Barbara Hilson wrote to us telling her triumphant story of upgrading to EQ6 and taking the time to learn about WHAT she could do with the program and HOW. She took the time to complete lessons in her manual and gave a seven year old quilt design a fresh spin based on what she had learned. Below is her journey and photos of her finished quilt. “I bought the fabric in December, 2002 (yes a long time ago) to make a rose quilt for my sister who loves roses. Her name is Rosalee. It was going to be a simple nine patch with embroidered roses between the nine patches. Well – 7 years and 4 months later I knew that was not what it was going to be. I had upgraded EQ5 to EQ6 in January or February of this year and

Today, Andrea completed the stencils for Quilting Designs Volume 5! It was a long road between her and Jenny to finish up the over 800 designs that will be in the collection but it was well worth it! We heard the most well deserved sigh of relief when Andrea finished the very last project this morning. The two spent countless hours drawing Quiltmaker stencils to get the designs print ready for you! So make sure you at least check out some of the prettiest designs of the Quilmaker Quilting Design series yet. The CD is expected to be ready for Fall Market but in the mean time you can check out just a sample of what’s included. Click on the image to see the stencils up close!