Behind the Mouse: The Electric Quilt Blog

[David Butler, Amy Butler, Jenny Novinsky, & Andrea Bishop] As our July 22nd meeting with Amy rolled closer and closer, much discussion could be heard between Penny, Jenny and Andrea about their upcoming road trip. Oh my gosh, what am I going to wear? What are you going to wear? Do you think we’ll get to see her studio? Where are we going again? We arrived around noon and were greeted by Amy at the door. Her studio takes up an entire gorgeously-restored 150-year-old home just off of downtown. With a mix of timeless, splash of modern, and just all-around Amy vibes everywhere… it was so pleasant and peaceful as we toured room by room and met her staff. (As you can see from the picture, even the landscaping outside was inspirational.) We sat down around a long farm table with rectangular white plates as the center pieces (filled with

We’ve been working hard here at EQ to come out with 2 new books: Digital Essentials by Gloria Hansen Blending Photos with Fabric 2 by Mary Ellen Kranz Both books deal with digital images but in different ways. Together you get a really good idea of how to work with images and what you can do with them after they are on your computer. Check out the links above to see more information.

OK. Grab the box of tissues. This one came into my mailbox over the weekend and really got me this morning. [sob] Andrea Lester in Oklahoma wrote to tell us about a recent project she did using EQ. Here’s what Andrea says: “I want to share a project I made using the shirting templates in EQ6. A few months ago my friend Marilyn asked me to make her a quilt using her husband’s ties (Harry had just recently passed away). There were only nine ties to work with, not really enough to make even a lap sized quilt.” “To make a long story short, I browsed through EQ6 shirting templates and came up with the attached design. I had nine ties, nine tie clips many silk “hankies” to use in the pockets I added. Red was Harry’s favorite color so I used the red ties in the center blocks, red

Last month Sherry Herringshaw wrote in about an opportunity quilt she did with her guild (designed in EQ of course). That was one cool medallion. It must be a popular use, because Jan Steinhoff wrote to say she did the same. Here is Jan’s original EQ design: Jan says: This is the quilt that Amador Valley Quilters will market in order to raise money for the guild. We use it primarily to buy materials to make and give away over 500 quilts a year to local shelters We sell tickets to other guilds and at local quilt shows, such as Pacific International Quilt Festival in Menlo Park. The appliqué on the borders is based on patterns from Gwen Marston and Pat Campbell (who also gave permission to me to use them). Here is the finished quilt: Hopefully this opportunity quilt gave you just that – the opportunity to do a

I hope you all have had a chance to play with the star layouts in the EQ5 or EQ6 library. Beth Davis did… and wow. You should see the spectacular “Star Burst” quilt she came up with. Here’s what Beth says: “I thought you might enjoy seeing a quilt that I just completed. It is called “Star Burst” and is 102″ X 102″. I designed it using EQ5. I used one of the existing quilt layouts from the library. I used a pineapple block with commercial fabric for the 8 pointed star and radiating star points. I tried different pieced blocks for the plain block areas but nothing was working.” Beth’s “Star Burst” quilt “Last summer I took a Shibori class with Marjie McWilliams at Quiltuniversity.com. When I auditioned the star burst hand dyed fabric in those plain blocks, I thought the quilt came to life. I was able to

A while back I showed you some projects Margaret was making incorporating the printable fabric photos of leaves. Well I promised I’d show you the finished pieces and she’s finally done! Below are a few photos of the finished quilt. Circling the center diamond, there are four photos of leaves and greenery. By themselves they are just four diagonal blocks made from photos but Margaret has done something really cool to really make them apart of the quilt. Take a look at the finished quilt from far away Now zoomed in on the center photos. Now REALLY close, you can see what Margaret has done. You can see that the photo of the leaf is inside the tiled rectangle but then you can see that the photo of the leaf somehow extends out from the photo as if it’s growing into the quilt! Using each photo as a starting point,

Maureen from New York shared a very special printable fabrics project with us. Her niece was getting married and Maureen made her a VERY special purse to carry on her big day. The purse was made of material from her mother’s wedding dress, material from her mother’s veil, and photos of the dress receipt, wedding photo, and newspaper announcement on EQ printable fabric. The purse turned out beautifully and is such a unique and sentimental gift. “I love your fabric sheets. This is the first time I used them. I was making a purse for my niece, who is getting married, I used the velvet from my mother’s wedding dress and the Madeira lace from her veil. I had her wedding picture, the bill for the wedding dress and the announcement from the newspaper. printed all of these on the fabric and used it as the lining for the purse….