Behind the Mouse: The Electric Quilt Blog

Have you seen the new TV quilting series, “Quilting Arts,” hosted by Pokey Bolton which airs on PBS? Well there’s a new season coming up, and I just returned from a fun trip to Cleveland to tape 6 new episodes. My segments didn’t begin taping until late afternoon, so I hung out backstage (in full make-up no less) until it was my turn, chatting it up with Joel Dewberry, Lyric Kinard, Laura Wasilowski, and Sue Hausmann. (So much fun.) Then, host Patricia (Pokey) Bolton and I did episodes together on: Making your own fabric Printing on fabric Using words in quilts Printing skewed blocks Designing quilts with software Printing patterns from quilt design software I’ll let you know when they start airing, and hope you get a chance to see some of them!

Thanks to everyone for entering our “EQ the Mouse Hunt” contest. We just went through all the entries to find the winners. We had a tie for third place and decided to award 2 prizes rather than choose one. A big CONGRATULATIONS goes out to: First Place: D. Kathy Willis (27) Second Place: Barbara Sokol (26) Third Place (1): Kari Bauer (25) Third Place (2): Sara Weber (25) Thanks again for searching! EQ the Mouse is flattered by everyone who went looking for his fan mail photos.

EQ Graphic Designer Jenny Novinsky, sent out an early morning office email last week containing only an image of her son Aidan. Aidan got to announce the big news to the EQ staff that he’s going to be a big brother! If you’ve been keeping up with our newsletters and photos you’d know that EQ is a fertility hot spot! EQ staffers Heidi Kory recently had a baby boy named Derek, Sara Seuberling had twins Aly and Ben, and Sara Woodward will welcome a baby girl in October. Now, we can’t say we were too surprised about Jenny’s news. I mean, we’re getting used to the familiar pregnancy announcement around here, it’s more of a guessing game of who’s next!? Never-the-less, the news never gets old and the excitement boils over. Jenny’s new addition will be EQ baby number 5 and we are just so happy for her and her

Andrea and I just got back from the Checker Distributor Show in Maumee, Ohio. We really enjoyed the chance to meet some of the store owners and chat with you about EQ. Andrea got to teach a few classes on EQ6 and then we spent a day chatting with people about our products and showing them how the program works while they took advantage of show prices! Most of all, Andrea and I appreciated the chance to catch up with our fellow EQ friends and make some new ones! Thanks to Checkers for putting on a very nice show and for inviting us to attend.

Chris Willis shared with us her vintage photo cards she made with our printable fabrics. Here are her instructions: For those who are computer savvy, you can tint black and white photos using your imaging software and print them out in color on EQ Printables. But if you’d rather spend less time mouse-ing and more time creating, it’s fun and easy to tint black and white fabric photos by hand. step 1: Scan a vintage black and white photo, or use your favorite imaging software to remove the color from a more recent photo. step 2: Print your images onto EQ printable fabric, four to a sheet for postcards. (The Premium Cotton Satin and Lawn have worked best.) step 3: Rinse as directed before using wet media to tint. step 4: Apply fusible web to the back of your image sheet then carefully cut the image away from its background.

Only 12 days left to our “EQ The Mouse Hunt” contest. Everyone who enters gets a free project… so even if you just find one mouse you should enter. Winners will be chosen September 2, 2008. See how to enter on the mouse hunt page.

EQ Co-op Jenny Joseph, Sara’s mother-in-law Denise & Sara Baby Woodward is almost here! Only a few more months now and we’ll have yet another addition to the EQ family. In honor of her upcoming arrival, we threw a shower for Sara and we sure had fun together! Lots of pink and brown onesies with fashionable ruffles and skirts had us all “oohhing” and ahhhing” all evening and a couple silly games kept us laughing. We all shared our own signature dishes for an upscale pot luck dinner and enjoyed the perfect weather on the patio. There were some special guests at the party too; Heidi Kory’s little one, Derek, and the Seuberling Twins, Ben and Aly! Sara got some great practice time in All-in-all it was a wonderful celebration for Sara and her soon-to-be little one. Margaret made a cute quilt with scalloped edges for Sara There’s no better