Behind the Mouse: The Electric Quilt Blog

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!

Digital Essentials by Gloria Hansen was chosen as an Editors Pick in the Holiday Issue of Quilting Arts! We wanted to share the lovely write up from the magazine with you all so enjoy! “At last, a primer on digital design for the artist! Written in plain English with easy-to-follow steps, Digital Essentials demystifies digital imaging software, whether you have a MAC or PC, whether you just want to resize pictures and print them out or design a whole quilt on the computer. Because Gloria knows both computers and quilting, she can tell you what you need to know and why. Working with this book is like having a kindly expert sitting right beside you, guiding you through the digital maze. “ Quilting Arts Mazagine – Sept Holiday issue 2008-2009

This story about yet another non conventional use for EQ6 speaks for itself. It’s from Daphne Stewart and she writes about her experience with a landscaper at her home. Trying to describe what she wanted them to do was getting frustrating. So, she used EQ6 to illustrate exactly what she wanted. She basically drew a block containing smaller squares that represented 2 feet of space totaling the length and width of her garden. She then drew the landscaping pieces on Layer 2 of EQ to indicate where she wanted each hedge to be replaced and now large they should be. Brilliant! And the landscaper love it! (Click on the images to see them up close.) Daphne explains the situation, “We called a landscaper in and stood beside the stump-filled area, waving our arms around and drawing him word pictures. Then I came inside and drew the quilt in the attached