Behind the Mouse: The Electric Quilt Blog

So, I’ve always wanted to draw a tessellation. They are so cool the way they interlock and look like animals sometimes. I never thought I was creative enough to figure it out and draw it. Then I had an “Aha!” moment. I’m still not anywhere close to M.C. Escher artwork, but, I’ve figured out something fun in EQ6 I thought I’d share. A tessellation is easy if you start with a square and what you subtract from one side you add to the other. This is a silly way to do it, but start a new PatchDraw Block. On the Pieced tab, fill the block with half-square triangles. (My block is 10×10 and I kept only 6×6 in the center.) With the Pick tool, move a triangle from one side of the block to the other. Keep going until you’ve moved as much as you want. Stop if you think

M. Mercedes Silva wrote in to show one of her virtual ClubEQ designs that made it into fabric reality. Check out Mercedes’ original ClubEQ quilt “Firework”: Mercedes wrote: “Our guild had a fabric challenge (Robert Kaufman,”The fire within II’ D#6040), so I made the quilt from ClubEQ January 2007 #28. I did strip piecing, but it was not easy. I wish that I had done paper piecing instead. Well it is done now and my husband likes it very much, so much that he wanted in his office. Thanks for this wonderful program! Happy Quilting!” Finished quilt by Mercedes: You can see how the two have totally different effects when you flip-flop the lights and darks. I really like the way it turned out. So much piecing! Great job Mercedes!

Each month on the EQ website we have a free download … new fabrics for EQ5 and EQ6 users. The downloads are archived (all the way back to December 2003) so don’t worry, you can still get the downloads from the past 5 years. We want the download to be fabrics you want: So don’t forget to vote for the fabrics here We also take suggestions for future fabric choices. Just email webmaster@electricquilt.com.

In the latest issue of Quilting Arts Magazine, Gloria Hansen’s article “Digital Design Principles Part 1″ is a real eye opener for the digitally disabled. In this article, you’ll find guidance for resizing your images, working with Photoshop Elements layers, learn to use Photoshop Elements tools, get digitally organized, and how to manipulate your photos along with a few tips and tricks along the way. Her expertise will really give you a head start in designing using digital-aid. But, if you like what you learn from Gloria in Quilting Arts, you are going to LOVE her new book! “Digital Essentials – The quilt maker’s must-have guide to digital images, files and more” is a learning guide for designing in programs like Photoshop Elements and Paint Shop Pro. It’s loaded with digital designing instructions, tips, photo tricks, and more! Written by Gloria for both PC and MAC users, this book covers

Longtime EQ-er Sherry Herringshaw, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, wrote in to tell us of a recent chance she had to use her EQ6 software to design a quilt for her guild. Here’s what Sherry says: “This is a picture of an opportunity quilt I designed in EQ6 for Cajun Country Quilters of Gonzales Louisiana. My guild asked me to help design a opportunity quilt and I jokingly turned a similar design into it and they immediately said that one!! So, I fine-tuned it and this is the result. I had to come up with blocks various skilled members felt comfortable with. EQ6 made it easy to create patterns to distribute to members. Members of the guild made the log cabin diamond, the Dutchman puzzle and the gold triangle border blocks. I then made the center and completed the set. A guild member Judy Holley quilted it. We have named it

Margaret has been hard at work in her sewing room creating a series of some really beautiful and interesting quilts. They are a work in progress but I want to give you a sneak peek! Using our EQ printables, Margaret printed 8.5″ x 11″ photos of flowers onto fabric then soaked and dried them. She then cut the photos into several strips using a rotary cutter. Then, Margaret sorted through her boxes of fabric to find colors and patterns that complimented the flower photo so that the photo would blend and contrast harmoniously with the fabrics she chose. Spreading the strips a few inches apart from each other, but still the the correct order, Margaret planned out which fabrics would be placed in between each of the strips. The result is a stunning abstract image! After finishing the quilt, Margaret quilted around the fabric patterns (in this case, she quilted

We had a tech support question this weekend about drawing a certain block. After answering it I found I had a good list of tips on how I was able to draw it, so I thought I’d share. Let’s say you want to recreate a block with a bunch of triangles, diamonds, parallelograms, trapezoids, etc. Along the block edge, count up all the squares (this is A). Count up the remaining triangle hypotenuse thingies (this is B). Using either the 7-10-7 or 41-58-41 (A-B-A) method. Give all your A’s and B’s those values. This will give you the number of snaps you need. Set up a block and those snaps that will work with the units you come up with. Draw a line across the block and use Partition to find where your lines should go. When I was trying to find example blocks, the only ones I could think