Behind the Mouse: The Electric Quilt Blog

With the addition of some new employees to our team, we hosted another EQ sewing day in January, so everyone can learn to quilt! Our talented teacher, Jenny, guided us through the process. We’re making a quilt using color schemes chosen through a contest. Each month, we’ll feature one staff member and their block in the quilt. If you’d like to sew along and get more details about the project, check them out here. This month we’re featuring Diane! Diane leads the Customer Service team, is a member of the Marketing team, and does the majority of accounting. She enjoys cultivating relationships with designers and others in the quilting industry and is fantastic at helping wherever and whenever needed elsewhere. Diane is also great at solving problems and figuring out ways to expose the wonderful EQ products to everyone. Diane says, she loves “hearing or reading the excitement in user’s

Welcome to the EQ8 Block Spotlight! Each month we highlight a block from the EQ8 Block Library with a few design ideas. Then we want you to show us what you can do with the block. We hope these posts will inspire you to try something new and expand your EQ skills! This month’s block: Topeka Rose Where to find it: 04 Classic Applique > Roses Design ideas to spark your creativity I went with a spring palette and more traditional design for my first quilt. The fabric collection is Kindred by 1canoe2 for Moda. Here’s how to download a manufacturer’s fabrics for use in EQ8. I started by using Serendipity > Frame Block to add a cornerstone frame to the Topeka Rose block. The stars are created in the wide sashing between the blocks. I used the Even Star Sash 1 block from the 10 Sashing > Star Sashing section

Thank you to everyone who participated in last month’s design challenge! Check out all the wonderful quilt designs we received here! Winners Three winners were selected, one by the QT Fabrics team and the other two were chosen randomly. Congratulations to…. Winner 1 (QT Fabrics’ Pick): Jeanne A Gardner Winner 2 (Random Pick): Janice Berg Winner 3 (Random Pick): Pamela Haley A Note from QT Fabrics “There were so many wonderful, creative designs to consider, choosing one winner was not easy. We looked for a balanced, distinctive design that made good use of the fabrics in the Cotton Tails group. The design by Jeanne A. Gardner fit the bill with an on-point set that focuses attention on the printed rabbit blocks. The background print changes from top to bottom of the quilt add extra interest without detracting from the blocks. Well done, Jeanne! Thank you to all who participated.” – QT Fabrics team Honorable

This contest is now closed. Winners are announced here! Welcome back to another EQ Design Challenge! February’s Fabric of the Month is Quilting is My Voice by Scott Flanagan for Northcott! This collection has special meaning for designer Scott Flanagan, who was diagnosed with a permanent vocal cord disorder in 2017. Since then, quilting has literally become his voice as he gains national notoriety in the quilting community and uses this platform as a spokesperson for Dysphonia International to help raise awareness of the disorder and to raise funds for research. As quilters, our projects often express who we are. How has quilting become your voice? A bundle of these fabrics will be given away to two lucky winners! Submit your EQ design featuring Quilting is My Voice below…all instructions and contest details are in this post. Good luck! To enter In order to enter for the giveaway you must submit a quilt using

Our next EQ Academy is May 2-4 in Perrysburg, Ohio and enrollment is open now!  View all classes here > In this post, we’d like to introduce you to our wonderful teachers! Lori Miller Lori J. Miller is a quilter, pattern designer, teacher and EQ8 superfan from Oxford, Michigan. Lori offers EQ8 classes that help the student develop confidence to design beautiful blocks and quilts. Sewing since age 11, Lori has deep roots in sewing and quilting traditions that add a unique dimension to her designs. Using EQ for the design process, Lori’s quilts have been exhibited nationally and her fresh designs have been published in numerous magazines. You may know Lori from her Lessons with Lori series right here on the EQ Blog or have taken a class from her at a quilt show! Lori’s Classes: Jenny Novinsky Jenny Novinsky started working at Electric Quilt as a graphic design

Start the new year by using up your scraps from the previous year’s projects.  Scraps seem to grow even faster than my collection of yardage.  My scraps get out of control so quickly.  EQ8 to the rescue!  Many blocks are suited exactly for the usage of scraps. Open your EQ8 program.  On the main page splash screen,  select the ‘Create a New Project’ tab, and then type in the name ‘SCRAP BUSTER DESIGNS’.  Click the OK at the bottom of the box. The name of the project should now show at the top of your screen. At the top of the screen, click on LIBRARIES>Block Library. In the Library box, click on the  + sign in front of the category  03 Foundation Pieced. In the subcategory, Crazy Blocks-Simple.  Select all the blocks in the category.  There are a total of 32 blocks in this section.  Once the blocks are selected,

Recently we’ve had some new employees added to the staff, so it was the perfect time for another EQ sewing day. We have lots of quilters on staff, but not everyone (yet)! Jenny was a great teacher! And we all had fun learning!   As you may remember we had a contest to pick a color scheme for a quilt. We’re each sewing a block that will then be made into a quilt. Each month one staff member will be featured along with their block. (It just so happens we have 12 employees!) If you’d like to sew along the project and more details are available here. This month we’re featuring Matt! Matt is a support specialist who developed and maintains the EQ websites, software installations, as well as nuts and bolts of the EQ servers, email list and most complex technical support issues. You may have talked to him