Behind the Mouse: The Electric Quilt Blog

Have you seen the fantastic entries submitted to the Century Solids challenge?! (See them in the original post here.) Thanks to everyone for participating! Winner The winner was chosen by Andover. A fat-quarter bundle of Century Solids goes to……….. Joyce D:     Joyce’s submission: I created this medallion quilt and love this Andover collection of fabrics to color the flying geese blocks and medallion. It was perfect to utilize the spectrum within the quilt.   Prize Joyce will receive fat quarters of the Century Solids collection from Andover! Again, you can see all the fabulous entries in the original blog post. Thanks again to all participants and congrats to the winners!! Want another chance to win fabric? Check out our July design challenge!

This month we will be learning four different ways to make Medallion Quilts. The first way is the easiest. #1 Using a Block From the Library Open EQ8 Click Design a Quilt from Scratch Click Horizontal Click the LAYOUT tab Under NUMBER OF BLOCKS Horizontal: 1 Vertical: 1 Under FINISHED SIZE OF BLOCKS Width: 30 Height: 30 Click the BORDERS tab Under Select a Border Style choose: Long Horizontal Under BORDER SIZE make all sides: 4 Click the DESIGN tab Click Open Library Under EQ Libraries > EQ8 Libraries > 01 Classic Pieced >Whole Top Designs - choose a block. The example is using Diamonds in Squares. Click Add to Sketchbook. Click Close. Click Block Tools Click Set Block, and click on the quilt worktable to set your block. Design the quilt as you would like. You can edit the block on the Block Worktable, recolor the block, or whatever you want

We’re keeping the contests coming this summer! Jump in for your chance to win some free fabric!! July’s Fabric of the Month is Pin Drop by Christopher Thompson (you may know him as the Tattooed Quilter) for Riley Blake Designs. Riley Blake Designs will ship a bundle of the fabrics to a winner so scroll down and read the rules so you can enter!! Good luck! Also, if you’re looking for more Pin Drop fun, check out this sew-along hosted by our friend, Charisma Horton! EQ Design Challenge & Giveaway To Enter Design your own original quilt in EQ using the Pin Drop fabrics then submit an image of it by 11:59pm ET on July 31, 2020. (Instructions for how to submit an image are at the bottom of this post.) Download the free “Pin Drop” fabrics for EQ here Rules Your EQ Quilt must only use fabrics from the Pin Drop collection. One

  Welcome to  Design and Sew 2 Lessons with Yvonne.  This is lesson five (5) in this series and the last lesson of this series.  We will be looking at blocks and changing the EQ8 program/project settings to edit existing block drawings.  We will also continue working with unique layouts for quilts built into the program library.  Color plays a significant role in how we view the quilts and we will discover how to change the color settings in the EQ8 program. Be sure to watch the video at the end of the blog first to get a feel for how the lesson will be laid out.  A picture is worth a million words! We want to see what you have created in this series of lessons so be sure to add your comments and images of your layouts to the blog in the comments box at the bottom. Refer back

With the Independence Day holiday coming up, I though a patriotic theme was in order.  There are so many wonderful blocks in EQ that are available to use.  Sometimes, however,  I have an idea that looks close to one of the block designs, but I want to change it up a bit and make it my own.  Using the power of  EQ8 , you can edit and tweak the block to design your own creation.  In this lesson,  we will deep dive into editing a block several ways.  We will update the drawing, resize a few things, draw a block, merge some blocks, and combine an easy draw block with applique to get to this super cute 4th of July design! We are going to start with a vintage farm truck and take it up a notch with a patriotic spin. Let’s get started. Patriotic Parade Table Runner Skillset: Advanced Beginner/

Welcome to Design and Sew 2 –Lessons with Yvonne.  This is lesson four (4) in the series.  In this lesson, we will highlight text and it’s applications in the EQ8 program.  Text can be used in so many different ways to enhance our quilts.  We will explore the use of text and how to make it a feature in your quilt designs.  We will also look at different fabrics and layout options as unique backgrounds for our text elements. The video for this lesson is at the bottom of the blog page.  I suggest you watch the video to start with and then do the written lesson after.  This way you will have a good idea as to how we are going to step through the lesson to create the quilt designs. A picture is worth a thousand words, and when creating different text styles in one layout it is easier

Welcome to the EQ8 Block Spotlight series! 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. Whether you’re a brand new EQ8 user or a seasoned pro, come join in the fun! When I started working on this month’s spotlight post, I realized that the last four blocks I’ve featured have had floral names (Flower Weave, Two Little Flowers 2, Dogtooth Violet, and Honeysuckle). I hope y’all aren’t getting tired of flowers yet! This month’s block: Jungle Flower Where to find it: 02 Contemporary Pieced > Pinwheels & Potpourri A couple design ideas to get you started This first quilt uses a 3 x 3 on-point layout. I used the original block in all the spaces, just colored it two different ways. The gray and white version makes me think