Behind the Mouse: The Electric Quilt Blog

  EQ8 users get excited! If you liked our first design book for EQ8 (EQ8 Designing Quilts) you’ll LOVE this new design book, EQ8 Designing More Quilts! Watch for it in early September at ElectricQuilt.com or ask for it at your local quilt shops! Just like the first book, this new book has 8 different authors who each wrote a chapter about a unique type of quilt design. Chapter topics and authors: Chapter 1 by Nancy Mahoney Medallion QUILTS! Learn border tricks used to design striking medallion quilts. Chapter 2 by Reeze Hanson Applique QUILTS! Trace a picture of a tile to create an applique block. Designing this quilt is a lot easier than it looks! Chapter 3 by Lori Miller Modern QUILTS! Use alternate gridwork to create eye-catching modern quilts. Chapter 4 by Barb Vlack Optical Illusion QUILTS! Can you believe that a mathematical formula inspired this quilt? Chapter

Attn EQ8 owners: An updated version of EQ8 is yours — free! First of all… did you know that you can share your EQ8 designs directly to Facebook?! It’s so easy! Recently, however, Facebook required that we change the way the Share to Facebook feature works in EQ8. This change actually offers more options for your Facebook posts, as well as great quality images of your quilts. Update your EQ8 now: Due to Facebook’s change, your current version of EQ8 will not allow you to use the Share to Facebook feature. You’ll need to update your EQ8 if you’d like to use this feature. As an owner of EQ8, you can update to the newest version (1.0.5.0 for Windows / 3.0.5.0 for Mac) for free. To download and install the update, make sure you’ve got a good internet connection and follow instructions carefully on our EQ8 Updates page. If you

Welcome to the next post in the EQ8 Block Spotlight series! Each month we’ll 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! Let’s get creative! This month’s block: Pyramid Kite Where to find it: 03 Foundation Pieced > Balloons & Kites A few design ideas to get you started For my first quilt, I created two different blocks from the Pyramid Kite block using Create Serendipity > Shrink & Flip. Here’s what the two Shrink & Flip blocks look like. I could have set each Pyramid Kite block in the quilt and rotated them each individually to achieve the same look, but creating these two blocks in Serendipity first made it much faster when I set them in the quilt! It may be a little harder to spot the individual block

CHALLENGE CLOSED! WOW! We are SO impressed with all the entries… EQ users are SO talented. Thank  you to all the participants! Freebies from Christa Free pattern Christa’s “Beaded Lanterns” pattern (colored with Fandangle fabrics) is FREE for you! Click here to download the PDF. Free EQ8 project Since Christa designed “Beaded Lanterns” in EQ8, she’s also giving you the EQ8 project download so you can open it and play! Click here to download the EQ8 project. Find Fandangle Christa also included a list of shops that are carrying Fandangle just in case any of you want to find it! The list is on Christa’s blog here. On to the Winners! I think this was our toughest challenge to pick winners! Somehow, we narrowed down our favorites and here they are….. Overall Winner: Betsy EQ Honorable Mention: Janet B. Christa’s Honorable Mention: Mel B. The three winners will receive the

Welcome to Design & Discover! You can follow along with a lesson and submit your version of the quilt right on the blog with a link up. If you have a blog, make sure to add your site too. Let’s visit each others’ blogs and all get to know each other! Before getting started, keep in mind any of the images can be viewed larger by clicking on them. Also, you don’t have to make the quilts exactly as shown, have fun and make it your own! This month we will be doing some drawing and using borders to create a non-standard layout to make this quilt! (Or your version of it!) (You can download the project HERE.) First let’s draw the blocks! We’ll be using EasyDraw. The most important thing about drawing EasyDraw blocks is that  all segments must be connected to the outside edge of the block or

Your quilt may have a focal point where the eye rests (like in a medallion quilt) or it may have movement where your eye travels over the entire quilt top to discover many pleasing features built into the design.  Movement can be created with color repeats and with curved elements that cause you to travel over the quilt to take in the entire project.  In this blog we will discuss movement created with curved blocks.  There is more than one way to create the illusion of curves and movement. The easy way to create curves is to make a block with applique on it.  Placing the applique elements in a somewhat random placement that is slightly curved will create an overall curved design when added to the quilt layout. This does not really looked curved.  When placed onto a quilt layout and then having the blocks rotated with the symmetry

Welcome to the next post in the EQ8 Block Spotlight series! Each month we’ll 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! Let’s get creative! This month’s block: Arrowheads Where to find it: 01 Classic Pieced > Maltese Cross A few design ideas to get you started Here is a simple 3 x 3 on-point layout. I’ve paired the Arrowheads block with another block from the Maltese Cross section called Kaleidoscope Variation. I like the little secondary design in the corners! And here I’ve used it as the focal point of a custom set layout. (I like this one so much, I might actually make it!) What would you design with the Arrowheads block? Post a quilt or two in the comments below. It can be as simple or as complex