Behind the Mouse: The Electric Quilt Blog

Amy Friend, one of the EQ Ambassadors, sent us a few of the quilts from her new book Improv Paper Piecing. I was excited when they came in because they are all super colorful! I also really like the names of her quilts. I never knew that catawampus was an actual word; I always thought it was just something that a couple people in my family came up with to say that something was a little off kilter.  Amy’s quilts are incredibly unique, which makes them even more amazing! Photographing Amy’s quilts was a lot of fun. We went to two different parks in the area. One of the parks was where we photographed Lori Miller’s quilts. It was amazing to see all the different flowers that were blooming this time around. Take a look at a few of the pictures we took! Peacock Crossing – Amy Friend of During

When you are drawing an EasyDraw block there are a few things you need to take into consideration. First of all, your block size. You can change the block size to any size you want once you are done drawing BUT depending on the design of the block it may be easier to draw it at a certain size (or multiple of that number). You also want your snap setting to be a multiple of your block size. For example if your block is 6 x 6, maybe set your snaps for 36 x 36.   Now, depending on the type of block you are drawing you may want to adjust your snap settings. If you have a 6 x 6 block with your snaps set to 36 x 36 and your Snap to Grid   setting ON then when you draw a line from the center of the block

Do you have 10 minutes a day to learn EQ7? Kari Schell of  OnPointQuilter.com is offering a FREE beginners class that is only 10 minutes a day, for 2 weeks. Every day you will get a short video and a small “task”. The class is done in Mystery Quilt format. What are you waiting for? Sign up now!

Tracing images can be tricky. It’s hard to think ahead and make sure that everything drawn on the screen is piecable at the sewing machine. With some practice, it gets easier to create incredible paper-piecing and applique blocks by tracing images. When I was younger I remember going to sewing events most Saturdays with my grandma. Some weeks it was machine embroidery club, block of the month, or just going to a quilt shop to socialize. One week at embroidery club, they showed how to make fabric post cards. I don’t remember much else about the meeting other than the fact that I liked this idea and wanted to make my own. Several years later, my grandma and I took a class at our local quilt shop that taught us how to take the concepts of art quilting and use that to make cards. I have taken what I learned

There are so many components to digitizing.  One of the obvious issues with some designs is the density.  Some stitch outs are so dense they are bullet proof and some are so loose in density you see spaces between your fill stitches.  The EQStitch program has a pre-set for the density and underlay stitches to be applied to any shape you create.  You can alter this in the properties bar on the stitch tab. Consider the design where there is one object layered on top of another.  A face would have this issue.  The face background is made first then the eyes, lips, nose, etc. are added details on top of the face background.  This creates several layers of stitches when using the program default settings.  Consider the artwork below.  The face has elements on top of the background.  The eyes have a pupil on top of the eye shape

Summer is in full swing and this month’s design is a large roomy tote.  It is a fun and quick design that features a great way to highlight a quilt block from the EQ Mini software.  I chose a beautiful applique design called Baltimore block to highlight on this tote.  I was keeping in mind how I was going to assemble this tote as I designed it.  The more you design, the easier it is to plan ahead for construction when designing your quilts to get the end result that you want.  Based upon a horizontal quilt layout, we play with row size, scale and colors to create this Summer Flora Tote. Summer Flora Quilted Tote Skillset: Beginner Size: 19″ x 40″ Skill Builders: Working with horizontal strip layout Editing a strip quilt Working with Borders Working with applique blocks Adding blocks Working with Size and Scale On to the design!

This past week we were lucky enough to be able to photograph a handful of Nancy Mahoney’s quilts. Her work is absolutely stunning and it was fun to find places that helped to show that. Take a look at some of the pictures we took! True Colors - Nancy Mahoney 2013 Crooked Path – Nancy Mahoney 2014 Split Star – Nancy Mahoney 2015 Gum Drops – Nancy Mahoney 2013 Infinity – Nancy Mahoney 2014 It’s really neat to see all that Nancy has been doing with EQ7! It has been so much fun to take quilts out that I have seen on the covers of her books and in magazines. It is surreal to see all of these quilts in person. Check out more of Nancy’s work on her website! Look for more of her photos in upcoming social media posts!