April Desktop Calendar

Yes, I know it's spring, but I'm just not in a spring-y mood. Sorry - no cute little bunnies cavorting in pretty spring flowers...maybe next month. Oldest daughter and family move to South Carolina in 10 days so I'm in kind of a blue (purple?) funk...

This quilt was submitted to the Electric Quilt's monthly EQ Club Challenge - see all the entries for the curved piecing challenge and be glad (as I am) that these are designs only and don't actually have to be pieced! It was designed in EQ7 and uses just 2 blocks: a full Double Wedding Ring, and a block made up of just 1 side of the pieced curve. Super-easy to design, kind of a pain to color correctly, and a definite piecing "no, thank you!"

Click to expand the image to full size, right-click and choose Set as Wallpaper or Background.

To really make the calendar "pop" right-click on your background and choose black.

I'll be back in a few with a cool photo-packed report on the Rabbit's Lair in Rogers, Arkansas  - in the meantime, enjoy your desktop calendar!

August 2012 Desktop Calendar

So about a week ago, Marija Vujcic, a fellow-EQ7-user posted that she'd designed a couple of wreath blocks in EQ and put them on her blog, Marija's Fabric Creations. I'm nosey, so I checked it out. Loved the wreath she made with them. And the other alternate design ideas were cute too. Then I noticed that they were basically log cabin-variations.

Ding-ding. Lightbulb moment! I could save myself some time and effort if I stole - I mean borrowed Marija's wreath quilt to use as my desktop calendar. Not that I mind the time it takes to work up my desktop calendar every month, and not that you're not worth the effort, but really, it's so much easier when someone else does the work!

So I emailed Marija and asked if it would be ok to use her design on the August calendar, and she graciously said yes. So here it is! I changed it up a little so I could at least pretend that I had some input. Yes, I may be prone to slackerhood, but I'm not a total slacker...

Click on the calendar to expand the image to full size, then right-click and choose Set as Wallpaper or Background. To really jazz up your desktop, right-click on your background and choose a color that coordinates with the calendar - or do like I do, and set your background color to black. It goes with everything and really makes the colors pop! And when your friends say, "Where did you get that?" Send them to see me!

And a big thank you to Marija and Marija's Fabric Creations!

Check This Out!

My good friend Reeze Hanson, quilt and pattern designer, (and Expert EQ'er) of Morning Glory Designs is going to be the guest blogger tomorrow, November 21st at Stash Manicure. You need to check it out. In addition to being a college professor (so you know she's smart...not to be confused with being a smart a$$...but she's that, too), she's a published pattern designer with her work being featured numerous times in Quilter's World Magazine, Jump Start Your Quilting, and Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, Vol.2. Her patterns are also carried by Quilt Woman, Pattern Peddlers, and more.
And Reeze always has free downloads (yay Reeze!) and giveaways, too.
So check out her guesting tomorrow over at Sew We Quilt/Stash Manicure, then swing by Reeze's own blog - often!

New: Electric Quilt's "EQ Boutique"

As long as I'm sitting and waiting for Gillian to get out of dance, I thought I'd get caught up on adding the new fabric lines on Quilters Crossing's website.
But then I got distracted by an email that came in from the folks at Electric Quilt. All I saw was NEW & FREE! and I was checkin' out their website faster than I could say, "Sorry Deb...your new collections are gonna hafta wait!"

~ Presenting ~


It's an online pattern shop with a free, downloadable program that comes loaded with 20 Rose of Sharon appliqué blocks. The program lets you print your pattern in the suggested size or any size you want! Sewing instructions are included where applicable, and so are template, foundation, and rotary-cutting versions of the patterns.
In addition to the pre-loaded program, you can download a free set of 12 jazzy Ohio Star block variations that are totally cool. For Free. Really!

Ok, you say, but why "free?"

Well, I'll tell you! They've got tons of other block sets available for purchase by designers like Karen K. Stone (think New York Beauties), Marsha McCloskey (Feathered Stars), Judy Martin (Rotary Cut Stars), Angie Padilla (the cutest Appliqués ever, and so many more! And when you purchase a set of blocks and download them, they automatically go straight into your EQ Boutique program. No muss, no fuss.

And another thing...if you've already got EQ7 on your computer, it'll automatically link the blocks directly to it, just by clicking one (1) button! No "Where the *#%^ did I save that to anyway?!" Being the scatterbrain that I am, I have to confess that I save everything to my desktop so I can find it again, but then I have to wade through all those shortcuts later and get rid of them cuz I can't stand the chaos. This will save me a whole lot of steps. How cool is that?!

And they've got a mess of Fun Stuff: contests, freebies, a newsletter and lots more. And if you've been toying with the idea of combining software with quilting, but you're not sure you can handle EQ7, this is the perfect way for you to get your feet wet and gain some confidence in using your computer for something other than email or Farmville.

Click on that badge up there to check out all the designers, block sets, and directions on how to get the most from the software. I have absolutely NO affiliation with The Electric Quilt Company other than having an intimate relationship with their software since the beginning. Back in the Stone Age, when DOS was the language of choice.

They've come a long way, baby!

EQ7

While I'm working on the May calendar, I thought I'd give you a heads up on the program I use to design them: Electric Quilt!
I've used EQ since the very first version, about 16 years ago, and since that time, I've only designed one quilt without it - a wholecloth painted quilt. 100+ quilts in the last 16 years - you decide if I like EQ or not!
Anyway - just got word this week that they're coming out with a new version in June, and for a limited time, they've got some killer pre-order pricing.
Check it out at Electric Quilt

Better get back to work on the calendar!