Ponchatoula, LA hosts an annual outdoor quilt expo in October.  BerryPatch Preservation for Quilting & Visual Arts produces the show and I designed "Strawberry Stroll" for the 2005 expo.  Expo-ers can buy a ticket to play "Fat Quarter Stroll" during Expo.  They are provided a map with participating merchants (mostly antique shops) that are hosting a basket of FQ's featured in the design as well as a copy of the pattern.  They visit each shop to pick up the FQ there to add to their bag and at the end of the day they have all the fabric to complete the quilt top.  It's been a very popular activity at the expo.

Since Ponchatoula is well-known for their delicious strawberries, I used strawberries as my theme for this pattern.  You can learn more about the expo at this site:
http://www.berrypatchpreservation.org

I recently saw the quilt gallery on the Electric Quilt web site and wondered if you would be interested in including this wall hanging that I have recently made. I use EQ6 to design almost all my quilts and I love the improvements in this latest version. Until I discovered Electric Quilt I just used to make traditional quilts and follow patterns because I just didn't have the confidence in my own drawing and designing ability, but getting a computer and then discovering Electric Quilt was the best thing that ever happened to my quilting.
 
I live in Brunei, which is on the island of Borneo in South east Asia and we are lucky enough to still have some areas of tropical rain forest here. This wall hanging was inspired by a photo I took in a near by national park. I created the background using crazy foundation pieced blocks and then imported a picture of the fan palms which I then drew as a separate motif. I used a wide variety of mostly batik fabrics to piece the foundation blocks and replicate the colours of fallen leaves. The stems of the palms were couched yarn and then I used several different green batiks and satin stitch applique for the fronds.
 
I have written about how I made this design on my blog Anne's Creative Threads and I have also written about some of the other designs, mostly nature inspired, I have made using EQ6.
Regards,
Anne Maundrell, Brunei

Blog: http://annemaundrelldesigns.com/wordpress/

website: http://annemaundrelldesigns.com/

Quilts for sale: http://www.AnneMaundrellDesigns.Etsy.com/

I designed the block and the quilt. I also did the piecing and the quilting. I call the quilt Topsy Turvy Gemstones. I've started designing quilts to sell the patterns and the finished quilts.  I've been sewing since I was six and quilting for the last 5 years. This is a paper pieced design that is for experienced paper piecers.

I am a long time lurker on the Info-EQ digest list and read it faithfully. I have used EQ since EQ4 and have yet to use the program to its full potential. Five years ago I worked in a local quilt shop and designed and wrote patterns for block of the month projects. Over three years ago I purchased a long-arm machine (APQS Millenium) and now work full-time quilting customer’s quilts. The only drawback to this (I love what I do!) is there is much less time to design with EQ. I have enjoyed seeing the quilts submitted and wanted to add one of my quilts! Thanks for giving us this opportunity!

Mary
Lightly Quilted

This quilt design was submitted for the Jan 2008 Club EQ challenge which was "Make it Seasonal." Texas winters are mild. The yellow greens are for the dormant grass. True greens for the oak trees and hollies. Blue for crystal clear skies and cleansing rains. The red center square of the uneven log cabin is for the berries. The butterflies are for life ready to spring forth again. I used two different black Paula Nadelstern fabrics for the butterflies. Using two closely related fabrics will keep your eye flowing around the quilt. Experiment with different color combinations in the border to make your quilt glow. I discovered AFTER I had made the butterfly quilt blocks that the red center square blended in too much to the butterfly fabric. So I had to rip apart the butterfly squares and replace the very center red square with the corresponding more neutral beige or blue color. It was worth it in the end. The border was very forgiving to assemble and attach.

"Mostri?" is its title.
I designed, made and quilted it by myself.
I created it for my son who loves these characters.
I quilted it with flourescent thread so it is shining in the darkness.

Simonetta
http://www.springteam.it/

I designed, pieced and quilted it on my Bernina. It all started with the border fabric, which I just couldn't pass up when I saw it in our local show. Since I love feathered stars (and all Lemoyne Star variations), I decided to feature the fabric in the center of some stars, picking up the colors of the focus fabric in the star points. This quilt won a blue ribbon in our show the next year -- my first! :)

Sandy
http://www.sandymike.net

Quilt Credit: The quilt pattern was inspired by a pattern called Star Shine from a book called Mile-A-Minute Quilts by Sharon Hultgren. I altered the pattern from rectangular to square, altered the design of the small star to make it stand out more from the background, and split the Large Star into two different colors to give more sense of movement to the quilt. The quilt stencil design is my own original design. I pieced and quilted the quilt myself (just me and my walking foot with lots and lots of turning the quilt.)

Quilt Story: This quilt design was submitted for the March 2008 EQ challenge. This quilt design was born out of my deep admiration and respect for all the people at NASA and their ongoing contributions and my love for our fragile Blue Planet. I designed the quilt stencil so it could be done with my walking foot. Can you recognize the rocket ships pointed nose to nose in the outside border? If I could do it over again I wish I had used a different color of thread for the actual quilting. You can hardly see the quilt design. I should have used a silver metallic thread for the NASA logo in the four corner blocks and the large central rocket, and a light teal for all the other quilting.

This one was designed by a friend, Susan Neves, and I in honor of another friend who started and ran The Quilting Post on-line quilt group. When she turned the reins over to Susan and I, we came up with this design as a surprise for her and made the patter available to all members as a block of the month. It incorporates blocks from various block swaps we had done over the years, renewed interests Sheryl was pursuing in gardening, and the figures in the corners are the symbols we used for past Quilter's Romps - yearly retreats.

Denise Russart
TQP Co-Owner, Swap & MOH Coordinator
See my quilts at http://community.webshots.com/user/denisequilts100
blog: http://justquiltin.wordpress.com/

This is the project that enabled me to learn how to use Electric Quilt. After hatching a plot to surprise our friend Pat with a photo quilt, my friend Robin and I each took some photos and made blocks without any plan at all except to use fabrics from the same line. I taught myself to draft the blocks we had made and learned to use custom set to fit all the blocks together. It was a wonderful challenge because I had real world blocks right in front of me to compare. When the quilt was finished, we entered it into a NCQS show. Our friend burst into tears right in the show when she saw her family photos in fabric in a special surprise. This little quilt will always symbolize our friendship and EQ made it possible to make the quilt easy and fun to finish.

Quilt Design by Cyndy Ward and Robin Caruso
EQ design work by Cyndy Ward
Piecing and Appliqué by Cyndy Ward and Robin Caruso
Quilting by Cyndy Ward