Three new Interviews

INTERVIEW WITH KAREN WITT of REPRODUCTION QUILTS
Karen Witt uses 21st century technology to reproduce 19th century quilts. Read about her business, tips on border balance, and how you teach in France when you speak no French.

THE EQ QUILTING DESIGNS CDS: A LOOK BEHIND THE SCENES
Staff-member Andrea has just finished drawing her 4425th quilting design as we complete Volume 7 in our Quiltmaker Designs: The Quiltmaker Collection CDs. EQ the Mouse probes Andrea for “behind the scenes” info about the making of this product.

EQ the MOUSE INTERVIEWS EQ MYSTERY AUTHOR MEGAN McMORRIS
Editor meets Author: The Mouse discusses Megan's October book release, which tells many stories, including one about a former EQ employee. Megan also gets grilled for details about her next EQ Mystery. Read EQ the Mouse's interview with Megan.

Lessons & Classes

KALEIDOSCOPE COLLECTORS
Final lesson! It's Month 12. If you've followed her lessons for 12 months, you know this is Andrea's final Kaleidoscope lesson.  
If you're just starting, see Months 1 - 11.

PREVIOUS MYSTERY QUILT STORIES AND LESSONS
Learn EQ5 or EQ6 by working through our two different Mystery Quilt series: If you are just joining us, start here with Skylights Episode 1 and Skylights Lesson 1.

Then work through the EQuinox mystery, starting with EQuinox Episode 1 and EQuinox Lesson 1.

Show us your quilts! Have you made one of our Mystery quilts? We want to see your quilt or top. Email us a photo and we'll post it in our mystery gallery: Skylight mystery quilts, EQuinox mystery quilts

ONLINE CLASS FROM FRAN GONZALEZ
Quilt University has an online EQ6 class starting October 23. Check out the EQ6 Advanced Layouts class to be taught by Fran Iverson Gonzalez, author of EQ6 Simplified. Fran recommends you have taken her other classes as a pre-req for this class.  

ARE YOU TEACHING EQ?
If you are teaching EQ classes, don't forget to let our webmaster know the date, time and location of your classes so we can list them on our website.

EQ CLASSES
Want a hands-on EQ class? See who's teaching, what's being taught, and where. Find classes from Staffordshire, UK to BC, Canada, as well as Florida and California.

News

VOL. 7 of QUILTING DESIGNS: THE QUILTMAKER COLLECTION IS RELEASED
Vol. 7 is a VERY SPECIAL collection (Penny's favorite), including beautiful overall designs and hundreds of other continuous line quilting patterns. Download this free EQ6 project of 10 quilting designs as we celebrate the release of Quiltmaker Volume 7. Preview more designs in this PDF that are included in this software.

ELECTRIC QUILT IS ON FACEBOOK
Electric Quilt has its own Facebook page now, as does EQ the Mouse. Become a Fan, and you'll get regular updates when we post something on our blog, or add a new video, or have other news.

EQ the Mouse adores his fans. If you're not yet one, he would love you to "fan him."

To become a fan:
1. Log into your facebook profile
2. Click this link, EQ the Mouse, to become a fan of EQ the Mouse.
3. Click this link, Electric Quilt , to become a fan of Electric Quilt.

FAB FAN FREEBIES
EQ the Mouse announces "Fab Fan Freebies." He explains: He loves his fabulous fans, and will choose a fan every now and again on a Friday, on his Facebook page, to receive a random prize. To be eligible, become his Facebook fan.

MORE VIDEOS ON ELECTRIC QUILT'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL
Watch Andrea work her EQ Magic on YouTube. See a new short EQ segment from Pokey Bolton's Quilting Arts TV on YouTube.
www.youtube.com/ElectricQuilt

Show us your work

EXHIBIT IN OUR NEW EQ QUILT GALLERY
We've added a page of new quilts to our "EQ Quilt Gallery" and invite you to exhibit too!

Send us a photo of your quilt, along with your EQ project containing the EQ design for this same quilt. Tell us a bit about you, your quilt, your designing, whatever. List your website or blog if you have them. Help us show off your designing whether you're a quilting professional or this is your first quilt. Send them to penny@electricquilt.com. We love seeing what you're making and knowing more about you.  

NEW ON OUR BLOG
Send us info about what EQ stuff you're up to. We love to brag about you! Send an email to penny@electricquilt.com and tell us your EQ news.

Inspiration

JUDY LAQUIDARA IS NOT WITHOUT BORDERS
Judy tackles the subject of pieced borders, and working with odd versus even numbers of border blocks, on her blog. Well worth a look.

DAILY EQ-DESIGNS BY JUDY BUTCHER
We like visiting Judy Butcher's blog often just to see what new EQ quilt she's designed for the day.

DAILY EQ-DESIGNS BY GLYNIS THOMPSON
Want more inspiration? Glynis has a blog too where she posts daily EQ designs. Check out some of Glynis's latest work.

Clubs

WANT TO START YOUR OWN EQ CLUB?
Download our "Planning an EQ Club" PDF file. See what you need to get started, how to organize and get topic ideas. The Mystery Quilt would make a great club project.

ClubEQ REMINDER
ClubEQ is a free monthly challenge organized by EQ-author, Barb Vlack. To participate, send in a project with 1-2 quilts to penny@electricquilt.com that follow the challenge theme and ClubEQ rules. Imagine getting 50 to 100 quilts for just submitting one.

Support

ASK EQ THE MOUSE!
Long-time mascot, EQ the Mouse, invites you to submit EQ questions for his column "Ask EQ." Email questions to Tech Support. Put "Ask EQ" in the subject line. He'll answer your question, and perhaps you'll make his monthly Q & A column. Read it here.

Read this month's Ask EQ questions & answers.

EQ the Mouse also invites you to Fan him on Facebook.

MAIL-LIST FOR MAC EQ-ERS
Are you running your EQ on a Mac? Then you may want to subscribe to the free EQonMacs Yahoo group, run by Sheila Williams. For more information, contact Sheila at Sheila@SheilaWilliams.com.

EQ FORUMS
The new EQ Forums are up! Visit the EQ Forums and register, then you can ask questions and get answers from EQ staff, authors and other EQ users right on the EQ website.

TECH SUPPORT
A reminder that you can see answers to our most Frequently Asked Questions right on the EQ website. See EQ6 questions here. See EQ5 questions here.

EQ6 UPDATE
If you own EQ6, download and install the free EQ6 Update which makes EQ6 run faster and smarter. You'll know you're updated if in EQ6 you click
HELP > About EQ6 and see "Build 2."

Three new Contests

EQ6 ROSE OF SHARON DESIGN CHALLENGE
You have only one month to win some of the over $22,000 in prizes offered in the Rose of Sharon EQ6 Block Challenge. See how to download an EQ6 project with pre-designed motifs and fabrics for making Rose of Sharon blocks.

Entry deadline: November 15, 2009. Send your entry in now!

QUILTMAKER MAGAZINE VIRTUAL QUILT CONTEST
Win a chance to appear in Quiltmaker magazine. Announcing a virtual quilt design contest sponsored by Quiltmaker magazine and The Electric Quilt Company, involving designs from our Quilting Designs: The Quiltmaker Collection CDs.

Contest starts October 27th. Click here for early details. Get a head start on designing! Information on submitting your project will be added closer to the contest start date.

NEW EQ CONTEST – THE GREAT PUMPKIN HUNT
EQ the Mouse confuses Halloween with Easter. He wants to have a pumpkin hunt. He has hidden a pumpkin somewhere on the EQ website. Can you find the page?

Once you find the page, click on the image to receive a free EQ6 pumpkin project. Then for another chance to win, send an email
To: penny@electricquilt.com
Subject: Great Pumpkin Hunt
Body:
- your name
- link to the page on which you found the pumpkin
Enter once, with one email please
Deadline: October 20, 2009
We will choose one winner from all those with the correct pumpkin answers. The winner will receive our Blending Photos with Fabrics book by Mary Ellen Kranz.

ANNOUNCING THE “OH BABY!” CONTEST WINNERS
Ashtyn Shriver, our newest EQ baby, weighed 10 lbs. 3 oz, and was 22 inches long. We had two perfect answers out of 175 guesses. Our five winners were:
Sharon Chmara & Barbara Bogert - correct answer
Sheril Green - off by an ounce
Linda Cooper - off by an inch
Carol Campbell & Susan Dyer - off by 4oz. 1inch
Congratulations! All 5 win a free Quilting Designs CD of their choice.

Fabric

DOWNLOAD MORE FREE FABRIC
This month's download is "Not Your Average Circle Print" which came in 2nd place last month. Yay for circles! Choose either to download a Library file or a Project file. Be sure to follow the easy steps provided. Then vote for next month's fabric. We take suggestions for future voting options; email penny@electricquilt.com to let her know.

NEW CONNECTING THREADS FABS AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD
Connecting Threads has made some of their own fabric collections available especially for EQ6 users as Library files. Find the collections here.

1) Download the file to your Desktop. Extract the zipped file (right-click, then click "Extract All").
2) Place the .FAB file in your My Documents\My EQ6\USER\ folder on your hard drive.
3) Open EQ6 and your fabric library. The collection will appear in your "MY LIBRARY" folder.

NEW MODA FABS AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD
Moda has new fabrics available to download as jpeg files, ready to be opened in EQ6.

1) Visit Moda's site, click any brown dot in front of a fabric name, download to your computer (remember where it goes).
2) Go to LIBRARIES > Fabric Library > Import > From Image Files and import the fabric.
3) Add the fabric to your Sketchbook and use it, or save the fabric in My Library (see pages 143 and 144 in the EQ6 User Manual) to use in future projects.

If you need complete steps, EQ the Mouse addresses them in one of his Ask EQ columns.

Freebies

FREE HALLOWEEN PROJECT FROM TERRIE SANDELIN
Terrie designed this Halloween tablerunner exclusively for you! Terrie is an EQer better-known as the author of Miniature Quilts full of projects and tips for minis. Enjoy her project and check out her book!

FREE HALLOWEEN PROJECT FROM ANGIE PADILLA
Angie literally “wrote the book” on drawing appliqué with EQ6. So getting free appliqué designs from Angie is a treat – no trick! Check out the special Halloween witch and pumpkins project she made just for you.

For those who own Angie's My Dream House CD, here are some ideas for the MDH Halloween room.

PUMPKIN BREAD RECIPE FROM EQ THE MOUSE
The Mouse cooks! Who knew? Our newsletter Editor shares his favorite October recipe: Pumpkin Bread (PDF).

NEW WREATHMAKER TUTORIAL
BY GETA GRAMA
See another example of how Geta Grama makes her wonderful wreath designs in EQ6. She's a fascinating lady, don't forget to read last month's interview with Geta.

JACK-O-LANTERN LAP QUILT PROJECT
We designed this quilt for fun. Foundation-piece this easy EQ6 project. Or use it to start your own Halloween design.

HALLOWEEN PLACEMAT PATTERNS FROM SINDY RODENMAYER
Click here to get the Halloween placemat from Sindy.

Also see Sindy's new pieced Chocolate Stars BOM which just started in August. Find the new blocks for her appliqué Baltimore Bliss BOM here.

FREE PROJECTS FROM CHICKENLADY QUILTS
We just found these free EQ6 projects available for download.

NEW PATTERN SERIES FROM REGINA
Regina, a German EQ designer, has a new “Magic Mushroom Garden” block series starting, drawn especially for sewing beginners. Download it as an EQ6 project.
See more details here

FREE MYSTERY BOM FROM GUDRUN
Gudrun, from Belgium, has started a Mystery Block of the Month for 2009 that she would like to share.
Block #1   Block #5   Block #9
Block #2   Block #6
Block #3   Block #7
Block #4   Block #8

FREE QUILTED DESKTOPS & CALENDARS
Carolyn Laukkonen offers you a series of quilted desktops to choose from. Choose a favorite, or switch them monthly. Download onto your computer desktop. Find complete instructions on her site.

Or check out the beautiful calendars Diane Anderson designs just for you.

FREE VIEWERS
Want to see a self-running show of your own EQ projects? Download a free project viewer:

Download "EQ6 Show" if you have EQ6. It will show any EQ3, EQ4, EQ5 and EQ6 projects you've made.
Download "EQ5 Show" if you only have EQ5. It will show any EQ3, EQ4 & EQ5 projects you have made.

FREE EQ6 WEB BUTTONS
Show your EQ spirit by adding an EQ6 button to your website!

DO YOU HAVE FREE EQ PROJECTS OR PATTERNS TO SHARE ON YOUR WEBSITE?
Let us know and we'll list you on the Project Sharing page. Just email our webmaster with the necessary links and information and ask for your site to be considered for inclusion on that page.

Next Month...

COMING NEXT MONTH
* Great Pumpkin Hunt Contest winner

* Interview with U.K.  editor/author/teacher Christine Porter

* STASH report – EQ staff previews this season's newest fabrics.