The Electric Quilt Company: Users: Newsletters and EQ Mailings

CONTENTS: Announcements - Ask EQ - Works For Me - Show & Tell - Quilt University - Floral Illusions - Club EQ - From Computer to Catalog - EQ Haiku - Yankee Doodle Jane - Designing a Jacket with EQ5 - EQ on TV - EQ in the College Classroom - Anniversary Contest- EQ Computer Lab at Houston Quilt Festival

Works for Me
Tips and "Odd EQ Uses" from EQ Users

More power to her!

Sue Leipart, from Merced, California writes: "My sister, who is not a quilter, or even a sewer, did a Power Point lecture on how to make a quilt, using my EQ5. (She got an A.) It was so easy to import the graphics to show her point. My sister and I are both in our 50's and she is going for her teaching certificate."

Having Her Triangles in EQ Too

Sherry Cote, from Delhi, California discovered her own Dear Jane/EQ5 workaround. Sherry writes, "Getting used to EQ5 and working with layers, and then getting the Dear Jane program and discovering that, as great as it is, it doesn't have layers can be challenging. True, I can (and have) linked the DJ block and fabric libraries to EQ5, but that doesn't get me the triangles. I want it all now, and I may have discovered a way!

1 I designed a quilt in DJ, including triangles and kites in one of the borders. I knew I wanted to be able to add appliqué motifs and possibly quilting stencils to this design, so I left one of the borders plain with no other blocks in it, and left open block areas within the quilt.

2 After saving the quilt in the sketchbook I clicked on "Export Snapshot" from the file menu and carefully selected my whole quilt and clicked on "Save as bitmap file" and saved the image.

3 In EQ5 I started a new custom set quilt, made the center the same size as my DJ quilt, set the border size to 0, imported the bitmap image and set the image in Layer 1 so it was the same size as the original quilt.

I now have my DJ quilt, triangles and all, in EQ5. In Layer 2 I added the appliqué I wanted. This was a little tricky because each time I selected a new element, the other appliqué elements would disappear, but would reappear when I clicked on Refresh Screen. I saved in the sketchbook frequently. I then changed to Layer 3 to place the quilting stencils. I now have an image of my DJ quilt, complete with triangles, kites, appliqué, and quilting in EQ5. I can print the templates for the pieced DJ blocks, triangles, and kites from within DJ, and print the templates for the appliqué and stencils from within EQ5.

Arlene's Shady Use of EQ


Arlene's shade up	Arlene's shade down

Arlene Felton, from Sparta, Tennessee used EQ5 to make window shades! She writes, "Here is why I love this EQ! I saw a quilt on Simply Quilts and was able to sketch it enough so I could reproduce it my way with EQ. Then I used that finished quilt top to create a Roman Shade for my craft room. I can show off the quilt and have a unique window covering, thanks to the EASY way I could draw the pattern, and have the cutting directions, and the fabric requirements."

Nancy Amazes Her Electrician

Nancy Welsch, from Jackson, Mississippi, writes, "Last June we replaced two recessed ceiling lights with fan lights. The light boxes were 12-inch squares. I amazed the electrician when I knew the size of the medallions I needed to cover the square holes had to be at least 17 inches. He said ladies always buy 12-inch medallions to cover a 12-inch square. I said they were not quilters who could use EQ5 to find out the size. That little ruler tool comes pretty close to sliced bread."

Custom Set Nametags

Kris Jacobson made name tags with EQ5. "I put a new quilt on the clip board and used Custom set. I set the size to the size of my nametags (but you could set it any size that you want). I then put on a border and picked one of the many border choices that we have in EQ. I set the border width to about .75 as my name tags are small, but it could be wider for a larger label. I then colored the borders, used the Snapshot tool and put it on the Windows clipboard and copied it to my Word program.

Then I formatted my nametags with a text box and set it in front of the graphic so I could type in names. I printed these on paper (but your labels you would want to print on fabric ironed to freezer paper). There are some tips on printing on fabric in the Floppy Gazette (more here) that I would recommend reading if you have never printed on fabric. I was really pleased with the results and now I have a file of eight different designs to print out as nametags or labels whenever I need them." Kris lives in Bowman, North Dakota.

Suzan Drury's Ornaments

Christmas in July

Suzan Drury, of Sedona, Arizona, writes, "I've been having great fun making tree ornaments with the blocks from the [EQ5]library and Block Base. I choose a block and export to my graphics program, and then re-color in reds, greens, golds and/or blues. I re-size it to put twelve on a page ... the blocks are about 2" square, maybe a bit larger. I've been printing them on silk (it comes already paper-backed, and prepared for inkjet printers), and then quilting them onto a piece of almost white batting -- no backing, but you could use backing if desired. I've been using Sulky Sliver "Opal" to give them just a bit of glitter and shine. I quilt all twelve, then cut them apart with pinking shears, and attach a ribbon loop.

Suzan recommends Dharma Trading and Color Textiles for silk. For the batting, she needed needed something that would hold together by itself, so used one of the Quilter's Dream Cotton batts. She says Warm and Natural or Pellon Fleece would work equally well.

Community Service

Illustrated here is a drawing Jean Laino made as one of her "Tips for busy quilters' housekeeping." Jean uses EQ5 in informal classes that help quilters in her community of Amherst, Massachusetts learn quilting. "Being able to have the pictures of the blocks and quilts on the printout is so helpful." She doesn't think of herself as a professional, and doesn't even charge a fee. "That way it remains a sharing endeavor....I am a seeker by nature, and I learn a lot from these meetings. In return I receive wonderful, personal histories, such as what it was like to live in the surrounding towns before they were flooded to create the Quabbin Resevoir."