The Electric Quilt Company: Users: Newsletters and EQ Mailings

CONTENTS: Announcements - Ask EQ - Free Stuff - Works For Me - Show & Tell - Quilt University - Printing on Fabric - Quilters' Colors Patriotic Pin - Tips For Printing On Fabric - Linda Franz - Betty Ensz & Laura Jane Quint - Create a Coloring Book.

Show & Tell
News from our talented users

We've got a bus, a family project, shows and published patterns to report on in this issue.

Quilt Bus sign

Quilt Bus

The Dreissens, Kris and John, have a roving quilt store in the form of the Quilt Bus that travels the U.S. The bus recently visited us, and we got to climb aboard and admire the Quilt Bus banner, done by Shirley Jean Measures (former movie "Our Gang" member), made with EQ blocks. The quilt bus offers EQ classes and demonstrations in addition to selling a wide variety of quilting supplies. John made all of us just want to climb aboard and ride the road with him.

Margo Reppert's applique block

Margo Reppert writes: "I drew my first applique block in EQ4!! This is a block I designed from one in an antique quilt. I designed a bunch when I taught a Baltimore Applique class a couple of years ago in Mesa, AZ. I will try to draw all of them in EQ, now that I've done one. I exported a Windows Metafile from AutoCAD and changed it into a bmp with Paintshop Pro. Then I imported it into EQ to trace. I also learned how to make a pdf the same night and plan to offer printable patterns on my Quilter's Paradise website when I get the time to redesign it. (In my spare time when I'm not working full time plus overtime as an AutoCAD operator!!) Anyway, just wanted to let you know how excited I am about this and how much I love EQ."

Michelle Scott, of Pittman, New Jersey, nominated as one of Professional Quilter's 2002 Teacher of the Year, has had terrific success as a published EQ designer. Her quilts regularly appear in McCall's Quilting and McCall's Quick Quilts. See her published designs on her site.

Photo of Gretchen by Jeanne Prue's father, Bill Mackay.

Jeanne Prue, an EQ designer with a Web pattern business, writes, "Every January I travel back to Wisconsin to visit my family. One of the highlights for me has become an annual tradition, teaching quilting classes to any family members who want to learn. This year the focus was on foundation paper piecing. My niece Gretchen Rankin started what I thought was a very ambitious project for someone who had never paper pieced before. But she persevered and had this wonderful jungle quilt finished before I left!"

We couldn't resist writing to Gretchen, and asking her about the quilt. The blocks all came from Sew Precise Collection 3. Gretchen told us more: "I'm a 20 year-old college student from the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater. This was my first official paper-piecing project, and when I first decided to make a wall hanging, I was just going to do the three elephants because they are my favorite animal. But when I took into consideration the animal print motif of my bedroom, I decided to add the lion, tiger, rhino, hippo, giraffe and zebra. The zebra is actually a horse pattern but no one would guess! The finished product is now hanging from the bar on my antique washstand in my bedroom. My aunt Jeanne and my mother, Kathy Rankin are both wonderful crafters/quilters and I hope I can follow in their footsteps."

Barbara Skjonberg, of Norway, also has a Web pattern business selling her own original EQ-designed quilt patterns. Visitors to Barbara's site will also find free EQ projects as well as lessons.

Anita Grossman Solomon racked up honors at the Empire Quilters Guild's "Urban Inspirations" show in New York's Puck building in SoHo this March. Her EQ-designed quilt, Vice Versa, won both the First Prize and the Viewers Choice awards. Anita writes, "Vice Versa" was made from EQ tumbling blocks and hexagons printed onto freezer paper." Read how Anita creates her patterns in the article she wrote about her method in the last Floppy Gazette. Anita lives in New York City.

Carol Dutton's quilt

Carole Dutton, London (Ontario) Canada started a project to make a quilt for the breast cancer support site, The Quilt Project. Carol writes, "I'm really pleased to be part of this project with my on-line group Cdnquiltswappers. Quilters from all over Canada sent in hearts, and small donations to cover the quilt's cost. Four quilters helped make the sawtoothed sashings with me. And another quilter in the guild, Elaine, volunteered to machine quilt the quilt as well as coordinate the project for me. This has truly been a group project."

Kathy Downie modeling her prize winning Dear Jane Jacket. Photo courtesy Diane Gaudynski.

Kathy Downie, of Richmond, Illinois won First Place, amateur category in the AQS fashion show for a jacket with EQ4-designed blocks. Kathy writes, "I put some of my Dear Jane blocks in EQ4, made them the size I wanted and then placed them on a jacket. I entered it in the AQS/Hobbs Fashion Show at Paducah, with a dress made from imported red silk from China, and it was my first time entry into the fashion show there." Kathy was ecstatic. (We know this personally because she came to the Electric Quilt Company booth at the show holding a rose and screaming.)

In the Morning Light

Dana Hancock, of Chantilly, Virginia, also exhibited at the 2002 AQS show in Paducah, Kentucky. Dana used EQ to print paper-piecing patterns for her quilt, "In the Morning Light."

Texas 2-Step

Peggy Raley, of Boerne, Texas, showed one of her "Texas 2-Step" quilts, featuring Texas wildflowers, at the Dallas Wildflower Exhibition as well as the 2002 AQS show.