Painting Barn Quilts

   

I have been having fun painting Barn Quilts. While some would consider this difficult work, EQ7 definitely makes it fun.  To clarify, painting Barn Quilts would be fun with EQ6 or EQ5, but it really is so much easier with EQ7.  While I'm planning on sharing more insights with you in the near future, about EQ7, I suspect you are wondering how I can share insights about EQ7 given it doesn't ship until June 7th?  Well, I've had the pleasure of being one of the volunteers to Beta Test EQ7.  Thus, I can truly say EQ7 is "Fantastical". 

While playing in EQ7, painting various block designs (5,000+ copyright free blocks in EQ7) I had fun with the vast amount of paint selection EQ7 offered (5,000+ new scanned fabrics, plus grayscale textures).  Needless to say, I was very impressed with how fast I could paint so many barn quilts and how easy EQ7 is to use.

So, when I heard AccuQuilt was  having a "Barn Quilt Design Contest", I knew that I had to enter one of my barn quilts.  But which one?

I'm really excited about this contest, as AccuQuilt has some generous prizes:

• 1st Place:  $1,000 AccuQuilt Shopping Spree and a trip for two to AccuQuilt headquarters for the unveiling of the winning design
• 2nd Place: $500 AccuQuilt Gift Certificate
• 3rd Place: $150 AccuQuilt Gift Certificate

Deadline for entries is midnight, May 14th, 2010.  Thus, there is plenty of time for you to create and submit your design to AccuQuilt, for their Barn Quilt Design Contest.  You need not own an AccuQuilt product to enter, need not have to purchase anything from AccuQuilt, and you don't need to submit a design that you created using EQ software, I just think that it is so much more fun and faster to use EQ software for this contest.  And, of course, while I wanted to share with you my Barn Quilts!

Of course, I'm really hoping to win first place in this contest.  I would just love to meet the wonderful people at AccuQuilt and see Lincoln, Nebraska!  And I'd love to see my quilt block displayed on the AccuQuilt offices!  But, as I'm a firm believer half of the fun of winning any contest is dreaming about what it would be like to win.  And for me, I also had so much fun using EQ7 to create these blocks I feel like I'm already a winner.  

I do hope you'll take time to enter the AccuQuilt Barn Quilt Design Contest?   And I hope that you use EQ to create your unique Barn Quilt blocks too! 

For more information on AccuQuilts' Barn Quilt Design Contest:  http://tinyurl.com/258xb8u

I also want to thank Penny, who recently shared photos and insights, on her blog,  of a beautiful barn they are building.  Penny was kind enough to let me use pictures of her barn, to show off my quilt blocks.  Maybe if AccuQuilt doesn't select my blocks I can get Penny to paint them on her new barn.  {sorry Penny, but I really do think your barn will look better with a block painted on it}.

The Aloha Quilt

The spirit of Aloha and Hawaiian quilting has certainly been captured in the new book by Jennifer Chiaverini.  "The Aloha Quilt" is the sixteenth book in the Elm Creek Quilt series. And, from my perspective, it is a delightful book that is perfect for quilters, as well as those that love Hawaii.

The basic plot of this book: Bonnie leaves her comfortable surroundings of Elm Creek Quilters in Pennsylvania, while going through a divorce, after finding her husband has been having an affair.  Bonnie takes on a role as a consultant to a friend from college, Claire, who wants to create something similar to Elm Creek Quilters, in Hawaii.  Both Bonnie and Claire focus their energies on planning for the opening of the "Aloha Quilt Camp".  Indirectly,  Bonnie is introduced to the Aloha spirit, and learns more than new quilting techniques.  Hint:  Life can toss a surprise or two when you are least expecting, but you can survive with the support of family and friends.

I loved the insights that were weaved into this Elm Creek Quilter's story, sharing insights about Hawaiian history, culture, values and quilting. While this was my first book to read, in the Elm Creek Quilt series, I found it to be an easy to read and entertaining book.  And, I definitely recommend it to others that enjoy a heartwarming story and/or fiction stories that focus on quilters.  This delightful book is sprinkled with qulting fun, and peppered with great insights on Hawaii.  Even if you are not able to travel to Hawaii, to read this book, I think you will enjoy reading it, where ever you are,  and you will certainly want to read more of the Elm Creek Quilt series.   I know I certainly want to read more of the Elm Creek Quilt series!

http://www.simonandschuster.com/

http://www.elmcreek.net/

Free-Motion Quilting Skills

Do you want to improve your free hand machine quilting skills?  This was one of my personal goals this year.  There are many ways to do this, from reading books, watching DVDs, taking classes.  But hands on practice is critical.  But what if you are traveling without a machine, or find yourself stuck on the phone, or in a carpool?  While I'm not an expert about machine quilting (or an expert on anything), I wanted to share some tricks with you for how you can develop your free hand machine quilting skills, even in times when you don't have a machine handy. 

There really isn't a secret to becoming a great free motion quilter.  It requires practice, practice, practice.  But not all the practice times requires a machine.  And, in addition to practice, to become a great free motion quilter it needs inspiration (or great creativity from within).  As I don't have "great creativity from within", I look for various opportunities to inspire.

Practice

To start, I recommend that you create a 3 ring binder where you can compile all your notes about free motion quilting.  Or, you may want to create an electronic file.  I actually have a 3 ring binder where I keep flyers, class notes, and prints that inspire and share insights.  And, I also keep a power point file where I've collected various designs that I'd like to master (hard copy of this file is also inside of my binder).  I like my electronic copy, as I can easily take it with me any place I take my laptop.

Be sure to right this tip down:  Get a stack of paper, or a tablet, or an white board that can easily be erased.  And keep marking tools, appropriate to each of these tools handy.  Strive to find 10-15 minutes daily "doodling" various free motion quilting designs.  When your mind and hand can easily doodle a free-motion quilting style, then give it a try on a test quilt sandwich or actual quilt.  For the purpose of this post, where I'm focusing on tricks that will work when you do not have a sewing machine handy, I'm not going to take time to talk about creating test quilt sandwiches, or what you would do on a machine. This post is about how to get your mind into that free flowing mindset, and your hand obeying the mind, to freely create designs on paper that you would want to place on fabric. 

When you practice, don't think of it as practice time. Think of it as doodling.  Close your eyes, breath in, breath out.  Visualize the free flowing line draw the image you want to create.  It might be left, right, left right, or loopty left, loopty right, or feather, feather, feather...but visualize it while you relax and breath in, breath out.  Now doodle to that same comfortable pace, while remembering to breath in, breath out.  Hear that simple beat while you are doodling?

Don't stop in the midst of your doodle and criticize yourself.  Breath in, breath out...doodle.  Get the rythym down.

You may choose to save your drawings in your notebook, but I do not.

Inspiration:

For inspiration you can take classes, attend presentations and/or quilt shows.  Reading blogs,  websites and youtube videos are also helpful.  Some of my favorites are:

Thread Head
365 Days of Free Motion Quilting

My Quilter
All Things Quilty
Bobbin & Threads
Quilt Vine
Quilting Arts - 
Thrifty Quilter
Feathered Fibers
 Diane Gaudynski
Karen McTavish
Sharon Schamber
Patsy Thompson Designs
Judy Madsen (Green Fairy Quilts)
Google Images

But in all of these opportunities, remember while you are visiting, that you need to slow down and take time to really look at the machine quilting.  Breath in what you see.  Get your mind to visualize the start, the direction, the flow and the rythym till you can close your eyes and repeat it in your mind.

I also find great inspiration from DVDs, books and various online classes.  I'll share more on these in the future.

For now, I need to get back to my free-motion quilting without a machine (my doodling).  I've got that beat in my head and my mind has that whimsical flow of the needle swirling on fabric, but as I'm traveling with out my machine, I'm doodling on my whiteboard!  Great fun, and a great way to develop my free-motion quilting skills!

Do you practice your free motion quilting skills without a machine?  What tips & tricks do you recommend for others?

Layered Pinwheel Blocks

Marjorie Busby has created a fantastic video on how to make Layered Pinwheel Blocks, using the AccuQuilt GO!  This definitely goes into my list of favorite tutorials:


Thanks Marjorie!  http://www.b-quilts.com/

http://www.accuquilt.com/

What are you up to today?

This morning I'm scuba diving with my DH and my brother-in-law, who lives in Alaska. 

This afternoon I'm planning on spending time improving my machine quilting skills {check back to see how I do this without a machine on my vacation....very tricky, but I have a great tutorial coming on how you too can do this}.

I wanted to remind everyone, if you haven't yet entered my April giveaway time is running out.  I'll be selecting five winners for these five Cozy Quilt Design patterns tomorrow.  So, if you haven't yet entered, you can find out more about this giveaway at:  http://sewcalgalcontestinfo.blogspot.com/2010/04/cozy-quilt-shop.html

What are you up to today?  I hope you have fun and find time to enjoy and create!

Dream it - and it will come: EQ7

Quilting brings us the ability to Dream, to Design and to Create.  But I must admit, for me, my enabler has been The Electric Quilt Company.  While EQ6 is a fantastic software package, I am convinced EQ7 is more "Fantastical".  And, EQ7 is coming soon!  In fact, The Electric Quilt Company will begin shipping EQ7 on June 7, 2010. 

Why the excitement with EQ7?  Well, from my perspective EQ7 is actually easier to use than EQ6 (hard to believe, but it is).  And new EQ users, as well as experienced EQ users,  will benefit from new user friendly features in EQ7. 

Highlights of User Friendly Features:

- EQ7 comes with a complete user manual, plus 22 printable full-color PDF lessons (115 pages).

- Point-and-read info on each tool

- now linked directly to Help topics

- 10 videos targeted for beginners

- 67 “How do I?” topics: printable stepped-out instructions for doing everything from printing English paper-piecing templates to drawing a New York Beauty 

- Built-in Help buttons are everywhere, targeted to the task you're doing
- Blocks size themselves – just drag and drop on the quilt

Users that upgrade from EQ6 will feel right at home in EQ7. It has exactly the same friendly interface, plus loads of new user-requested features.

Highlights of New User Requested Features:

- New block tools for creating original blocks instantly without drawing

- 5000 copyright-free blocks

- 5000 new scanned fabrics, plus grayscale textures
- 120 new pre-designed quilt layouts
- Snap blocks to a Quilt grid
- Instant border blocks with greatly expanded Auto Borders
- 79 new features in all

Besides the ability to work on blocks and quilts you now have the ability to do a variety of things with photos inside EQ7.  I love how easy it is to create a Photo Patchwork quilt.  EQ7 provides dozens of ways to turn everyday photos into quilt art images (Use dozens of artistic effects, making everyday photos look like watercolors or Impressionist paintings).  You can also crop and edit scanned fabrics right in EQ7, in minutes.  It will also format multiple photos to print on fabric.  There is also the ability to mirror and use myriad symmetries on photos.

New Activation Policy

You'll never run out of EQ7 activations! Activation and deactivation is as easy as two clicks of the mouse. Install on as many computers as you like and quickly transfer activations from computer to computer. This new policy gives you complete freedom to manage your own activations — and no dongle to worry about!

EQ7 and EQ7 Upgrade system requirements?

Minimum system requirements: Windows® XP, Windows® Vista, Windows® 7 (32 or 64 bit), Internet access, 750 MB of available hard-disk space, CD-ROM drive. Netbook compatible. Internet required for activation, deactivation, and periodic validations.

Recommended: Monitor with screen resolution of 1024 x 768 or greater, Adobe® Reader®, sound card for demo videos.

Activation: Internet access is required for activation and deactivation. Unlimited installations. Activations can be easily transferred between computers. Two (2) computers may be simultaneously active.

UPGRADE VERSION of Electric Quilt 7 This upgrade version of Electric Quilt 7 will install only if you are a licensed user of Electric Quilt 6 (EQ6). Visit http://www.electricquilt.com/  for other upgrade requirements.



I think June 7th is going to be a date I'll remember for a very long time.  I can't wait to see the excitement in quilt stores as everyone lines up to buy EQ7, or an upgrade from EQ6 to EQ7!  Party time!  And can you imagine how delightful your quilts will be with EQ7?  Yumm!  I'm so looking forward to participating in future EQ7 Clubs too!  Yes, June 7th is going to be the date where your dreams will enable designs that will allow you to create amazing quilts with EQ7! 


And I look forward to sharing more insights about EQ7 with you in the near future. 

http://www.electricquilt.com/  

1-800-356-4219

Are you ESET safe?

Surfing the web and using email are part of our daily lives.  Bloggers are even more active on a daily basis in a arena that can be very risky to viruses, malware and spyware.  In fact, I frequently hear of situations where quilting, sewing, and embroidery enthusiasts loose control of their PC, due to not having adequate protection.  Thus, I wanted to take time to share insights on a product called ESET.  It is my favorite PC tool to fight cybercrime!

ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4 is the most effective protection you can find to combat today’s internet threats of viruses, spammers, malware and spyware.  Over the years I have used every well known PC Security software package, but have  never been happy with any of these software products until I found ESET.  I've now been using ESET for several years and have been extremely happy with this product.  I've also recommended it for all my family and friends, as it is also very user friendly.  Many have come back to thank me for recommending ESET to them, as after they installed ESET on their computer, ESET found viruses (or other security threats) that their previous security software had not found.

ESET NOD32 Antivius 4 is a robus software security system.  Highlights are:

- Anti Spam fighter for your Email

- internet protection (Spyware and Virus removal)

- scheduled scan and on demand

- works on Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7 (32 and 64 bit)

- easy to use

- the most effective software security system available for home and/or business computers.

Once installed, menus are easy to use:

Market Comparison of ESET:

ESET also provides a Free 30 day trial:  Even if you feel you have an adequate security software package you may want to download ESET's free 30-day trial and see if it picks up anything your current security system hasn't caught.  Plus, this 30 day free trial will give you an opportunity to see how easy to use this software package is.

For more information on ESET, you may want to check out the product data sheet and/or the ESET website:    http://www.eset.com/ 

Be sure your laptop has software to fight cybercrime.  For me, I recommend being ESET safe!

Hour Glass Tutorial

Red Pepper Quilts has an excellent tutorial to make Hour Glass quilt blocks.  I love this tutorial.  Well written and great visuals.  This is a fantastic tutorial. Thank you Red Pepper Quilts!

http://www.redpepperquilts.com/2010/04/hour-glass-block-tutorial.html

Sew You Want To Be A Quilter

Have you heard about the new board game designed for quilters?  "Sew You Want To Be A Quilter" is a delightful trivia board game  for quilters, where 2-8 players can have fun sharing their knowledge of quilting, learn new insights, and simply have fun sew-cializing and playing this game together.

The game is comprised of a Game Board, eight colored "Spools of Thread" (which are the game playing pieces), a single die (to control game flow).

Like many board games, players roll the dice and move around the board. Players can land on Perks and Quirks spots whereby they get card that provides further instructions and excitement. To clarify, Perks are the benefits and Quirks are the penalties that the player will experience in this fun game.

Examples of the Quirks:
- Cut your batting too small. Roll the die and answer another question. If wrong, you lose a turn.
- You ran out of the fabric for the quilt you need to complete by tomorrow.  Roll the die and answer another question.  If wrong, go to the nearest intersection.
- You burned yourself on the iron.  Go to Satin Stitch Hospital.

Examples of the Perks:
- Your spouse comes home with a vacation ticket to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Roll die and answer another question.  If correct roll again and move the number on the die without further penalty or credit for space.
- Your quilt has been selected to appear in the National Quilt Magazine.  Move forward to the nearest intersection.
- You win a door prize at a guild meeting.  Roll die and answer another question. If correct roll agian and move the number on the die without further penalty or credit for space.

This game has been created by Northwest Quilting Productions, which has also released a "Your Town CD". On this CD you will find patterns for all of the buildings on the game quilt, as well as a detailed manual containing tips, tricks, techniques and guidelines for creating your own town in Raw Edge Whole Cloth Applique. 

This is a delightful board game for quilters.  Perfect for sew-cials of 2-8 players.  And, this would also make for a fun quilt guild meeting, whereby multiple tables are set up with "Sew You Want To Be A Quilter" for members to play and enjoy.  An inexpensive entertainment activity that can be played again and again!  It also makes for a great gift!

For more information, or to order a copy check out:   http://www.sewyouwanttobeaquilter.com/

Hawaiian Quilting

Hawaiian Quilting is a style of quilting that always catches my attention, and a style that I love to make.   Over the years I've made many king size, queen size, lap and wall-hanging quilts.  A few have been given to charity fundraisers, and some have been given to friends. 

I realized I had a photos of a few of my Hawaiian quilts on my laptop. As such, I thought I'd share. I have a few King size Hawaiian quilts, that I've actually found too large to photograph...but someday hope to be able to get a photograph of them that I can share.

While working full time, a King Size Hawaiian Quilt typically takes me two years to complete.  A lap quilt or wallhanging ~6 months.  But, in both of these scenarios I tend to also make other quilts at the same time. I guess you can say I having Quilting ADD.  Clearly, I can't stay focused on one project for a long period of time!  Yet it is funny, as I do have many UFOs, but not a single UFO is a Hawaiian Quilt. Probably because I really do enjoy making them.  I enjoy the process of the applique, the relaxation of the echo quilting, the excitement of feeling closure when I add the binding.  And, throughout the entire process I think of the history of how such beautiful quilts were designed, made and shared among various generations and friends, as well as given as special gifts.  Doesn't this sound similar to traditional quilts?  Yes, gifts of love.



If you are interested in learning more about Hawaiian Quilting, you may want to check out the following links:
http://www.poakalani.net/

http://www.quilthawaiian.com/

http://www.hawaiianquiltartist.com/history.htm

http://www.prqc.com/

What would you pack for an extended trip?

I must confess I was set to release this article last Friday, as I was flying off to a tropical destination for an extended vacation.  Then to my surprise, I left some critical item at home.  Yes, I left my power cord for my laptop.  Fortunately, a dear friend and neighbor was able to able to arrange to have it shipped to me. Some might ask why I care about bringing a laptop with me on vacation.  But for me, it offers a great source of information, learning and fun, as well as helps me stay connected to friends and family.  Also, having a laptop in a tropical place helps to reduce the amount of time I am outside in the sun, as it is easy to get more sun exposure than one should get.  And, even with wearing 70+ sunscreen in a month I can easily get too much sun!

Do you use a checklist for packing?  I have a checklist for going to a quilting class, workshop or retreat and find it very helpful.  Clearly, with my recent oversight with leaving my PC power cord at home I'm going to need to create a checklist for packing for a vacation.  But I am happy to report that I brought many fun things with me! 

I must confess that I really struggle with how I can take everything I "need" to go on a fun vacation.  A sewing machine is high on my priority list for having fun, but it isn't an easy item to take on a trip, especially given the fact that the airlines have significantly reduced the amount of luggage one can easily take on a trip.  As our destination is a tropical place, clothing attire is all lightweight, but packing snorkeling and scuba diving equipment is far from being light.  Socks and shoes for walking and hiking also made it into my bags.  But I also like to take items with me that allow me to be creative, as well as learn.  Hymm.   Ok.  This is what made it into my suitcase:

You can see by the above photo I have my diving fins, a bathing suit, running shoes, some lightweight clothes, and an EQ6 User Manual, and two of the four EQ6 Companion books:  EQ6 Pieced Drawing and EQ6 Block Book.

While the EQ6 User Manual is an excellent book, with easy to follow lessons (that I love to repeat) and packed full of insights about EQ6, I do love the EQ6 Companion Books.  Each of the four Companion Books provide more in-depth insights about EQ6 and each book is well written, contains great visuals and is available at a very reasonable price.  Each book is priced far less than the cost of a workshop and you can do the lessons at your own pace, when your schedule allows.  Really, even spending 15 minutes a day you'll learn EQ6 and quickly be able to design your own quilt, table runner, label and more, plus it even helps you select fabrics and quilting designs.

So, I hope you'll pack one or more EQ books with you on your next vacation too!  But don't wait for a vacation to enjoy these good reads.  I highly recommend them!
 EQ6 Block Book,

EQ6 Simplified 

EQ6 Pieced Drawing

EQ6 Applique Drawing

Yeap, the EQ books are definitely great reading materials (e.g tools to help learn EQ) and not something I can leave at home when going off on a vacation.

Do You EQ?  Check out the April Challenge at Club EQ.  This is a great way to learn and have fun in the process!

Last Call for Winner to Claim a Prize

Update:  The original winner of this prize did not claim it.  Another winner was selected randomly and has claimed this prize.  The winner is officially Sherri of A Quilting Life.


 
One of the winners of my March giveaway (for Voting for the Golden Quilter Awards) has not come forward to claim their prize.  I have sent multiple emails and am now posting this notice.  I need "tpotquilter" to contact me to claim their prize by April 24th.  If not, this wonderful prize, donated by Electric  Quilt, will be used in another giveaway.   

"tpotquilter" please email me ASAP to claim this prize.  This is your last chance.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Note:  To those that follow both my mail blog (SewCalGal) and my blog for Contests and Giveaways, my apologies, as this post will appear on both sites.  While redundant, I am trying hard to contact the winner before I place this wonderful prize into another giveaway!  But, if you have ideas for how this item might be turned into a 2nd time around giveaway let me know.  I want to make it special fun so that it finds a great home.  Should I hold this giveaway as a giveaway on my primary blog, giveaway blog or for my fans on Facebook?

Traveling - surprise problems

My laptop is about to go on an extended rest, as I have departed on a trip and forgot to pack my powercord.  Plan posts will hopefully appear sometime next week, after I've made arrangements to have my laptop power cord express mailed to me.

Like a power cord or foot petal to your sewing machine being critical to pack for a class, sew-cial or retreat, a computer power cord is equally important.  I have a few more recommendations for packing that I'll share, once I have more power. In the meantime, feel free to post a comment on your recommendations to pack for an extended trip!  Or share your stories about what you may have forgot to take!  LOL!

Spectacular Rectangles

Another delightful quilt book has been released this spring called "Spectacular Rectangles: 12 Quilts from a Simple Shape", by Ilene Bartos, published by Martingale & Company, home of That Patchwork Place.

Every design comes with a fun "quilting suggestion".

Basket Weave pattern used a combinittaion of fat-quarter colleciton of gradated atiks with a black background.  Really makes this design pop! 

Excellent instructions with great visuals

Autumn paths is a spectacular design with easy to follow instructions.  All based on strips of braids in rectangular bars where placement of the ligtest colors in the center of the quilt make it very spectacular.  More insights are shared in this book.

Treasure oxes is such a fun design, that would work for a beginner quilter, as well as an advanced quilter.  It is also a design that would easily allow anyone interested in playing with fibre-arts to expand upon this lovely design.

Just Playing Around

Have a few minutes and want to be creative?  While I'm not an expert (at anything) I had fun playing with machine quilting on top of a ten minute table runner, decorated with floral applique.  I had previously decorated this runner using the GO! Round Flower die.  Even with time playing with machine quilting, this table runner was so fast and cute.  

This was my first time to play with putting different colored threads in my bobbin.  While I liked how the top of the applique worked, I also liked how the bottom of the machine applique looked.  Unfortunately, my photos are not that great.  But I hope you get the idea of what I'm seeing.

Here is the table runner before I started doing any machine quilting.

While it is difficult to see in my photos, I do think the simply free hand machine quilting really makes a difference.  Plus, the AccuQuilt made this project so fast and easy, this table runner makes for a great project to help practice machine quilting and machine applique techniques!  I highly encourage it.

I also realized a simple trick, when working with the AccuQuilt.  The dies, especially when new, are difficult to see where the cuts will be made and where you should place your different colors of fabric. While not that difficult, it is simply faster if you take a permanent marker to mark the lines on the die. 

For example, here is a die that has not been pre-marked.  While photographs make viewing where fabric placement should be even more difficult, I'm using this as an example to show my point.  Can you easily see where you would place green fabric to cut a Christmas Tree, white for a snowflake, green for holly leaves, or red for berries?

But after I marked this die with a light colored permanent marker I think it makes it much easier to see where you want to place your fabric. Or at least to me, it seems easier to know where to place fabric for where I might want to cut flower fabric vs a leaf or a stem.

And, it took me less than a minute to mark this die with a permanent marker.  I also feel that cuts I made on my marked dies were much faster, as it was simply easier and faster for me to know where I needed to place my fabric.

If you have an AccuQuilt, I hope this little marking tip helps.  And, as mentioned, this project makes a simple project for you to play with to learn some freehand machine quilting techniques. 

http://www.accuquilt.com/