Sunday, May 16, 2010

Block 6 Tulip Tiles BOM Posted

I have posted the next Free Block of the Month in the Tulip Tiles series.  This block is actually a setting triangle.  You will need to make four of these.  They are large triangles with a tulip motif appliqued on them.  The Instructions and placement guide can be downloaded by going to the 2010 Block of the Month page or by clicking here.

You may be wondering when we will get to the sashing so that you can start to put your blocks together!  I know you are impatient just like me.  You will have to wait a bit however.  This month we do the setting traingles, next month we do the corner triangles, and THEN. . . we will do the sashing and set the top together.   I am having a lot of fun with this quilt, I hope you are too.  I would love to see pictures of your blocks when you get them together.

If you have missed the first four blocks you can purchase them for $2.00 each on my website - http://www.morningglorydesigns.net/.  Blocks 5 and six are still available for free.  Be sure to download them now because they are only available for free for two months.

Happy quilting!

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

New Quilt Designs with EQ6

As always, I have a quilt design in my head, but several actually found their way onto paper this week.  I have always been intrigued with the designs of ancient mosaic tiles, so I decided to use some of the motifs to design a quilt.  The small tiles are so like patches in patchwork that I couldn't help seeing the similarities.  In the illustration below, from the book Ancient Mosaics by Roger Ling (p 66) I was stunned to see the six-pointed stars made of diamonds and the hexagon between them filled with an amazing six-petaled flowers.  If it weren't for the intricate rope borders around the larger hexagons you would think you were looking at a quilt.  And to think some artist sat there placing each of those tiny tiles into some kind of cement which managed to last all of these thousands of years.  I only hope the quilt that this mosaic inspires is as time-worthy.
Look at these incredible motifs in this tilework.  It just blows me away.  I do a program on the Hexagon shape in quilting, and now I can see I am going to have to add a few more slides to my powerpoint!!  LOL

When I saw the Stonehenge line of fabrics from Northcott being advertised I knew I had found a great combination.  I downloaded all the Stonehenge fabrics from the Northcott website so I could play with the designs and the actual fabrics on EQ6.  Don't you just love EQ??  I played on EQ6 and came up with a lot of different designs.  Here is one of them:


I love how the design looks like marble and stone -- even in the computer generated drawing -- using the Stonehenge fabrics.  Of course I had to go shopping and order a huge pile of the fabrics to play with.
Here is another tile design that intrigued me.  This one was from a book called The Tile Book: Decorating with Fired Earth by Elizabeth Hilliard, page 141.  I loved the colors in this tile and the wild floral motifs in the central four-patch.  Did you ever see a tile design that looked more like a quilt???  I thought this one would be easy to adapt to a quilt design.  It took a bit more ingenuity than I first thought, especially to design the sashing and choose fabrics, but I think I am on the right track.  I need to play a bit more with fabrics, but I am liking the direction it is going in.  And here is the quilt design I have so far in EQ6:


Can't you just see this covering a huge floor in a church baptistry?


This is the sort of thing that is going to keep me jazzed for a long time.  Now I have to get away from the computer and go to my studio and sew!!  As always, thanks for visiting.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

EQ7 Now available on my Website for a Special Price

I have received so many requests for EQ7 that I finally put it up on my website!  I am offering the full program for $125.00 plus shipping and the Upgrade for $55.00 plus shipping -- but only through May 31.  After that the program and upgrade will both be available on my website for the full retail price of $189.95 for the program and $89.95 for the upgrade from EQ6.  Check out Electric Quilt's  website for features and prices and you will see that I am offering for less during this pre-release promotion.

The new version includes a great new worktable for working with pictures and an improved custom set worktable with a grid to make creating your own settings even easier.   If you have a licensed copy of EQ6 you can purchase the upgrade.  And no worry about a limited number of activations as in EQ6.  EQ7 will have unlimited activations!

Please note, this is a pre-release price available only until May 31.  Electric Quilt will begin shipping June 7 and I will ship all prepaid orders as soon as I receive the programs from EQ.  This is a great product and a great price.

To order click HERE.