Going through some old articles we stumbled across this old article written by our own Penny McMorris back in 1994 (click here to read the full article). Yes, sixteen years ago and just a few years into The Electric Quilt Company’s existence. At that time Penny was a Art Curator for Owens Corning, and was writing a three-part series on quilting past, present, and future.

This particular article we found focuses on what sort of new technologies will affect quilting by the year 2010. Penny could not have been more right on! It’s such a fun read now that 2010 is here. Plus, the floppy disk in the illustrations bring back some memories!

Here is an excerpt from the article:
Imagine the future. Pretend it is the year 2010. You wake to NQC, your clock-television’s 24-hour National Quilting Channel. While you breakfast, a friend appears on your computer monitor, calling from Australia. She is chatting about next week’s International Quilters’ Society show. You will both attend. But you will do it from your own homes, watching it all on your computers.

Fantastic? Yes, but also feasible. New technology will make many new quilting tools, products, and events possible in the coming decades. New sewing machines, new computer software, and new ways of sharing quilting information will all become commonplace.

These innovations, while exciting, will bring change. And change can sometimes seem unsettling. So before we jump ahead, let’s consider how far we’ve come already. Think of once-high-tech wonders that are taken for granted by quiltmakers today: sewing machines, electricity, photographs, telephones, airplanes, photocopy machines. Today’s quilting industry couldn’t exist without them. Yet, these marvels were all intimidating at first. The sewing machine, for example, so frightened one 19th-century quiltmaker that she declared it “the work of the devil.” But this new invention actually gave fresh life to quilting. It didn’t replace hand sewing. It simply gave women time to do hand work when they chose to.

Today’s computer technology will also benefit quilting. By encouraging the development of innovative quilting products and tools and by attracting younger generations to quiltmaking, it will add another chapter to quilting’s history.

Click here to read the full article.

Have you seen me? I’m a block hidden somewhere in BlockBase. Find me, find my name, and you may win a Quiltmaker Quilting Designs CD of your choice.

To enter, please send an email:
To: penny@electricquilt.com
Subject line: Find the Block
Body:
Your Full Name
Your Email
What is the BlockBase name (or ID number) for this block.

Only one email entry per person.
Deadline: January 19, 2010

Congratulations to Robin Baker who was the winner of the Match the EQ Babies Conest! Good eye, Robin! This was a tough contest.

A - Keria
B - Ben (twin 1)
C - Aidan
D - Derek
E - Aly (twin 2)
F - Ellie
G - Ashtyn

The Electric Quilt Company will be open Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday, December 21-23rd, 2009.

We will be closed on December 24th and December 25th.

Web orders placed after 9:01am Eastern on Wednesday December 23rd will not be processed until Monday, December 28th.

If you need technical support over the holiday weekend, please check out these pages:

EQ6 Frequently Asked Questions

EQ5 Frequently Asked Questions

EQ Forums - post your question to the community or search for previous questions and answers

Error 42 IPM on Vista or Windows 7

If you haven’t placed your orders yet do it now! Free shipping to U.S. locations on orders $50 or more ends Wednesday, December 16th at 9a.m. Eastern.

OFFER DETAILS
• Free shipping offer valid 12/08/2009 through 12/16/2009 (ends 9am Eastern).
• Order must total $50.00 or more before shipping, handling and taxes are added.
• Applies to Electric Quilt’s standard ground delivery service in the US only.
• UPS 3-day, 2-day and Next Day Air delivery charges will remain unchanged from the usual rates.
• Offer is not valid for purchases for International/Canadian delivery.
• Offer cannot be used toward previous orders or purchases.

Get it by Christmas (US orders):
• Regular Ground - Order by 9am Eastern, December 16th
• 2nd Day - Order by 9am Eastern, Dec. 21st
• Overnight - Order by 9am Eastern, Dec. 22nd

OFFER DETAILS
• Free shipping offer valid 12/08/2009 through 12/16/2009 (ends 9am Eastern).
• Order must total $50.00 or more before shipping, handling and taxes are added.
• Applies to Electric Quilt’s standard ground delivery service in the US only.
• UPS 3-day, 2-day and Next Day Air delivery charges will remain unchanged from the usual rates.
• Offer is not valid for purchases for International/Canadian delivery.
• Offer cannot be used toward previous orders or purchases.

Get it by Christmas (US orders):
• Regular Ground - Order by 9am Eastern, December 16th
• 2nd Day - Order by 9am Eastern, Dec. 21st
• Overnight - Order by 9am Eastern, Dec. 22nd

EQ the Mouse is confused. The EQ Babies are growing up, and he can’t tell who’s who. Can you? Help him match the EQ Babies to their baby pictures. Spoiler alert: this is a HARD contest! Hint: baby pictures from past newsletters may help.

When guessing, match baby numbers 1 through 7 to their older selves A through G.
To enter, please send an email: To: penny@electricquilt.com
Subject line: Match the Babies
Body:
Your Full Name
Your Email
Your guesses
Please enter only once.
Deadline: December 18, 2009

We will choose one winner from all correct answers. In case of no correct answers we’ll choose from those closest. The winner will win Amy Butler Softwares.

We will be closed November 26th to observe the Thanksgiving holiday.

The next time we will process and ship orders will be Monday November 30th. Fast shipping requests will be calculated from the November 30th ship date.

If you have questions call the office during regular business house 9am-5pm Eastern Standard time on Monday, November 30th.

Amy Butler has just released her new line of fabrics called Love and she’s generously offering Amy Butler Software users the virtual files! The fabrics also come with a bonus quilt. The bonus quilt and fabrics will be automatically added to your Amy Butler Softwares program when you download the file. Download the update now!

Don’t have Amy Butler Softwares yet? Order it now!

To celebrate the release of Quiltmaker Quilting Designs: Volume 7, we’re pairing together with Quiltmaker magazine to offer a contest.

If you win, this is the first time your virtual quilt will ever make itself!

Design your quilt in Electric Quilt 6 and incorporate quilting designs from any of the Quilting Designs: The Quiltmaker Collection CDs, Vol. 1-7. Designs will be judged on originality and the creative interpretation of the quilting designs.

You can use any technique (pieced, foundation pieced, or appliqué) to design the quilt.
Pattern elements must fit on 1–2 magazine pages, 8.5” x 11”.
Use any stencils from any volume of the Quiltmaker Collection CDs.
Any size quilt is welcome.
In EQ, use solid colors only. Please do not color the quilt with fabrics.
Using the Set Thread tool to color the stencils is optional.
Submissions will be accepted October 27 - December 1, 2009.
You can enter up to three quilts (each in a separate entry form).

More information:
http://www.electricquilt.com/Promo/Quiltmakercontest.asp

Upgrading to Windows® 7? EQ6 is completely compatible so no worries! You may receive an Error 42 after installation. If this occurs, follow these steps from the EQ website to complete your activation. If you experience any other problems simply call The Electric Quilt Tech Support at 419-352-1134 for assistance.

Barb Vlack was surprised! When we saw Barb during Quilt Festival in Houston last week we presented her with a sampler quilt with blocks made by users from all over the world: England, Germany, New Zealand, South Africa, France, Canda & the U.S.

The quilt celebrates Barb’s 10 year anniversary (!) as clubEQ challenge leader — ten years of thinking up interesting challenges, and ten years of designing quilts to illustrate her challenge idea.

Thanks so much for your clubEQ leadership Barb — lots of work, lots of challenging ideas to help EQ users learn new tricks and techniques, and lots of fun seeing what you’ll come up with each month!

The 35th annual Quilt Market & Festival in Houston finished on Sunday at 5pm. It was a long two weeks, but your excitement and awe kept us going (as did Barb Vlacks’ secret stash of homemade Marshmallows).

We saw a lot of familiar faces and a lot of new ones. As always, it was fun talking with friends, fellow vendors, teachers, authors, fabric designers, publishers, TV hosts, EQ fans, and new customers. We were so excited to see how many of you brought printouts and flyers by our booth to show off what you made in EQ. We can’t wait to blog about your design adventures and successes.

We bonded with a few, fellow Ohioans and joked with them whenever we walked by their booths. Marcia Derse is an artist out of the Toledo area (just north of us) and has a new fabric line from Troy Fabrics. Penny couldn’t leave her booth without getting a stack of hand-painted/hand-dyed fat quarters in all sorts of goldy-green shades. One of the HoopSisters is from Lima (just south of us) and does amazing quilt-as-you-go embroidery designs. She plans the quilts in EQ6 and then designs embroidery patterns to go with them.

The quilts in the exhibit hall were spectacular. Margaret and Andrea went to the convention center early every morning so they wouldn’t miss a single quilt. The different exhibits… Russian, Canadian, Flowers, The German Tree Forest, Hoffman Challenge, Architecture, Embroidery, Painted, all of them were so …. wow. The variety was just as stunning as the quilts. So many techniques, so little time…

The gadgets and gizmos for sale in the hall were just as fun. Everyone in our booth came home with something… or more than one something.

We found a lot of fun restaurants this year and enjoyed walking through the greenspace in front of the convention center. The trees and landscaping are really starting to thrive next to all those fields, and the pond with all the waterlilies. The puppies in the dog park were also cute to look at on our walk home to the hotel. Kudos to the city of Houston for all their work, it’s a pleasure to come to the city and the progress they have made has not gone unnoticed.

Thanks for a memorable 2 weeks.

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!

You can send in as many blocks as you like. The more blocks you enter, the better your chances of winning.