Today is a special blog not only because I will be drawing for a fat quarter group from P&B and one of my patterns, but also because I am today's guest of the EQ Christmas Countdown. Each day since December 1, Electric Quilt has offered a free download (EQ7 file) of a pattern by a special EQ artist. If you have EQ7 you just have to download the file and add it to your EQ7 (My EQ7 projects) folder, so you can open it and play with it any way you want. If you haven't been following along you can still get previous projects starting with the first one on December 1. This will continue until the end of this week on the 19th.
My project is called Frosty. I had originally designed the quilt for Hoffman Fabrics. I had never done an applique' project in EQ7 and it was quite a learning curve for me. Luckily Frosty was one of the applique' designs in the block base so I did not have to design my own snowman. I did have to learn how to outline the snowman so it looked like I had stitched around it. I thought putting the pieced stars behind Frosty gave it a more interesting look. I love the way I can work with EQ7 and now they have a Mac version so I don't have to open it up on a PC or PC simulator on my Mac! If you do not have EQ7 you should consider purchasing it. It is a very easy program to learn. I teach workshop on EQ7 so if you belong to a guild or know of a quilt shop that would like me to come teach it, please contact me.
I am offering a special giveaway with Frosty. Anyone who leaves a comment will receive a FREE download of the pattern, which includes full size applique' pieces. This is in addition to the EQ7 download of the pattern you can get on EQ's blog through the link above. Since the EQ file is just a quilt and fabric, it does not have a pattern with it. So with just the quilt you would have to figure your own directions. Having the program is also great because you can print out the applique' pieces from the quilt pattern.
In addition to the EQ pattern I will be giving away this next group of fabrics from the Luxury Essentials collection by P&B Textiles.
I played with the fabrics in my Geese on the Loose block. It is a paper pieced block that I teach a method of freezer paper foundation piecing. You do not sew on the freezer paper so you can reuse it as many times as the paper sticks to the fabrics. In the next blog I will do a tutorial of how to do freezer paper piecing with this block. Since you already read my previous post on how to sew curves this would be a great one to practice on. I will be giving away my Geese on the Loose pattern with the fabrics. If you are interested in the acrylic templates for this pattern you can find them on my website.
Well, it's getting late. I want to make sure this is posted after midnight (only 3 minutes to go)! Be sure to leave some way of contacting you so I can email your free pattern. I also want to let you know that I have added the option of getting a pdf of any of my patterns on my website instead of mailing you the pattern. Of course the pattern is copyrighted so you can only print one copy for yourself.
As always: Do what you love and love what you do. Thank you for reading. Again, be sure you leave some way of contacting you so I can email you your Frosty pattern. If you do not want to leave your email address in the comment section then please email me at info@gatewayquiltsnstuff.com. If I don't have contact information I can't email you the pattern. Toby Lischko
