BOOK WINNER AND ELECTRIC QUILT DRAWING

First I want to thank those who left a comment about my book and wished me a happy birthday. Today is the official day and I've reached a milestone! 65 years. I can't believe I am that old! Not that it is old to me, but to someone who is under 40 they would think it was!

Anyway, the winner of my book drawing is Michele T. Congratulations Michele! You will be getting an email from me so I can get your address and put your signed copy of my book in the mail.

Starting today, Electric Quilt is having another drawing for my book. If you are here for the first time after reading Electric Quilt's blog, then welcome. I hope you will come back again and consider following me. If you are a loyal blog friend and reading this before going to Electric Quilt then you need to go to Electric Quilt's blog and leave your comment on their blog (not mine) for a chance to win a copy of my book. The reason that Electric quilt is featuring me in their blog today, is because I am one of their EQ designers and I designed every quilt in the book with EQ7. Maybe after seeing all of the wonderful things I can do with EQ7 you might want a copy of your own! They are also have a huge drawing for unbelievable prizes! You can see how to enter other drawings, including the grand prize, on their blog.

So far I have been giving you peeks of some of the quilts in the book. Today I decided to show you all of the quilts and explain a little about each one. Kaleidostars is a book about how to use symmetrical fabrics. Those are fabrics that, if you drew an imaginary line down the center of the design, it would be the same on both sides. A butterfly is symmetrical for example. Here is a sample of Paula Nadelstern's newest fabric collection called ChromaZone.

  
You can see many more symmetrical fabrics like this on my website.

In my book I tell you what to look for in symmetrical fabrics, how to cut perfect repeats every time, choosing coordinating prints, and how to sew the block together that has no "y" seams. 

Here is a sample of a block that one of my students made in my Northern Lights workshop. She used two symmetrical fabrics by Jinny Beyer called Carnival. You can see that there are two versions of the print, one with a dark background and one with a light. You can get this fabric on my website also.

 

 

I also used that collection for a quilt in my book and called it Carnival. Here is the EQ7 version and my version. I like how I can manipulate the fabrics in the program to create the symmetrical design, so I can see what they are going to look like when I sew them together, before I even cut one piece out.

      

Some quilts I only used one symmetrical fabric. Again, I'm showing the EQ7 version and the finished quilt. This quilt is called Parfait and since it only has four blocks in it, I suggest that if you haven't made a block like this, to start with this quilt. It has a 17" block.
 

 

Here is another quilt, that I used only one symmetrical fabric in it, called Royal Garden. It is really hard to tell the real version from the EQ7 version! This is probably the hardest quilt in the book because you have to match everything that comes together in the diamonds.

The next quilt is called Caribbean Blues. Again, it is hard to tell the difference between the real quilt and EQ7 image. That is how good the program is! This one uses two fabrics, one is symmetrical and one is not, but both are fussy cut.

The cover quilt, Mardi Gras also uses two fabrics, both symmetrical. Can you tell which one is the EQ7 image?

This next quilt uses one fabric. Instead of cutting the same repeat, I cut the mirror image (a right and left section of the fabric repeat), to create Fun House Mirrors. I didn't have a fabric that looked like this one in my EQ7 program so the image of it doesn't look like this one.

The quilt I really had fun designing is Electrifying! In EQ7 you can design all kinds of border treatments. It also has borders that are already made that you can pick from. Again, I didn't have the actual fabric in EQ that I used in my quilt but I was able to get the general idea of what the layout and border were going to look like. It uses one symmetrical fabric and I cut two different repeats in the same block. I think the title really fits the quilt!

In the final quilt called Northern Lights, I used three different coordinating symmetrical fabrics. 

I hope you have enjoyed this virtual trunk show and given you a good idea of what is in my book. I do have to add that most of these quilts are not as hard as they look. Just ask anyone who has taken my workshop. If you don't win the book you can always purchase a copy of it here: Kaleidostars

So for today's drawing, on my blog, I will be giving away a fat quarter bundle of Paula Nadelstern's newest collection called ChromaZone. All you have to do to be in the drawing is to leave a comment at the end of this blog telling me which quilt you think you would like to make. Be sure to LEAVE ME SOME WAY OF CONTACTING YOU IF YOU WIN. I can't tell you how many times I have drawn a name from the list only to find out I have no way of letting them know they won. If you do not want to leave your email in the message or you have difficulty leaving a comment, then use the contact me form on the right side of the blog and send me your email address. No one will see it but me.

Got to get quilting. I'm working on a new sample for one of my workshops (along with so many other projects). I'll post it as I make it on my FB page.

As always, do what you love and love what you do. Good luck and thanks for reading. Toby