That’s the news, but we also wanted to show you what we like to do when we aren’t at the computer.

Very little of an Inklingo quilter’s time is actually spent at the computer. Inklingo quilters can sew anywhere they like!

Just a few minutes of printing makes it possible to cut and sew somewhere else—like on the front porch, or at the local ball park, or even <gasp> at the sewing machine in an air conditioned room. 

Get out and enjoy!

We have been having perfect front porch weather. Low 80s is ideal and every Inklingo shape is perfect too.

No math?

Canadians use both Centigrade and Fahrenheit. I have never been very good at converting from one to the other, but I know that 28 is 82 (C to F). That’s my kind of weather—comfortable and no tricky math.

Inklingo takes the tricky math out of quilting too, because you only need to know the finished size. 

Inklingo is even simpler than the weather forecast for beginners.

No sweat!

We thought about what quilters need to know about Inklingo.

We decided the new page for beginners should be pretty and practical.

And we made it a page on the website and a PDF, so if you want to print it out to show to your front porch friends, you can. (This is a nice handout  for Inklingo Affiliates. Use it on your blog too.)

 Highs of 27 and 28.

I forecast a few more days on the front porch this week.

Monkey says: Let’s print and go back outside. I say: Stay cool—or take a sweater, depending on your forecast. 

Don’t forget to take Tilde’s 15 Minute Challenge. It’s not just for beginners, and there will be a draw on August 1st for a $25 Gift Certificate.

Inklingo for Beginners  Love the lines. Quilt more!

Linda & Monkey

New to Inklingo? Order and download free shapes and start sewing in the next few minutes. Quick Start (Always FREE.) There are triangles, diamonds, and squares  in the free collection—great for dozens of different blocks.

 Monkey has a Stars & Stripes chair and lots of friends.

They chatted about freedom and liberty.

Monkey shared his sunflower seeds.

A good time was had by all.

We Canadians wish the same for you. (Roll over the photos for captions.)

Linda took more than 200 photos in a short time and there are at least 36 more that are as good as these. Consider yourself lucky. We appreciate you so much that we limited ourselves to only 4 photos for the 4th. 

While our friends celebrate the American Revolution of 1776 (freedom), everyone can join the Quilting Revolution of 2006 with Inklingo (free).

Happy 4th of July to all of our American friends, and Happy Monday to everyone. Thank you for visiting.

Linda & Monkey

New to Inklingo? Order and download free shapes and start sewing in the next few minutes. Quick Start (Always FREE.) There are triangles, diamonds, and squares  in the free collection—great for dozens of different blocks.

CLUB EQ MAY CHALLENGE

The quilts for the Club EQ May Challenge are online now! There are 91 amazing Red and White quilts. You can see them all here.

About 50 quilters entered the May Club EQ Challenge and many of the 91 quilts are Inklingoable, including Feathered Star, School House, and quilts with diamonds, triangles, squares, etc.

INKLINGOABLE QUILTS

5 wonderful designs were submitted by 3 Inklingo quilters!

Anneke of Stof Genoeg, Elly of Mad4patchwork and Erin of A Prairie Home Quilts designed gorgeous Red and White quilts which it would actually be possible to sew—with Inklingo. LOL You can see them here.

Some of the pre-Inklingo designs would be extremely challenging to create in fabric. Electric Quilt and Inklingo are a perfect combo. When you print the shapes on fabric with Inklingo, you have a line to cut on and a line to sew on.

You can actually sew whatever you design in EQ with Inklingo shapes!

The quilters who submitted quilts receive the project files for all 91 quilts. They are not available to other quilters.

There is a strong incentive to enter in June, don’t you think?

JUNE CLUB EQ CHALLENGE

The June Club EQ Challenge is Twenty! Celebrating 20 years of EQ!  It could be 20 blocks, 20 colors, 20 inches, 20 shapes, 20 whatever. Barb Vlack created two examples to get you started. Her 20/20 Vision is very clever! 

Isn’t it amazing to think that quilters have been using computers to design quilts with Electric Quilt for 20 years already?

This gets me thinking. There is a 20 inch Inklingo Feathered Star. It is not the same as any of the Feathered Star blocks in Block Base or EQ7. With the new image trace feature in EQ7, it should not be too difficult to draw. . .

Just sayin’.

Or what about 20 Pies & Tarts, or 20 Dresden Plates, or 20 Circles. . .

  EQ7 Project File

HOORAY!  ANOTHER PROJECT FILE TO DOWNLOAD

Download the EQ7 Project File

There is an Alabama Beauty block in this file for you. I thought Alabama might have been the 20th US state, but it is the 22nd. But wait! Interstate 20 runs through Alabama. How about 20 Alabama Beauties along Route 20?

I also included the half Clamshell shape in the project file, which makes an interesting block called Quilter’s Fan (Beyer 433-12). It is one shape, 4 in a block. Maybe 20 different colors?

Monkey included a few more Winding Ways designs in this project file too, similar to the ones in the Inklingo Winding Ways Design Book. 

20 WHAT?

How about 20 Questions? 20 Calories (about 3 almonds, one cracker)? 20 Degrees Celcius is about 68 Fahrenheit, which is a comfortable room temperature. Where does that take you?

Oh, I just remembered. There is a small river near here called the Twenty. The Twenty Valley is in the Niagara tourist region with wineries, golf, etc. I don’t know why they named the creek the Twenty. Any clues there?

When there is a space in a URL, it is often filled with %20. Is there a way to use that? There is the G-20 group of Finance Ministers. Are there any songs with 20 in them? What about a musical score?

The Roman numeral for 20 is XX. It makes me think of Quarter Square Triangles.

You might find a score of ideas about the number 20 on Wikipedia too.

If you enter one or two quilts, you will score all of the designs. (Monkey likes to make puns. I groan.)

If you use Inklingo shapes (and I hope you will), please make a note of the Inklingo Shape Collection on the notecard in your project file. The notecard feature in EQ is indispensable.

You name your quilt for the ClubEQ Challenge, and if you include Inklingo in the name, it will make it easier for Inklingo quilters to identify which quilts they want to make.

FABULOUS EQ SUPPORT

You should sign up for the EQ Newsletter now too. This month there is a link to a podcast with Penny McMorris and Annie Smith on Annie’s Quilting Stash.

There are fabric downloads and contests and Anneke’s Stof Genoeg blog is featured too!

If you are thinking about buying EQ, or are learning to use EQ, you will love what you learn by belonging to the Info-EQ list hosted by Planet Patchwork.

Inklingo quilters have a head start with the Inklingo Design Books and the project files provided on this blog. You can create amazing designs—and sew them—thanks to the cutting and stitching lines printed on the fabric with Inklingo.

It would be wonderful to see more Inklingoable quilts when the Club EQ results are posted this summer.

Got an idea or twenty? Ready to learn EQ? Ready to inspire? Is your EQ open yet? Don’t wait another 20 minutes!  Start now and you could be featured next!

Linda & Monkey

New to Inklingo? Order and download free shapes and start sewing in the next few minutes. Quick Start (Always FREE.) There are triangles, diamonds, and squares  in the free collection—great for dozens of different blocks.

I hope more than three Inklingoists will submit EQ6 or EQ7 designs by June 30. Will you?

“Tilde’s 15 Minute Challenge” is designed to help you print your very first shapes on fabric with Inklingo.

You can click to download the Challenge here (2 pages), and get in on the fun! 

When you have done the Challenge and reported your results, I think you will want to make a Tiny Tote with Tilde’s Tiny Tote pattern too—and its free! 

Tilde in Copenhagen has been a dear freind (that’s how Jane Austen spelled it) for over ten years, and she was one of the first three quilters to use Inklingo in 2006. She is an amazing person and I feel very lucky to know her. 

Tilde is the brains behind the Inklingo Sampler blog and the Inklingo Projects blog too.

With credentials like that, how can you resist?

Whether you are a beginner or experienced Inklingo quilter, please take Tilde’s 15 Minute Challenge! This is going to be fun, plus there will be a draw Monday 30 May from all of the comments here and on the Inklingo Sampler blog (combined)  for two winners of  $25.00 Inklingo Gift Certificates!

The challenge was created in response to questions and  suggestions. If you have suggestions, we want to know that too. The Inklingo Yahoo group is a great place to meet.

Go! Go! Go! Tilde’s 15 Minute Challenge awaits!

Linda & Monkey

“What is a combo layout?”

Monkey and I love combo layouts. I still get a little thrill of satisfaction when I remember the AHA moment. Monkey was there too. It was a summer evening and the doors and windows were open. I was printing to make a few Le Moyne Star blocks to photograph for the free Inklingo Shape Collection. It is still clear in my mind. I started to laugh when I saw the possibilities.

That doesn’t make it very clear, does it? Maybe it is easiest to show you with an example.

NOTE  There’s a test at the end.

SUNFLOWER COMBO 1

In this block, the background and the center circle are the same fabric.

The Inklingo shapes are provided separately (as usual), so I could print them on two sheets of fabric . . .

. . . OR, I could use Combo Layout 1 in the Sunflower Quilt Shape Collection (6 inch), to print both at the same time.

It uses fabric very efficiently and saves time.

Is that cool, or what? Cut with scissors or a rotary cutter. Perfect shapes.

There are combo layouts in several different Inklingo shape collections, but Sunflower offered the most opportunities.

SUNFLOWER COMBO 2

Combo 2 lets me print the background and the diamonds at the same time.

SUNFLOWER COMBO 6

The inner and outer triangles are the same white fabric. This is quite common in Sunflower blocks. Print all 16 of each shape (32 shapes ) on one piece of fabric!

No templates, no weird rulers. Perfect cutting lines and stitching lines on every shape. You can sew an Inklingo Sunflower block and love the results.

THE TEST AT THE END

This Double Sunflower uses FOUR Combo layouts from the 6 and 12 inch Sunflower Shape Collections. See pages 39 and 43 in the Inklingo Sunflower Quilt Design Book (free for a limited time) and decide which four combo layouts would work. The answer is on page 47. Then you’ll be ready for this:

Thanks for asking a great question, Maria! Since Color Mastery is all about choosing fabrics with color confidence, this is right up your alley, don’t you think?

MORE GOOD NEWS!

The FREE Inklingo Shape Collection for Diamonds/Triangles/Squares includes two combo layouts! You can print them right now. They are the original combos—the result of that first AHA moment.

Anyone else have a question? I try to answer them all.

Linda & Monkey

New to Inklingo? Order and download free shapes and start sewing in the next few minutes. Quick Start  (Always FREE.) There are triangles, diamonds, and squares  in the free collection—great for dozens of different blocks.

We tend to think of the elaborate ones first. 

Flying Geese, Half Square Triangles, and Quarter Square Triangles are less glamorous, but best with Inklingo, too.

Last night, after a long struggle with a failing computer, we added spectacular Inklingo Sunflowers (sometimes called “Sunburst Quilts”). I am in love with them.

<drum roll> SUNFLOWER

Sunflower Quiltsare deeply impressive and relatively rare, partly because there is no paper piecing method for them. It’s templates or nothing, and when the piecing is finished, the circles still have to be appliquéed to a background.

Not any more! Inklingo changes Sunflower forever.

With the cutting and stitching lines printed on the fabric with Inklingo, you can make stunning Sunflowers by hand or by machine in less time than it took your grandmother to make the templates and cut out the shapes. And you can piece every seam, if you prefer not to appliqué.

COMBO LAYOUTS

Inklingo quilters love combo layouts and there are SIX different ones for Sunflower, so if your design uses the same fabric in two shapes (e.g. the inner and outer triangles), you can print them at the same time and use the fabric efficiently. Of course, the shapes are also provided in separate layouts. See how in the design book.

FUSSY CUT – FUSSY PRINT

When you print with Inklingo, you can use some of the time you save to fussy cut the circles or the diamonds. Oh, my goodness! There are tips for “fussy printing” in older messages on this blog, like this one.

TWO SIZES

Inklingo takes Sunflower a giant leap forward with TWO sizes.

  You can do this!

The little sunflower fits inside the big one for a Double Sunflower . . .

. . . or you can use two sizes in the same quilt as single sunflowers.

I got carried away designing with these shapes. My best tips and designs are in the Inklingo Sunflower Quilt Design Book—108 pages. 30+ Quilt Designs. 26 worksheets!!!

ON SALE OR FREE

The sale price is good until April 11, and the Inklingo Sunflower Quilt Design Book is FREE for a limited time.

Please tell your friends. It won’t be free for long.

LET ME WHINE A BIT?

Monkey and my computer are telling me that the next collections will be simpler. Russ says I should get a new computer. I have been putting it off for years because I hate the work of moving into a new one. I tell Russ it’s like moving into a new house. Everything has to be packed and moved, and the new house has no towel racks, or toilet paper holders, or draperies. I don’t want to start over. I like it here. I just want this old computer to keep working. 

YOUR CHECKLIST

Here’s what to do:

1. Order and download the Inklingo Sunflower Quilt Design Book while it’s free.

2. Open the Sunflower Quilt Design Book and decide which sizes are best for you.

3. Go back to the Inklingo site to order at least one Sunflower Shape Collection (notice the savings if you buy both), and leave a review for the design book.

4. Make a quilt that will impress your friends and annoy your enemies (not that you have any).

Please don’t tell me to get a new computer. Tell me what you think of the Design Book, okay?

Linda & Monkey

New to Inklingo? Order and download free shapes and start sewing in the next few minutes. Quick Start  (Always FREE.) There are triangles, diamonds, and squares  in the free collection—great for dozens of different blocks.