I can tell from your comments that many of you visiting our blog tour this week are EQ users. Do you know about the QM-EQ Design Contest? There’s a post here with info and you’ll find the entry form and official rules here.

Jenny at EQ made a sample to show a virtual quilt with virtual quilting:

QM-EQ Contest Sample: Quilting Designs from Vol. 3

Start designing–we might be making your design in a quilt! The Grand Prize includes Quiltmaker making the winning design into a quilt that the winner will get to keep. Entries are due by 10 pm MST on 12/1/09. You can use any combination of quilting designs from any of the seven volumes of Quilting Designs.

Tell me by 3 pm MST Friday, Nov. 13 if you use EQ to create your own quilts. (And, yes I’ll give away another copy of 100 Blocks to a random commenter.)

Congratulations to Norma #2 who wins a copy of 100 Blocks. Now, for all of you who design with EQ, I want to see your submissions into this design contest!

It’s a new contest from Quiltmaker and The Electric Quilt Company! You design a quilt in Electric Quilt 6 and use quilting designs from any of the Quilting Designs Volumes 1-7.

Grand Prize: Quiltmaker staff will select the winning design–we will make a quilt from that design and the pattern will appear in an upcoming issue. The winning designer will get to keep the quilt, plus will receive a $200 gift certificate from The Electric Quilt Company. There will also be an EQ Staff Choice and a Viewer’s Choice. Keep reading to find out more.

Great quilting designs can do so much to enhance our quilts. In every issue of Quiltmaker magazine, we give you several new, original motifs. We’ve been collecting these motifs into books for years, and have seven volumes of inspiring motif books.

EQ has been converting our motif books into software and just released volume 7 earlier in October. Read an interview from EQ staffer Andrea Bishop who has recreated each of the 4,425 designs in all seven volumes. Each volume of the software corresponds to a book volume of the same number. The Quilting Designs CDs from Electric Quilt can be used two ways:

1. First, no other software is needed. If you don’t own Electric Quilt 6, you can resize any motif and print it out.
2. Or the Quilting Designs software is compatible with EQ6. You can link the quilting designs to an EQ6 project–where you can combine, modify and resize the designs. Read more about Using Quilting Designs with EQ.

For the Quiltmaker-Electric Quilt Contest, design your quilt in Electric Quilt 6 and incorporate quilting designs from any of the seven volumes of Quilting Designs as described in #2 above. Designs will be judged on originality and the creative interpretation of the quilting designs. Entry forms are due by midnight on December 1, 2009. We can’t wait to see your creations!

Read on for more details, see all the prizes and find the entry form.

Are you a quilter inspired by photography? Just got this press release about a new contest.

“The Eye of the Quilter: Inspirations” will debut at the 35th anniversary of International Quilt Festival/Houston October 15-18, 2009. But instead of works of fabric, this special exhibit will feature photographs—taken by quilters—of something that “inspires” them. It could be a sunset, a child’s face, a landscape, body of water…the possibilities are endless.

Entrants can submit up to three digital photo shots for the contest, and winners will be on display in a special area at the fall Festival in Houston for the more than 53,000 attendees to marvel at.

Rules and entry form for “The Eye of the Quilter: Inspiration,” are available at quilts.com, under the “Contests” section. Deadline for entry is September 1, 2009.