Easter Egg Contest

Last week, "It's a Quilt Thing" offered a free digital pattern for a quilted placement.  "Welcome Easter" has chicks and bunnies which can be colored with Crayola Crayons.  The coloring can be made permanent by heat setting the crayons with a warm iron.  Or, if you would like to use them again next year, you can just wash them.

I immediately needed to put some muslin on my machine and stitch out a number of those placemats.  Then I had a little room left on the muslin and decided I needed a couple of oval placemats as well.  I needed to do some modification of the design to make it work for the ovals.  I found this worked best in Art and Stitch.

Welcome Easter Quilted Place Mat by Kari Schell. Design by It's a Quilt Thing.

Welcome Easter Oval Place Mat. A variation of a design by It's A Quilt Thing.

Then I thought -- what if I just placed the bunny in an egg shape for a small "mug rug"?  Back to Art and Stitch.  

Rug Mat by Kari Schell. (The bunny is by It's a Quilt Thing.)

Colored Bunny by Kari Schell

Creating my own Easter Egg Designs

As this was stitching out I began thinking about all the other possible ways to decorate my egg.  Also -- did I want a stitch design or did I want to create applique shapes? Should I do this in Art and Stitch or in Electric Quilt?

I decided to start with some basic zigzags and circles and played in both Electric Quilt and Art and Stitch.

Electric Quilt Designed Easter Egg Motif. An original design by Kari Schell.

Art and Stitch Quilting Designed Easter Egg. An original design by Kari Schell.

This week I will share the video showing how I created the Art and Stitch egg (including how I made the stitching continuous). This was why I chose to put my circles in a row.  

Next week I will share how I created the Electric Quilt design.  

If you watch both videos, you will better understand the differences in the drawing tools. 

I share a few new tools in this video including the tracing wizard and transform. 

Easter Egg Contest

Did you ever participate in an Easter egg contest? 

Back when I was growing up, you could pick up your "entry form" from a local store or the newspaper.  Those coloring pages that were completed and turned in were on display at a local business establishment and there were prizes for the best submissions.  I recall submitting my renditions on occasion, but I don't believe I ever won anything.


I'm still pretty sure I wouldn't win any prizes today - check out my colored egg on the right.  :)

Art and Stitch Easter Egg stitched out and colored by Kari Schell

As I was working on my Easter egg, I thought this would be a fun idea for another exchange.  This one will be open to users of Electric Quilt, EQ Stitch, Art and Stitch, and Art and Stitch Plus.

Anyone who submits a design is a winner (but you must submit a design to win).  Those who submit a design will have access to a members only page on my website.  From this page they can download files from all the exchange participants.  However, you must have the source software to be able to use the file.  If you do not submit a design, you will not be able to receive the files.

Once you have completed the design, label it with your name. Send me the file at [email protected].  For those using the embroidery programs, please also send me a screenshot of your finished design as I don't own the embroidery software modules.

Due date is Saturday, March 28th.

Here are the files with the basic egg shape.

• Art and Stitch
  
• Electric Quilt 7  (This can be found in the motif tab.)
  

How the member only pages work:  When I receive your submission, I will set you up as a member using your current e-mail address. You will receive an email asking you to set a personal password for the site. I will link your email address with the private page. You will need to log in on my site to be able to access the private page.  Membership is only required for the private pages.

The login button will change to "My Account". You will then be able to choose the page to access. 

I will post pictures of the submitted designs on an upcoming blog post with your name (but will not provide access to the files).

Etsy Shop Now Open

I have one niece that is "coloring" age -- and 10 quilted items.  I need to either adopt more nieces and nephews or find another avenue for these mini quilts.  

So I decided I would offer them on Etsy and am officially opening my Etsy shop.  Here is the link if you are interested in a quilted placemat or mug rug for an Easter gift. 

Happy quilting.

Kari

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