Date: 5/31/10 6:46 PM

I am trying to decide to buy the electric Quilt 7. If I buy it today I will get about 40 off. It is a presale. I have made a couple of quilts and enjoy it. I would like to hear form someone who has used the software to determine if it is worth buying or is it another piece of software that may not get used.

Reply to Cue
Date: 5/31/10 6:47 PM

I have EQ5 that was given to me by a friend who bought it and never used it. SO, it was free to me.

I have had it about 4 years now and used it maybe once or twice a year. Mostly to see how a quilt will look with different color options AFTER I have a pattern in mind.

HTH

------
The single most important discovery made by a group of women? The Empty Tomb!

http://www.donnahodgson.blogspot.com/

Date: 6/1/10 4:59 AM

I bought the EQ6 when it first came out have to say after an intitial play around with it I never really used it. Although the instructor in class I was in loved it and used it alot to demonstrate how different arrangements of the same block will look. I think it has clever aspects to it but I think it is either one of those things you love or one of those things that gather dust.

Date: 6/1/10 7:38 AM

I have EQ5 and find it very useful when I want to make a bed quilt. I mostly use it to audition colors either for blocks or borders. With the click of a mouse, you can see which colors work best. I've also used it when I've purchased a book with different block patterns. You can either use the library of blocks in EQ or draw your own to match the book. Drawing geometric blocks is easy with the program. Plug in the colors/fabrics. It's that easy.

Some people use it to its fullest advantage and create all kinds of designs. I've never put the time in to that, but do love to take a few minutes to see if my ideas will work.

Date: 6/1/10 12:00 PM

When I'm planning a quilt I almost always draw it up in some kind of software. I have EQ5, QuiltPro 4, Corel Draw and Photoshop Elements.

I use EQ and QuiltPro for pieced quilts and Corel Draw and Photoshop Elements for art and pictorial quilts.

I used to draw up my pieced quilts with graph paper and colored pencils, but that slow process takes all the fun out for me.

If you're getting your designs from a book or a pattern and not changing them much, then it doesn't seem software would be of value.

------
Tess
Bernina 150QE (2, actually), Brother PQ1500S, Elna 945 serger, Janome CP1000
Vintage Singers: 221 Featherweight (2), 15-91, 201-2, 503

Date: 6/3/10 12:25 PM

I love EQ, have version 6. I use it for EVERY quilt I make (I've only made a dozen or so) - it's a fabulous way to get an idea of what the quilt will look like when done. I find it a great way to 'audition' fabrics and really understand what I'm getting in to, and have used this method to select fabrics before purchasing.

Though you can create the quilt patterns from scratch (or preset design) in the software, I don't really use that part of it. But for the cost of the software, it's saved me enough in poor fabric purchases to be well worth it.

then again, I happen to love software... so that may be part of it, too!

Date: 6/3/10 2:28 PM

I use EQ6 with nearly every quilt I make. And I've used it to write several quilt patterns that rely on block rotation to make the design.

If you generally quilt from books or patterns, you might not use it much. If you want to do your own designing, I think it's great. It would take forever to redraw and recolor by hand to visualize pattern shifts.

Date: 7/18/10 9:45 PM

I am a novice quilter who just bought the EQ7. The first thing I did was to "build" a partially completed quilt onto to the computer. The options that EQ7 gave me were phenomenal in that I could change the size and colour of the borders, back and binding, save each of them and mix and match with all of the variations in front of me. It saved me a lot of grief guessing about what things would look like.

Since I have a large and growing stash of fabric, I am about to scan all my fabrics into the EQ7 library and I will be able to build my quilts using my own fabric.

I had previously thought that it was only for experienced quilters but on a basic level it certainly is fun, too!

Date: 7/19/10 2:56 PM

I have been wanting EQ for a while. I went to the Paducah National Quilt Museum and bought one recommended by a staff there (Block Base) and can't do anything with it...paid $75 for it too! The other day I found a cheap $10 program at Office Max called Quilt Wizard...it does a lot of the same things that EQ does...you can scan and load fabric samples into it, you get monthly free patterns and fabric packs from famous designers, you can add border styles, different blocks, move them around...I am only playing with it and usually draw patterns I will make on graph paper.