Quilting Giveaway: Electric Quilt 7 Software (CLOSED)

EQ7_L3dsimplify with camille roskelley thumb

The winner of EQ7 & Simplify is Robin! She said “I’d love to win the software – would really help designing quilts!”

Send an email to kelseyatvanillajoydot com BEFORE MONDAY to claim your prize.

THE PRIZE

One reader will win a copy of the Electric Quilt 7 software ($190) AND a copy of Simplify with Camille Roskelley: Quilts for the Modern Home (C&T Publishing)!

MY REVIEW

Electric Quilt

I used to agonize over my quilt patterns, drawing them out on graph paper, tracing over my lines with permanent marker, scanning them, printing off several copies, and coloring different arrangements, etc. with colored pencils…it was a tedious and very ineffective system of designing my own quilt patterns, nearly painful enough for me to throw in the towel and cease quilting all together.

Then I did a little quilting software research and found Electric Quilt, and it has changed everything!

Electric Quilt is very easy to learn and use and they thought of everything. The organization of the software is excellent – everything makes sense and there isn’t anything (so far) that I wish I could do with it and can’t.

Here’s the basic process of creating a quilt pattern with Electric Quilt 7:

Getting started screen

1. Name and begin a new project or choose from your existing projects.

layout screen

2. At the very bottom left of the screen you’ll see the tabs Layout, Borders, Layer 1, Layer 2, and Layer 3. In the Layout tab you set how many columns and rows and the width and height of each and also sashing measurements. You can go back and change this at any time, adding or deleting columns or rows or making each block bigger or smaller.

borders screen

3. The next tab is borders – you can add as many as you want with any dimensions you want and you can also choose from a very long list of border styles (ex. mitered, long horizontal, long vertical, spaced squares, diamonds, etc. etc. etc.).

use fabric

tool bar4. The layers tabs are the most fun. This is where you can design your own blocks and add them to the “sketchbook”, the folder that holds all your blocks, fabrics, and designs for each quilt. Every time you add to the sketchbook, it adds the most current version of what you’re working on so you can save every step of the way and always be able to go back and start over at any point in your design.

Here are some of the Layout Tools and their functions:

Set block – create your own or choose from the hundreds in the library

Rotate block – turn 90 degrees at a time

Flip block – see a mirror image

Eyedropper – use solid colors or fabrics from the library or scan your actual fabric, import, and use that to design

As you can see in the screen shot above, I designed my own blocks, arranged them, and then used actual scanned images of my fabric to color the sketch. (This is Joel Dewberry’s new Heirloom collection and I’m working on this quilt RIGHT NOW!)print fabric yardage

From here I can export the pattern and save it to my computer, I can print it to help me lay out my actual fabric, and I can even print the fabric yardage requirements, all calculated for me!

sketchbook

Here’s a screen shot of the sketchbook – this is where you find your step-by-step quilt designs, blocks, fabrics, etc. You can select any one of your designs and click edit to work on it some more.

I hope you can see that the software is easy to use and SO FUN!

citron gray pattern black and white

My first ever start-to-finish design with this software was for the Michael Miller Citron Gray fabric. I knew I wanted to do half triangles with half solid and the other half Citron Gray, I just didn’t know how I was going to arrange them. These three were my favorite arrangements.

Before, I would have had to make up the blocks first having no idea that these designs were possible. Then I would have had to manually rearrange them on the floor (IMPOSSIBLE in my 8 3/4 months pregnant body…).

I did my designing in black and white first…

citron gray pattern color

…and then added the actual fabric colors.

citron gray quilt

This is ultimately what I settled on. The software helped me every step of the way and I’m so happy with how this quilt top turned out!

quilt patterns using electric quilt software

Here are a few more patterns I’m working on for scrappy kinds of quilts.

I feel like my quilting potential has skyrocketed now that I have some useful technology at my disposal. Every time I have a new idea I work it out and save it for a rainy day. I’m going to have way more designs than time in my whole life to ever make them…

{Keep up with Electric Quilt on Facebook}

Simplify with Camille Roskelley: Quilts for the Modern Home

I have been reading Camille’s blog for a few months now, and she just seems like the sweetest and most talented quilty girl on the block. Her book is also sweet and simple with some great tips and project ideas. I enjoyed getting to know her a little better through her book and I enjoy reading her blog even more now!

Similar to many quilting books, she starts out with some general information about sewing and quilting resources, tools, supplies, and basic skills. She defines all the different cut goods which was helpful for me because I wasn’t positive before what they all were, charm packs, layer cakes, jelly rolls, honey buns, turnovers…I’ve never used them before but now I at least now what they are!

One of my favorite sections of the book was about measuring for an accurate border. She says to measure the quilt from top to bottom along each side and also down the center. If the measurements aren’t the same, average them together and use that to determine how long to cut your border strips. That will give you a more perfectly square quilt – I don’t think any of my quilts have had true 90 degree corners…I’ll be trying this method next time!

I also loved her advice about machine quilting, to practice on paper first. What a great idea! My stippling needs some work, and I’ll definitely try paper instead of wasting my precious fabric scraps.

simplify favorite projects

Then…the projects. 14 of them! Quilts, pillows, and more. They’re all beautiful and the pattern instructions are very easy to follow. These two are my very favorite and they’re going in the quilting queue!

Simplify is a great quilting book for quilters at all levels, and Camille Roskelley is a fabulous designer and teacher. Check out her book and her blog!

Follow C&T Publishing on Facebook for more great book titles!

{Thanks to Electric Quilt & C&T Publishing for sponsoring this giveaway!}

GIVEAWAY RULES

  • Make a comment on this post telling me why you’d like to win before midnight Wednesday, September 7.
  • A winner will be selected and announced in a new post on Monday.
  • Only one comment per person unless you earn extra entries.
  • Giveaway open only to residents of the continental United States…sorry.
  • Winners must email me to claim their prize within 5 days.

EARN EXTRA ENTRIES

You may earn 1 extra entry each for doing the following (make a separate comment for each thing you do):

GOOD LUCK and THANKS!

{This product was provided to Vanilla Joy for review purposes.}

107 thoughts on “Quilting Giveaway: Electric Quilt 7 Software (CLOSED)”

  1. Pingback: Quilting Giveaways – Fabric, Software, & Books! | Vanilla Joy

  34. Wow! I never knew something like this existed. I’ve been thinking about making a quilt. I haven’t made one in 15 years. All I ever knew of quilt making was flipping through magazines and finding one I liked and making that one. I love that I could design one myself.

    Reply

  35. I would love to win because my poor EQ is a very early edition, and I know that the new one is fabulous for designing quilts!

    Reply
  39. Pingback: Quilting Giveaway: Electric Quilt 7 Software | Vanilla Joy | Ayshah Maiorano

  42. My grandmother used to make quilts all the time…I even still use several in the winter months. I would love to learn to make quilts using this software so that I can hand down quilts to my family and friends, like she did to me. She always believed in Paying it Forward. Thanks for the giveaway. :)

    Reply

  43. What a great tool this software would be for me. I’ve just recently started quilting. I guess you could say I’m a quilter in training. This software and book would be great for me.

    Reply

  45. I am one of your newest followers. I wish I could follow you via email notices but I didn’t see the option. I signed up to follow you via Google reader.

    Reply

  54. I have bought and made a few of camilles patterns. they are easy to follow and end up just beautiful

    I have resisted buying electric quilt, as I have a mac but, now I think I could run it on parallels or my work computer!

    Reply

  59. I’m an old programmer and love working with software. It would be easy for me to switch from my graph paper, Paint, and Excel to learn and use EQ for my quilts. There are so many add-ons that would also be helpful. Thanks to you and EQ for that chance.

    Reply

  60. Oh what a wonderful giveaway. I am a quilt nut and would LOVE to have EQ7! I”ve still got EQ4! But I know it is excellent software and I loved your review. I for sure would use it!

    Reply

  63. Gosh! I would absolutely love to win this software!! It would be so great because of the charity that I run – Central Ohio Binky Patrol. We make blankets and other items for children in need. I could use both the software and the book to come up with great ideas for binkies for the charity!

    Reply

  64. I would like to win because I have just started out quilting and I am still not all that sure on what I am doing. I think this program would help me out a lot.

    Reply

  65. I would love to have EQ7 to replace my current methodology of graph paper, colored pencils and an excel spreadsheet to design new quilts. I have so many in mind that I would like to see.

    Reply

  66. I’ve never come up with my own quilt pattern before! (Only 21 yrs old and just started quilting about 2 years ago). This program seems like a great way to get me started!

    Reply
  92. Pingback: Visit Vanilla Joy’s blog for an EQ7 Give Away! | EQ Blog

  93. I would really like to win EQ7 because my hubby is a engineer/computer nerd. He enjoys helping me layout and design quilt blocks. We have looked at purchasing EQ7 because he thinks it would be a fun way to get more involved in my hobby. We just cant afford to purchase it right now. Thanks for the chance to win :)

    Reply

  96. I absolutely love quilt making and have since I was a tiny child and saw my Great Grandmothers quilt tops made for me sister and I from the 30’s. I could never figure out how she took fabric and put it back together is such wonderful designs until I was an adult. I have been smitten since. The Electric Quilt 7 would so enlarge my boundaries and creativity that I would just LOVE it. On April 11th of this year my husband had a massive stroke and this would allow me to continue designing and quilting while I care for him. I love computers and what they can do and with this software the possibilities would be endless! Sleeping might be hard as a result :-) I used to lay awake designing in my head……now I could actually see it done b/c of the computer and the software! Thanks for the opporunity!

    Reply

  97. Who wouldn’t want to win this? I am a new quilter and have been eying EQ7. It looks like so much fun! I would love to play with designing quilts and definitely need help with layout and color design. Maybe with time and practice I will be able to envision my own quilt designs without any help, but in the meantime I need it! This quilting book is also on my wishlist! Great giveaway!

    Reply

  105. I absolutely LOVE this software but have the OLD OLD OLD version. EQ7 has all the bells and whistles you could possibly imagine. I would love to have this software to create more fabulous quilts.

    Reply

  106. I bought EQ4 years ago and never got much use of it-I found it very complicated to learn on my own. I love all the new updates and would so love to have an opportunity to use the new EQ7. This is my first visit to your blog-I am interested in reading more.
    Christine

    Reply

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