Quilt Design Program Mini-ReviewsThis page contains a brief description of the various quilt design programs now available on the market, to assist buyers in making a decision about their purchase. The descriptions here are as accurate as we can make them, but aren't warranted against error.
Electric Quilt 5Electric Quilt 5, or EQ 5 as it is known, is one of the oldest of the quilting design programs, but has been through several major upgrades since its introduction. The first version of the program was published in 1991 by well-known quilter and teacher Penny McMorris and her husband. Version 5 was published in June 2002, and was a major upgrade. It contains more than 3,000 quilt blocks, more than 11,000 designer fabrics, and dozens of color palettes. For sheer richness of features it is hard to beat EQ. The program has two major drawing modes, known as EasyDraw and Patchdraw. EasyDraw is an excellent simplified straight-line-based drawing module, which works with a mouse. PatchDraw allows you to make patches and applique designs through the use of curved line tools and ready-made shapes such as hearts, teardrops and leaves. The program uses a pull-down menu system and is moderately configurable by the user. The program will calculate yardage and print quilting templates, including those for paper piecing. The new version contains modules for such non-traditional quilts as watercolors, and has great flexibility in the setting of blocks and sizing borders. It can also import scanned fabric designs into its fabric library. Strengths: Large block, fabric, and color libraries, good draw programs. The most robust libraries and feature set of any quilt program. Weaknesses: None. Special: Occasional publication of online publication"The Floppy Gazette" for registered users. Excellent website. Availability of an electronic maillist for EQ users. To subscribe, go to http:// planetpatchwork.com/info-eq.htm (List not sponsored by the company) EQ Website at http://www.electricquilt.com System Requirements:
Price: $110 plus shipping. For the Macintosh: EQ and its companion programs are available only for the IBM-compatible platform. EQ products are available from Planet Patchwork's Schoolhouse Enterprises Store. Quilt-Pro for Windows v. 4.0Quilt-Pro for Windows was first published in 1994 by James Salamon and Miriam Neuringer of The Colony, Texas. Version 4.0 was released in 2001. It is a full-featured quilting program designed to take full advantage of the Windows environment. Nicely integrated and intuitive, it is highly configurable by the user. It has a large fabric library supplemented by a several CD-ROMs of designer fabrics and contains hundreds of blocks. Any bitmap file can be imported into the program as a new fabric design. The program's drawing tools are based on the concept of a "patch" rather than on lines to draw a quilt block. Some users like this feature, while others find it awkward and prefer a line-based drawing module. The patch tools contain a variety of common shapes which can be sized and manipulated to make a quilt block, which can then be laid out in a quilt. Straight and curved lines can also be used to make applique blocks. The program will calculate yardage and print block templates, including paper-piecing templates. Strengths: Intuitive Windows interface, nicely designed screens, moderately large block and fabric libraries. Weaknesses: None. Special: Forty quilting stencils from The Stencil Company built into program. Paper piecing templates. For the Macintosh: Quilt-Pro also now has available a version for the Macintosh. Will work on Macs and Power Macs, and is very feature-rich. Said by users to be the best Macintosh quilt program, with many of the same features as the PC version. System Requirements:
Price: $99.99 plus shipping Quilt-Pro website: http://www.quiltpro.com/ Quilt-Pro is available from the Schoolhouse Enterprises StoreQuiltSOFT Version 4.0 (Formerly Quilter's Design Studio)QuiltSOFT, from QuiltSOFT software in San Diego, California is a Windows-based quilt design program which has been out for several years. The Program is now out in version 4.0, which was released in early 1996. QuiltSOFT was the first quilt design program made for use in Windows, and has steadily improved in quality from early versions, which were buggy, resource-intensive, and difficult to use. It now comes with a large selection of fabrics on CD-ROM, a fairly good selection of quilt blocks, and a number of sample quilts. QuiltSOFT has some nice features, like a block selection screen that displays many blocks at once. However the program remains very sluggish in refreshing its screen and other complex graphic activities. It is prone to frequent and often cryptic error messages and sometimes parts of quilts will drop out (leaving white background) for no apparent reason. It is also very awkward moving back and forth between the quilt design and block design modules. You can only color a quilt block in the quilt design mode, unlike the other major programs where you can color either in the block or in the quilt. Overall this program is distinctly inferior to other Windows-based quilt design programs. Not recommended. The program is a "full-featured" quilt design program with block libraries, fabrics, etc. It prints templates and calculates yardage. QuiltSOFT also offers a program for the Macintosh, but it is generally considered not as good as Quilt-Pro's offering for the Mac. To Order: QuiltSOFT Website: http://www.quiltsoft.com Telephone: 619 583-2970 VISA/Mastercard Accepted Price: $99 plus shipping and handling (price subject to change) VQuilt v. 2.0VQuilt came on the market in late 1994, and version 2.0 was released in 1996. Designed by quilter Sarah Hisley and her programmer husband, VQuilt has more modest aspirations than the quilting programs outlined above, although in recent versions has added features which make it more "full-service," such as the ability to estimate fabric yardage. The program is informed by the philosophy expressed by its designers in the documentation:
VQuilt's major strength is its simplicity and speed. It is a good tool for quilters to visualize layouts and get an overall feel for a design. It doesn't come with designer fabrics and other bells and whistles of the more expensive programs. It is a DOS-based program, although it will run under Windows 3.1 and WIN95. It has a quite capable and simple set of drawing tools for designing blocks, and will lay out those blocks in a quilt top of virtually any size or number of blocks. Its color palette can be customized and colors "mixed" to reflect individual tastes. Borders and sashing can also be generated. Quilt blocks and quilts can be saved and templates can be printed. My remaining major gripe about the program is its lack of anything more than the most minimal of online help. The manual covers the program's operations adequately, but I like to be able to click and feel my way through a program, and VQuilt is not as intuitive as some. If you're looking for a quilt program to help you visualize what your quilts will look like, and to print templates, but don't a lot of extras, then this program may be the one you want. Strengths: Low price, requires minimal computer resources, fast performance, good price-to- performance ratio. Weaknesses: Lack of online help, no fabric libraries. System Requirements:
Website: http://www.vquilt.com To Order: Computer Systems Associates Telephone: 410 557-6871 Fax: 410 557-7928 Price: $39.99 plus $5 shipping (price subject to change)
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