EQ5 Review - Step 01 - Planning Your Quilt

Alright, as mentioned before I am using this program to design your own quilt in my efforts to make a quilt for our coming Baby Ahern.

I promised a full review and here is part one.

I installed this program and opened a new quilt, all ready for action.  However, you are staring a totally foreign screen.  Luckily, there are a series of included Video Tutorials...right?  I watched more than a few and was still completely perplexed on how to even get started with a project. 

I probably sat for an hour before any sort of real progress was made and that was only accomplished by serious trial and error and reading and re-reading various Help topics.  So, my first issue is that the program is not very user friendly.  There is a newer version, EQ7, and I can only hope the directions, videos and help topics are much more detailed and helpful.

Now we're at the part where I have got the knack of it.  You can actually scan in fabrics you plan to use and see exactly how your quilt will look, but I am not in possession of my fabric yet, so I chose to simply color block this quilt and each color would represent a different patterned fabric (with white always being plain white fabric).  I was able to get just what I wanted.  I could easily adjust the block sizes, colors, widths of borders, etc.  As you make adjustments you can always see what the quilt's finished dimensions will be....awesome feature.

So here's what my simple quilt looks like in the program...

Next, comes the very best part.
The yardage estimates.   Woot!

Once your quilt is designed you can see the yardage estimates for the total quilt, broken down by each fabric.  Now, I made a mistake and created white my blocks using a color that was not actually white, so I will have to combine my yardage estimates for the three different whites I used by accident.  But that was my bad, not the program's issue.

It's good to note that the yardage estimates provided by the program include a little extra so you don't run out.  So it's safe to exactly follow their guidelines.  YAY! 

Step number two is heading to the JoAnns Superstore in Harrisburg and choosing my fabric.  I'll be sure to keep you updated.