Quilt Pro Vs. EQ7 and a Finish

I have been lamenting and thinking over whether I should update my Quilt Pro program or buy the new EQ7.  They both had pros and cons, but when I read what they have done to update EQ7 I decided to go in that direction.  There wasn't much available on the Internet for arguments one against the other.  Either people have tried one or the other but not both.  Everyone seemed happy.

Quilt-Pro was my first quilt design program, and I have had it for maybe 4-5 years.  I have had a difficult time learning this program, but it was fun, and I learned a lot.  I am sure they have done things to improve this program, and if I would have bought the updates I would have had more.  They have several programs like the one on the left that interface with it.  I especially liked the Foundation Factory, but that I could use as a stand-alone program, and I used it a lot.  I did end up designing maybe 10 quilts on this program through the years.  On the downside, it was very difficult to learn, and I had to have my face in the manual constantly learning little things that would help me do the multitude of things I wanted to do with it.  I had to master each thing before moving on.  It was a long and laborious task.  I had problems with it crashing occasionally, and I would lose all of my work when it did. I had a hard time finding my quilts once they were saved. The fabrics palettes were also very hard to open, and I still have problems with that.  There are still things that I don't know how to do on it, because it just takes reading a book the size of a romance novel to learn it all.  Now, I do have to print the disclaimer that maybe it is just me.  Maybe there is an easier way to go about this all, but I felt like it was a daunting task to learn. 

Electric Quilt 7 is the program I just got for my birthday.  I have to say I am in love!  While it is true that I learned much about CAD programming through the 5 years that I spent learning Quilt-Pro, this is really the finest choice for anyone.  They have approximately 20 tutorial lessons that you print out and work through to learn the software.  They are extremely well done and make learning this software a breeze compared to Quilt-Pro.  It was easy to save projects and easy to find them when done.  You could save multiple versions of the same quilt and go back and look at all of the versions to see which one you liked best very easily.  One of the things I like so very much is that all of the Quiltmaker Quilting Designs software interface with this, so this gives you a huge library of quilting motifs to try out on the quilt before marking along with the many already in the program.  For me that is what sold me on this program.  I am in the process of learning to do my own quilting on my domestic sewing machine, and it is a hard thing for me to learn, as I know it is for many of other quilters.  If the quilting wasn't hard enough, just trying to figure out what design looks best where is another issue.  This program takes care of that.  There is also an embroidery design feature and photo feature in this program too that I haven't even touched yet.  With blogging, it is also easier to design things and get the files/pictures uploaded to the Internet in a usable format with EQ7.  Again, maybe this is all possible with Quilt-Pro.  I just had a hard time figure it all out.  With EQ7, it is all very user friendly.  All-in-all, I am absolutely delighted and thrilled with this software.

It's a finish!  I finished my Cabin in the Pines quilt.  I did design this quilt on Quilt-Pro.  I wish I could have done it on EQ7.  It would not have taken so long to design, I would have had better directions for the construction, and might have changed a couple of things since trying out settings, color, fabric and block options and saving different versions of the same quilt is so easy.  This is going on our bed in our cabin in Northern Wisconsin.  A friend, Kris Scharfenberg did a great job on the quilting on her longarm.  Overall, I am pretty happy with it, and it looks much prettier than the picture even.  I am entering it in our guild's quilt show in October.  Wish me luck!