I'm probably not the best person to listen to because I've turned into an absolute EQ addict. :oops:
I don't think you can beat it for features, customer service and price. If you never want to outgrow your quilt design software, I think EQ is the way to go.
It gives you so much help in quilt planning, with yardage requirements and layout options and choosing fabrics.
Then when you start assembling, it helps you with templates and rotary cutting charts and even foundation paper patterns. You can plan borders, quilting and embroidery motifs, applique, even photo blocks. If the stock designs aren't exactly right, you can edit them or create your own from scratch. It recognizes one of the embroidery formats so that you can visualize the designs on the quilt. If you like to do applique over pieced, you can plan it all here. Really unbelieveable. :)
But EQ
might be overkill for some people - for instance, if all you want it to do are the things you mentioned, it might be a bit much. Or if you hate computer stuff and you just want to figure out how the blocks look together in the colors you want, EQ is probably just going to be frustrating to you. (It's frustrating to me, and I love the program! ;) )
I came across 1-2-3 Quilt when I was trying to help someone else find a program that does what you want it to do. I think if I had found this program before EQ, it might have worked out very well for me. Scan your own fabrics, try different borders, mix blocks, calculate yardage, etc. Check out the features list here:
http://www.quiltpro.com/go.php?id=12...t_feature_list
It has a try before you buy function and if you like it, it's only $40.