Drawing program, simple and cheap or free?
 

I've been doing a ton of 6" blocks and about half of them are from photos a lot of time is spent with graph paper which is quite enjoyable.
I'd like to step up to a computer drawing program (I just received the book of 5500 blocks!) so I can make changes without having to erase or start another copy.

The program need not be "professional", mostly straight lines and diagonals.
Thanks for any suggestions!

I think some word processing and some Excel types of programs have a "drawing" feature attached.

It might be "paint" in the microsoft programs.

I think Jan in VA uses one of them for her illustrations.

I think I just read somewhere where Paint is going to be done away with. I use it on my photos. There are some sites online I'm sure someone will come up with that I've read about before.

Trying to draw a grid on Excel but when it says row height or column width its only a number. I cannot find out how to use inches!! trying to draw a 6" square grid with 1" divisions!

Ok, got a grid done on Excel. Still want a simple CAD program!

Thanks every one.

Gotta recommend EQ7. The ultimate quilt computer program. Then a huge step down.. but still ok, Quilt Wizard. But if you spend much time designing blocks and quilt tops, EQ7 is the way to go. You may be able to find some older versions out there for a smaller cost, but they are not supported much any more. And it depends on what your operating system is on your computer too.

Here's a list of free ones....

http://www.techradar.com/news/the-be...nting-software

Aha, tried before for LibreCAD. This time it installed. Thanks all!

Thanks Bear. Even with my 20 year old Word program I got it to work!

Thanks Bluelady, I just needed to line draw from pictures and my 20 yr old Word program does just fine no that I've figured it out!

You can also download free quilt software. My DD & I used Quilt Assistant before & it's pretty user friendly. Here's a link to some free ones:

https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;...&hsimp=yhs-002

Thank you for asking this, Kitsie. Lots of good answers here.

I have had the best luck using Power Point to do very simple drafting. It can be a little fiddly, but much better than a word program or Excel: you can do curved wording or curved shapes and put in any size grid you wish. I do not have any EQ's or any other quilting programs - when I need to use a computer, I use Power Point.

There's an updated version scheduled. I think it come out this fall.
Forget what my techy told me that the new name is ...
Paint Plus? Paint Enhanced? .....something along that idea.

I recently saw that they were going to keep Paint after all.

too many simpler drawing packages for quilting than a cad program. Leave that to the engineers and technical drawers. Great suggestions above.

I downloaded Pattern Jam for free, have only used it a little. I guess I'd rather use graph paper than learn new software:o. Guess I should look at it again as I was having a bear of a time last night figuring out how many blocks to make for an on point quilt.
Also, saw that Jinny Beyer has free quilt design on her website, might be worth checking out.
https://www.jinnybeyer.com/quilting-...sign-board.cfm

i saw that too