I have upgraded. I LOVE EQ5. Could never do EQ6. I had one of those DUH moments when I looked at the EQ7 requirements.... my system is too out of date for the the EQ6. Anyway, I love EQ, have always stayed on top of the upgrades and am now in the process of checking out a new computer for EQ7 and other programs.

I like EQ6..it does all I need it to do for me...I'm not upgrading. I went thru the lessons and then started experimenting..I also go to the EQ webpage & read the newsletters. They are very helpful if you ask a question on their board

Thanks, Shibori for your input. I ordered the upgrade even though I haven't mastered EQ6 yet. I just haven't had the time-life got in the way. We've had 3 deaths and 2 family members with major surgeries since December when I got my EQ6. Life has to improve now, right? right? I have no intention of selling mine and have every intention of dedicating the time needed to learn the system.

Thanks everyone for your help.

you are very welcome:) I approached learning the program like it was an online class. I scheduled times for myself to sit down and bring up the program and walk through the lessons. I had to do 1-4 about 5 times for it to stick in my head but that's because I was used to Quiltsoft 6.0. My advice is to not give up on it, it's a wonderful tool and well worth the expense of money and time. Give yourself an opportunuity to grasp the basics and I guarantee you will fall in love with it :)

I had the same problem and stuck the thing up on my bookshelf. Later, I got it down and decided that there was no reason I couldn't do it. Then I followed the book page for page and it all began to make sense. Some things just take a little more time to learn and a little more patience on our part. Good Luck !!!!!!

I just installed EQ7 upgrade. It is awesome! Had great fun playing around.

Wow! We have one near us. I didn't realize that they could do that from a book or that reasonably. I'll wait until EQ7 arrives and have it done. Thank you so much for the suggestion and information. I also have a couple of cookbooks that could use it as I'm hard on them; of course they are about 50 years old now and favorites so that could be a factor. LOL

Thank you for your confidence. I do create EQ designs constantly. In fact I design all my quilts on EQ now before I make them. I have made almost 70 quilts since I started in 1981. I usually print out rotary cutting directions on each quilt and check out yardage requirements. It sure makes quiltmaking "less disappointing" as I can see the result before I shop.
All my quilts are 100" square for my queen sleigh bed with a (newer) thick mattress. Eventually I see them as my legacy or inheritance for my siblings and their children. They will fit either queen or king beds.
Here are three designs.
"Clearly you have made your point" is a new design that had so many points that I had to name it based on them.
"Green Tree of Life" was inspired by an antique quilt I saw at a local quilt show.
"My Bee and Me" was an EQ drawing of a quilt I have since completed. It was my entry for our bee's group project for Northwest Suburban Quilt Guild's quilt show about 10 years ago. Each of us gave the other members two strips (3" x 44") of fabric. The fabrics were to represent a "brown" beehive and a light background. Our goal was to sew the beehive blocks, set them as we chose and get it done for the quilt show. Since all my quilts are 100" square, I had to "expand" my 16 quilt blocks out. The garden maze setting is wonderful for that. I chose the green to represent a grassy field filled with beehives. Each bee member signed her finished block. I love to sleep under this quilt as the grass color reminds me of spring.

I hope mine arrives soon. This is exciting!

Smart idea! Thank you.

For whatever it's worth I agree. I just completed lesson 4 in the EQ6 manual and am really having fun working with it and am trying to figure out how to take 2 quilts into the program to build them out to fit a bed. We did a large no & seams star in and another round robin quilt and both fit the center of my queen sized bed and I'd like to enlarge both out to fit a twin to become heirlooms for my 7 grandchildren - every future quilt has this goal in mind. The kids have already been instructed that whatever quilts they can get from away from Dad are to be divided up among them and the grandchildren but Dad, hubby, gets to have first choice and no argument. When he's done with them, they are to get them.

Anyway, the more I work with the program, the more potential for us I'm seeing and ideas I'm getting. I've got the start of the large star quilt set up but am going to redo it. I did the lesson as set up but have a few ideas of my own and think I'm about ready to set up the star quilt at least. You just can't be afraid of it and yes, you do need to do those lessons and I've that book that was recommended earlier by someone in this exchange is a wonderful book to use. I hope they have one for 7 but I'm getting the impression that the books they currently have no can easily work with 7 which I find interesting. I know the lady with 5 was able to help me get going with 6, up to a point and that point was when I was using features new to 6 that she had no clue how to access. All of the ladies in my users group carry their manuals with them and keep them by their computers to look things up and say it's a necessity as we all, no matter how sharp our brains our, tend to forget steps that are necessary to success. It's a great program.

As to the differences between user friendliness between 5,6,7; I bet there is quite a bit as the designers learn more about setting up those manuals as they go. When I first bought paint shop pro 5, I was in way over my head and now I'm on version X and love it but X is by far the most user friendly of the bunch. I never was comfortable in 5 and like many with EQ 5 just plain didn't use it but I use psp X all of the time but I had to set aside time each week to work in it until I became comfortable. The toughest part for me is that I detest tutorials but I had to swallow my pride and do them to learn and I'm doing them with EQ 6 and will with 7 when it arrives. I can't wait for it to arrive but first I need to finish the last 2 tutorials in 6 - just have too before starting on 7.

How did you get it already? I thought it wasn't supposed to be released until June 7th and would be mailed out to all of us as soon as possible. Lucky you! So fill us in as you proceed please.

yeah! where did you order from?

Yes, I do think our knowledge of Paint Shop Pro is a huge asset to learning EQ6 or 7. I was amazed at the similarities in the first chapter of EQ 6. I need to upgrade psp from X to x2; isn't X3 out now. When I get my new computer I plan to upgrade as I'm not sure this one would be powerful enough to handle it although I do have the memory maxed out. I remember working with psp 5 on a computer that wasn't quite powerful enough and that was challenging. Mine is now 4 years old so normally I wait to upgrade software when I buy the next computer. I'm am thrilled that EQ 6 is NOT a resource hog. Considering all that it does and how quickly and easily it responds to everything, it is amazing. It's just an amazing program.

Thank you. I printed out your comments in a word pad file and will tuck into my users manual. Have you ever taken photos of fabrics to use or squares? Just curious. Your scans are beautiful.

I found using EQ6 Simplified was a real help.. My DH gave me EQ6 for a Christmas gift... and I thought "OH my gosh.. he spent all that money and I can't figure this thing out!!" I felt like an idiot!

I went through the lessons... and still didn't seem to find a use for it..

Then several months later I had quilt that I wanted to make and couldn't find a pattern.. I sat down with EQ6 and it was like magic.. All of a sudden I was using that program and it worked great! I had learned something after all. I've used it since many times.. I love it.. Once you get it, you'll use it a lot. It's a relly fun and helpful tool!

I've pre-ordered the update..

For what it's worth I agree with you. I've not repeated a lesson yet but haven't had 6 that long however, when they give us the coffee break times, I do several variations of the assignment right then and experiment away and will go back and do 2 or 3 sessions of such playing around plus exploring what the different buttons will do and how they will effect the outcome. The ladies we see doing the demoes on TV have those techniques down before they ever begin taping the video but you can bet that they had to begin somewhere as well.

I created this quilt drawing after seeing an award winning quilt at a machine quilting show.
I see this quilt as representing a love quilt...a wedding gift, an anniversary quilt, a graduation quilt, a house warming gift--I see everyone gathered around in a circle of love celebrating with a "special person" (or family if you think about the three stars in the very center).
To make it I clicked on Layout and chose 1 block that was 32" square. I clicked on Borders and chose Border #1 (Border style - Blocks, all 16" wide, 3 blocks horizontal, 3 blocks vertical)
Border #2 (Border style - Long horizontal, all 18" wide)
Border #3 (Border style - Long horizontal, all 1/4" wide -- my binding)
The quilt is set up. Now for the blocks.
The center block is 32" square. Click on Block, Drawing Board Setup. Set it for 16", 32 snap grid, and 16" graph paper.
Notice that originally I had only two center stars, but chose to add a star in the center the same size as the other 12 in the circle around the quilt because the large block looked too simple. I drew the largest star first. Then I drew a star in the center square. And repeated that.
The four corner blocks are the easiest. You have a 16" square which you divide in half. Then divide one "of the halves" in half again. Draw a 8" star in one of those 8" squares. You will use this block 4 times in the quilt.
Next set up the measurement for a new Block 12" x 16" (16" is the width of the border). You will be adding background strips on each side of your 8" square star to fill it out to 12" x 16". This is where it gets a little "hinky". You will be placing the edge of three 12" blocks next to a 32" center which is just not mathematically possible. Luckily the computer just works with you. I used 12" because it was just easier to work with than say 11". When I made the quilt, I just trimmed off a little bit of fabric and it all went together. As you can see from the blocks on my design wall in the photos below, I just added fabric to the left and the right to locate the 8" star in the proper place for the circle to form. In my EQ drawing I drew it up, colored it in and inserted it into the quilt. If it didn't look right, I rotated it. If it still looked wrong, I studied it until I found the answer--such as move the drawing of the star in the 12" x 16" block so there was 1" more fabric on the left and 1" less on the right. Finally I got it just like I wanted. That gave me the confidence to make it. In the third photo shows how I would be adding fillers (sort of sashing) to make the side and top panels fit the 32 1/2" (with the seam allowances) center panel. It fit perfectly, but I was flexible myself.
Hope this answers the question.

I just tried to scan the fabric a couple months ago. I put the fabric on my scanner so it covered the entire surface and started it up. I was very pleased how well it worked.

How did you get EQ7 so quick?

I ordered it early May from a site on Ebay and she notified me friday or Saturday that it was on its way because they released it early. Came home from work yesterday and there it was!
I have never done any of the lessons in 5 or 6, just learned by trial and error and using Help occasionally. May have to try some of the lessons this time for fun.
The suggestion for spiral binding the book is great! I have done that with several of my favorite quilt books but had not thought to spiral bind the EQ manuals.

Me too!! I didn't think EQ7 upgrade was out yet?

I'm looking forward to getting mine. It will Be fun to work along with others that getting it too!

Quiltbable, I love your star quilt.. I make a quilt for our annual Navy reunion and that would make a great patriotic one.. Use the big red star just as you have it and change the smaller ones to Blue.. Can I use your idea? I'm always looking for one that strikes my fancy.. that grabbed my interest right away! It's beautiful.

anyone on the fence to purchase EQ7, I came upon a site the full version was $141.95
A real bummer considering I paid that in March for EQ6.

Of course you can use the idea. I had gotten this idea from a quilt I saw. I will attach an EQ6 drawing of the first white quilt with yellow stars so you can see where I started. I recolored it to be green with white stars. Then I changed it to a pumpkin quilt with white stars.

Thank you.. can't you just see it in a Red, White, and Blue colorway? I love patriotic themed quilts.. they are probably my favorite.

EQ7 should be great fun.. and will come at a perfect time for me. . I don't like summer in the midwest, too hot, way too humid, and too many pesky little creatures that love to bite me! I stay inside, or at least on a sidewalk with bug spray all over!!

if you didn't use the #6 one why would you even consider wasting that kind of money to upgrade? just curious...
i do not believe the newer versions get any easier to figure out and if it's not something you use why bother ...
that money could be spent on fabric/patterns...dvd's you will actually learn from and watch...
just my 2cents worth
of course...if you plan on becoming a designer and are going to learn the program then .....
i had the eq5 (i think it was 5...it's been a few years) i even took a class at the local qs with an (expert) i still never did anything with the program, found i' m much better playing with fabrics, paper and colored pencils than with that dog-gone waste of lots of money program...i do know people who spend hours and hours every day working with their program...it's a personal thing and i think you kind of have to be a computer person.I'm not, i always want to get to the sewing part, ...but if you don't use it dont waste money on an upgrade. that is like the person who has never excersized in their life but go out and buy a total gym because it will help them loose weight...guess what it doesn't help at all, it just takes up space and usually winds up in a yard sale or something a year or two later.

I agree wholeheartedly!! I'm just having a blast scanning my own fabrics and trying them out - it's really cool!!

Yeaaaaaaaaaa. Just got notice today my EQ 7 has been shipped. Can't wait.

I can't buy any. Good luck and God bless. Penny

Here is a red, white and blue drawing.

Oh yes yes yes.. now that is perfect! I think I'd probably add some sort of a pieced border.. but I can just see that quilt laying on my bed.. beautiful.. I will have to sit down with your download and get it into my EQ6 or EQ7 if it's here in time.. I want to make it next. I love it. Thank you for sharing it with me..

I also wanted to tell you that I love your picture, You have one great smile.. You make me smile everytime I run across something you've posted!

Thank you. After I posted an actual picture of myself, I realized most pictures are not of the sender. However, I left it up anyway. When you get a good picture, you have to take advantage of it.

The reason I like the big center design is that it sets on the top of the queen/king bed and then who even looks at the sides. I have tended to focus on the top and have simple borders. Not always, but often. Here are a couple more quilts without the plain, wide unpieced borders. All these are for queen or queen/king beds.

I just love to share my quilts. I hope you won't think I am too braggy if I attach another three.
The outer border of Basket Invaders was machine quilted in black thread by a friend using a large cable pattern.
Batter Up was machine quilted in variegated blue thread in a dragonfly pattern.

I can't stop. Most of these quilts are stored away until I give another lecture. Well, the last navy and white one is on a bed. As is Over in the Meadow in a previous message.
When my quilting friend Donna Milz died, her mother sold her fabric. I bought most of her black and whites and combined them with mine and made this quilt.
After a friend taught our bee to use the TriRecs tool (which I had purchased, but never used), I made this quilt. It was machine quilted in loops and stars in variegated gold colored cotton thread. To me the angels in the background fabric of the blocks are celebrating the first night the stars were created and placed in the heavens.
Twisted Sisters was made from homespuns using the book Colorado Log Cabin by Eleanor Burns. It was beautifully handquilted using the Methodist or Baptist fan pattern by Irma Sunderman of Clarinda, Iowa in three weeks.

One more group, okay?
Halloween prints were used to make this quilt from a pattern by by M'liss Hawley called Georgia Strait.
Can you find the "mistake" on Olive Oil where the group of vehicles took the wrong road and were captured. (Remember Jessica Lynch?) The fabrics in Olive Oil represent oil (black solid), military uniforms (green print..even though I was watching daily, I didn't pick up on their "sand-colored" uniforms) and muslin (troop movements back and forth across the desert).
If you every saw the frightening Twilight Zone show where the couple was trapped on the "miniature train set", you'll know why I built 4 driveways/exits from this housing complex of small "Starter Homes" called Bucktown (My last name is Buck). A green print fabric was used for each house and its yard. I chose the "Evening Star pattern the houses because it looked like a gabled house (to me). Each "concrete" driveway is made from a gray fabric. I considered, but have yet to add, oil spots on some of the driveways. Note that each row of homes are set alternately so that neighbors cannot see easily into windows. An alley separates each row of 8 homes. A total of forty homes are compactly created in this "little piece of suburban heaven." After exiting their driveway, then alley and then the outside street, drivers make their way to one of the four exits and drive over the curb (binding) out of their housing area.

You're an inspiration!