Originally Posted by
UglyCook
Chris,
I am finding that when I want to use a fabric I already have, I can go to the manufacturers website and MOST of them have pictures you can easily download and import into EQ.
As for converting to .bmp, if you google "how to convert from .jpg to .bmp" you will find some really easy programs like coolutils.com. You want to be careful, of course to not get into a bad program with malware, but that one worked fine for me.
To insert my embroidery designs, I use Embird and I can save them as a picture file that is unrelated to hoop size but I have to resize them in EQ to make it work. I don't know if that has changed between the versions but it's easy to do on EQ6.
Julie
deemail, EQ5. First let me say that i have no reason to want to upgrade right now, but i won't say that i never would. i bought at EQ3, upgraded to 4 and then 5, but over a long period of time.... and honestly, the upgrades are now more than i paid originally for the program and it does SO much, i just can't see a reason to upgrade when this one does everything i need it to.
Now the fabric libraries.... I do not require it to have EXACTLY the same fabric...i just look for something with the basic color balance in the fabrics i have pulled from my stash. A black background printed with rust, peach, yellow and cream with greenery will serve as a 'placekeeper' for my similar fabric while i select the other fabrics in the EQ libraries. then i play with those in the blocks, sashing or borders. If i have chosen several different blends or prints to go with the 'star' of the group, then there are lots of similar fabrics here and there in the different existing libraries. When i'm happy with the right tone and shade, i get out my paint samples and find the best one for each fabric and go shopping in my stash for my possibilities.
I do not rely on printed pix from EQ for 2 reasons. When I have the correct paint samples, they are portable to my stash or to the store, whichever is applicable. And second, what's on the screen is very true to what i am looking for, by design. I chose them from the screen, so they blend, match, complement, coordinate....it all goes together well because that's where i designed it. When you print, it will be close, but it will not be the same exact colors...and for me, color is what it's all about, close to the right yellow is not THE right yellow. Additionally, it is simply true that if you print your quilt today, then it will be one shade for each of the colors in the quilt, but if you print the same pic 2 weeks from now, your ink levels will be different, which makes the blends different and the resulting pic will not be the same...good representation for everything in the quilt EXCEPT the exact colors. So I am looking forward to learning how to scan some of my fabrics into EQ but for right now, a similar print is fine for the design process. I will try to take pix of both design screen and resulting top soon.