grammypatty7

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.

grammypatty7

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.

Shibori

yeah! where did you order from?

grammypatty7

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.

grammypatty7

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.

Judie

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..

grammypatty7

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.

Quiltbabble

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.

Quiltbabble

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.

shaverg

How did you get EQ7 so quick?