If you’ve read much of this blog, you know I’m a big fan of EQ (Electric Quilt). I started with EQ5 around 2005, upgraded to EQ6 in 2007-ish, then EQ7 when it came out in 2010, and yesterday I upgraded to EQ8 on the day it was released.

I’m so excited.

I know that looks kind of… not excited, but trust me, I’m bouncing up and down in my chair and making 12-year-old-girl-at-a-Taylor-Swift-concert noises.

The new E8 is so pretty! I’m just barely getting started with it, but I’m excited to see a few new things, like the Photo Patchwork layout, where you can import a picture and create a mosaic quilt in about 3 steps. How cool is that?  There are over 40 new features in EQ8. The biggest change is the user interface, so it looks completely different from EQ7 and is easier and more intuitive. Check out the new features at the Electric Quilt website.

Any of you who currently use EQ7 will love this change – when you are drawing a block, you can color it, then go back to the drawing tab, remove or add lines, go back to the color tab AND THE COLORS ARE STILL IN THE RIGHT PLACE!!! I can’t overstate how awesome this is. No more recoloring the whole thing every time I change one line on a block. When your block looks like this…

 

And you remove four lines and go back to the color tab and it looks like this…

 

… it’s kind of frustrating.

 

 

 

 

 

But now in EQ8, that isn’t a problem. I take the lines out in EQ8 and go back to the color tab and I find this:

… and it’s perfect!

 

 

 

 

 

If you currently have EQ7 and have any interest in EQ8, now is the time to get it because the upgrade is 25% off, but only until November 6. You can also upgrade from EQ6 and EQ Mini, which will save a chunk of change over buying the full version. If you do not currently have EQ6/EQ7/EQ Mini, you’ll have to wait to buy EQ8 when the full version comes out in November. You can sign up to be notified on the Electric Quilt website. Check out all of the great stuff it can do over at the EQ website! It’s an amazing piece of software, and if you’re at all interested in quilt design, I can’t emphasize enough how useful it is. Here’s just a tiny peek at some of the quilts I’ve designed in EQ7:

In case you’re wondering, no, I don’t work for Electric Quilt, or get any sort of payment or incentive from them for writing this. I just really love the product.