Okay today I’m about to tell you all about my quilt design software adventure using EQ8, and if it is worth the investment to up your quilting game.

About a year ago, I was working on a quilt that took me a while to piece together. 

I had spent a lot of time making the top so was ready to quilt, I was nervous I was going to screw it up. I had it in my head that if I couldn’t see it out ahead of time, I wasn’t going to like the final product.

To the internet I went trying to find a way to basically draw the quilt out.

Something that would let me see draw the quilt and quilting, so I could make sure they coordinated well ahead of time. I wanted to be 100% sure of my quilting choices before ever starting.

My first stop, Google. Where the first result returned was a quilt design software for EQ8.

All the bells and whistles I was looking for seemed to be there, so I decided to try it out.

Click here to check out EQ8 software on Amazon!

What is EQ8?

You are probably wondering at this point, “What exactly is EQ8 and what’s so great about it?” 

EQ8 or Electric Quilt 8, is a quilt design software that was designed by Electric Quilt Company specifically to design quilts.

A quilt designing software made for quilters by quilters. 

Heres a list of a few of the features in this program that make your life a whole heck of a lot easier:

• Design your own blocks and then bring them to a full quilt without doing anything by hand
• You can upload the fabrics you want to use from the internet and play around with your perfect color placement. 
• Tons of short cuts that allow you to make quick changes to every block in your quilt at the same time, or even every other block in your quilt at the same time when you change your mind.
• 3 layers to the quilt design to allow you to design a quilt top, add applique, and design the quilting separately. Not all layers need to be used.
• EQ8 has these things call “Quick Quilts” or basic quilt skeletons that you can use as a jumping off point if you are having a bad designing day and need some help getting started
• Libraries of countless common (and many uncommon) quilt blocks to drag and drop into your quilt without having to know any of the names ahead of time.

And my FAVORITE feature, once you’ve finished designing your quilt, it will spit out all of the math, cutting instructions, and even the yardage for you!

All the creativity, NONE OF THE MATH.

Interested in checking this out a little closer? See a full list of EQ8 features here!

Okay, sure sounds great. Whats the catch?

In terms of overall user friendliness, the software is great. Super straight forward, and easy enough that even the most technology un-savvy quilters will enjoy it.

The one thing that I found that could be improved with this software is that it is a little clumsy when it comes to putting all-over quilting motifs on the design.

But when it comes to dot-to-dot or any straight line quilting motifs its great which is more my style of quilting any way.

This didn’t bother me too much though. I figured that if I already decided I wanted to do an all over quilting motif, I generally wouldn’t need to see it drawn out ahead of time.

When it comes to designing the quilt top though, the software leaves very little to be desired.

I mean seriously. It. Does. All. The. Math.

I would still own it even if that’s all it did.

So if you are the serial piecer, or prefer to ship your quilts off to the professional long armer any way, this is the ideal software for you.

So what’s the damage?

EQ8 in my opinion is priced, honestly? Lower than it should be based on the quality of the product.

That being said, it is definitely an everyday splurge for most home quilters.

However, you do not need to own your own quilting business, or sell your own patterns, to justify owning a quilt designing software. 

Take it from someone who uses it just like you will, currently I only use it for myself! I am a home quilter and I don’t design quilts professionally, just for fun. 

And more importantly, I don’t feel like I paid too much to own it just to do that much with it. The convenience it provides when I do use it is well worth it.

If designing your own quilts is your jam, or you think it will be your jam. This is most definitely the software for you.

Do you use any quilt design software like EQ8? What method do you use to design quilts? 

EQ8 will save you hours and hours of tedious number crunching and “quilt designers block” when it comes to designing your quilts. 

By making an electronic version of your quilt, you can make every decision 12 times before actually committing to it. You are essentially guaranteed to love every aspect of the quilt when it’s finally done. 

Because you literally made every decision about it!

EQ8 has totally changed my quilting game and I love that I never have to do math to design a quilt again!

Interested in seeing a little more? Check out my tutorial on how to actually use the software to design a quilt!

So don’t wait! Head over to Amazon to see EQ8 and start learning how to design your own quilts.