About the EQ7 Upgrade

If you order the EQ7 Upgrade, you will receive the same top-of-the-line software described on the EQ7 Overview page, with same EQ7 User Manual. The difference is this upgrade version of Electric Quilt® 7 will install only if you are a licensed user of Electric Quilt® 6 (EQ6) or the Electric Quilt® 6 Upgrade (EQ6 Upgrade).

New Activation Policy

You’ll never run out of EQ7 activations! Activation and deactivation is as easy as two clicks of the mouse. Install on as many computers as you like and quickly transfer activations from computer to computer. This new policy gives you complete freedom to manage your own activations --- and no dongle to worry about!

And, EQ6 does not need to be installed on the computer prior to installing EQ7. You just need to type in your EQ6 license ID and password during the EQ7 setup

Ten Reasons to Upgrade from EQ6

Users upgrading from EQ6 will feel right at home. We’ve used the same friendly interface, plus loads of new user-requested features. EQ7 will do everything EQ6 did, and so much more! Here are 10 new features we think EQ6 users will love.

1. Help, Help & More Help

EQ7 is one of our most user-friendly versions to date. We’ve integrated new Help buttons into much of the interface and ToolHelp. If you see a Help button or "Get more details" link, click it and the EQ7 Help will open to the exact page describing how to use the feature

You asked for more software lessons and asked for them to be in color... we listened. EQ7 includes 22 PDF lessons in color which teach you about designing quilts, drawing EasyDraw blocks, drawing pieced PatchDraw blocks, drawing appliqué PatchDraw blocks, working with images and printing.

With all this help right in the program, you’ll always have the answers right at your fingertips. You can learn to use EQ7 from the EQ7 Help files, Dynamic Tool Help, all new Help Videos, updated User Manual, and all new PDF lessons. And keep in mind, anything you learned in EQ6 will still work the same way in EQ7!

2. New Image Worktable

You can work on quilts... you can work on blocks... but now you can work on images! Import images into EQ7 and crop them right on your screen. After that there are infinite possibilities for adjusting color, saturation, lightness, histograms, contrast, and even mapping colors in the image to colors on the color wheel or in palettes of color. Memory quilts, T-shirt quilts, and photo art quilts will be a blast to design in EQ7 now that you can work on your images and set them in your quilts all in the same software.

3. Apply Effects, Filters & Symmetries

Choose Apply > Effects, Apply > Filters, or Apply > Symmetries from the Image menu and you’ll be on your way to a whole world of new image possibilities. EQ7 has over 45 different effects that can be applied to images, including artistic, noise, blur and many more. Filters allow you to sharpen, unsharpen, or detect the edges of your image. Square and Circular symmetries take portions of your image and repeat them according to your choices.

You can apply more than one to an image for a truly unique effect. Print these images onto printable fabric to use as whole photos in your memory quilts, or chop the printed images up to make one-of-a-kind fabrics for your piecing.

4. Drag & Drop and Snap to Grid on the Quilt Worktable

If you found setting blocks in Custom Set quilts or on Layers 2 or 3 cumbersome or clumsy, you’ll love the new drag & drop features we’ve included on the Quilt worktable! Just grab the block, motif, stencil, embroidery, photo, or fabric from the palette and drag it onto the quilt. Turn on the Snap to Grid features to make sizing and positioning blocks easy in Custom Set. Not only can you drag & drop items onto the quilt, but you can sort items in many of the palettes this way too!

5. Photo Layout printing style

When printing photos in EQ6, it was always one at a time. Now in EQ7, you can maximize your printable fabric using Photo Layout to fit many images together on one sheet before printing. Snap photos to the grid to help you account for seam allowance and fit as many images on the page as you can.

6. Eyedropper Improvements

Choose whether you pick up fabrics or colors when you click on the quilt. You can even click on photos to find matching fabrics or colors in your Sketchbook Fabrics and Colors palette that match. Not only can you find fabrics and colors, you can also use the Eyedropper to find blocks. When you click, EQ7 will find the exact block and coloring in the Sketchbook Blocks palette so you can set it elsewhere in your quilt.

7. Swath Tool for Drawing Curved Flying Geese

If you liked the Brush Stroke from EQ6, you’ll love the new Swath tool in EQ7. Drag out a freehand line with the Swath tool and pick the swath’s properties. Each one can have diamonds or triangles inside and be as plain or curvy as you like.

8. Photo Patchwork Quilts

Want to make a fun One Patch quilt? Click QUILT > New Quilt > Photo Patchwork and import an image. Choose from lots of patch styles or make your own custom patches. EQ7 takes the pixels in the photo that cross that patch and colors the quilt for you! These quilts are great for printing on fabric too.

9. Import & Edit Fabric Scans Right in EQ7

We’ve all done it at least once: forgotten to crop an image before importing it and our resulting quilts and blocks look like they have tile grout lines. Now in EQ7, you can edit those imported fabric scans without having to jump back to an additional software to fix the scans and re-import them. Edit the images in EQ7, add the new versions to the Sketchbook, and begin coloring again. Fix crooked stripes, crop out trimmed edges, adjust hue or brightness in EQ7 so your quilts and blocks look great whenever you color them.

Requires EQ6 or EQ6 Upgrade; Windows ® XP, Windows ® Vista, or Windows ® 7; and an internet connection. Will run on Macs through Virtual PC or Parallels (XP, Vista, or Windows ® 7 version).

10. Four More Serendipity Options

Draw blocks without drawing! In addition to Framing blocks, Tilting blocks, and Merging blocks which were added to EQ6, you can now Clip & Flip blocks, Shrink & Flip blocks, Kaleidoscope blocks, and make Fancy Star blocks. With 7 Serendipity options in all, you can create your own custom designs from other blocks in seconds.