QUILT PLANNING NOTES · UPDATED OCTOBER 26, 2026
Looking beyond Electric Quilt 8?
A useful EQ8 alternative needs to support the quilts you want to make. Replacing a drawing screen is easier than replacing a trusted construction workflow. Test the printed result as carefully as the design tools.
Written by the makers of Cloth & Colour, a desktop quilt designer in development. Our preview is not yet available for public purchase or download. This is a product comparison, not an independent ranking. Other product names belong to their owners; no affiliation is implied.
Give EQ8 credit for its range
Electric Quilt 8 is established Mac and Windows software. Its maker lists more than 6,000 blocks and fabrics, custom block drawing, fabric-photo import, yardage estimates, rotary-cutting charts, foundations and templates. That range matters if your projects use several construction methods.
Compare the right parts of the workflow
| Area | EQ8 | Cloth & Colour preview |
|---|---|---|
| Computer | Mac and Windows; check current system requirements. | Mac and Windows targets; distribution checks remain. |
| Drawing | Custom block design plus large supplied libraries. | Grid blocks and constrained straight/curved seam drafting, plus original designs. |
| Fabric | Fabric libraries and photo import. | Custom colours, local photo cropping and repeat-size controls. |
| Making | Rotary charts, foundations and templates. | Making books and templates for supported constructions; no claim of full EQ8 parity. |
| Buy or download | Established product available now. | Not yet publicly released. |
Build one familiar block first
Choose a block you have already sewn. Draw it from scratch, change individual pieces, rotate and mirror it, then arrange a small quilt. This reveals whether the interaction feels clear to you. A friendly interface should tell you what is selected, what a click will change, and how to undo it.
Next, ask the software to make a plan. Check that its construction method matches yours. A visually similar block could require different piecing, templates or a foundation. A program’s ability to display a shape does not prove that it can generate the sewing instructions you need.
Where our preview has limits
Cloth & Colour is being built around local project ownership, direct piece colouring and a measured making book. Its custom-piece editor supports limited straight and quadratic curved seams. Unrestricted paths, automatic inset/Y-seam assembly and foundation-paper-piecing output are not promised. Do not buy or wait for it on the assumption that it replaces every EQ8 workflow.
If you already have years of EQ projects, preserve them. We do not currently advertise editable EQ8 file import. Moving a reference image into another program is different from retaining blocks, fabric assignments and construction information.
When to stay with EQ8
Stay with the tool that produces dependable plans for your construction methods, especially if its libraries and learning resources already serve you. Consider another product when a specific task is frustrating, not simply because its feature list is shorter or its screenshots look newer.
Our planned one-time price is US$79 at launch and US$99 regular, including updates within the purchased major version. Optional major upgrades would be paid separately. Final release checks are still in progress.
EQ8 descriptions checked against Electric Quilt’s linked product page on October 26, 2026. Confirm current compatibility and purchase terms with the maker.
Try the ideas before choosing the software
Follow our guides to designing a quilt block, photographing fabric for a quilt mockup and printing a measured quilt plan. You can also watch the actual Cloth & Colour preview.