Christmas Gifts for Quilters 4 (and giveaway)

So, once again, here is a button you can grab for your blog.  The button links back to the original intro post for this series and, over time, that post will link to all the subsequent posts in the series so just leave the button lying around when friends and relatives are around and hope that they click through and get some great ideas of what to get you for Christmas.  And just in case none of your relatives are showing any interest in any of these great ideas, there are two giveaways at the end of this post so chance your arm at winning something for yourself.

<div align="center"><a href="http://lilysquilts.blogspot.com/2011/09/christmas-is-coming.html" title="Christmas Gifts for Quilters"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6176/6213980856_a52f333b9e_o.jpg" alt="Christmas Gifts for Quilters" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

This week's suggestions are two wonderful computer programs tailor made for quilters; one to plan and design your quilts and one to catalogue them.  The first is EQ7, a computer program which enables to you design your own quilts, design blocks and print your own quilt patterns.

Or you can use quilts and blocks in the program's database and then add in fabric swatches from EQ7's library, from fabric companies' websites or scanned from your own fabrics to see how a quilt would look made up in the fabrics of your choice.  

Although designed for Windows, I understand that there is a Yahoo group for EQ7 Mac users who run EQ7 on their Macs using Windows and Parallels.  Check this out before buying the program if you are a Mac user.  

The second program is Quilt Album which is a computer program designed for you to catalogue all your quilts on the computer.  Perfect for those os us making quilts faster than we can keep track of them...  You just drop in a photo of the quilt and then add information about the quilt; when it was made, who for, who quilted it, the size of the quilt etc.  All your quilts can be catalogued and kept track of in one place on your computer.  As well as keeping track of your quilts on the computer, you can also print out album pages so you have a hard copy album.  You can even print out greetings cards and business cards with your quilts on them.  This program is designed to work both on Macs and on PCs.

There are giveaways for both of these programs at this end of this post but, in the meantime, if you would like to invest in a copy of Quilt Album, the makers have given me a discount code to give you a $5 discount on the program.  Just click through using the button below and use the code shown in the button to obtain the $5 discount.

And, in case you friends and relatives are not taking the hints in these Christmas Gifts posts, there is a copy of each of these programs up for grabs this week and three chances to win one of them:

1.   Leave a comment to say you are a follower.

2.   Leave a comment to say you spread the word (twitter, facebook, blog etc.)

3.   Leave a comment telling me what your favourite sewing notion is.  

Winners will be picked this time next week (2 November) so tune back in to see if you were one of the lucky ones.