The Electric Quilt Company - STASH Fall 2009 software

I've always thought of shopping for fabric to be more delightful than shopping for sweets.  And, I've now learned that The Electric Quilt Company has some software that is really a fantastic tool to help you shop for fabric, manage your stash, and help you design quilts using your Electric Quilt software (for me it is EQ6).  For me this experience, was truly more delightful than opening a box of chocolates (and I do love my chocolate). Yes, I've fallen in love with EQ's software called "STASH", which is a seasonal collection of the newest fabric lines from the top manufacturers.  
After playing with EQ's STASH Fall 2009 software, I'm wondering why it has taken me so long to discover this software.  It is really an amazing software that has been easy to fall in love with. Thus, I want to share some insights with you.

















Previously, I didn't realize that this software is actually the 21st edition of the STASH CD series.  This edition of STASH provides a collection of over 4420 new fabrics from 26 different fabric manufacturers.  You can search fabrics by color or by category. 

















STASH software can even help you plan out the value in your next quilt.  You can also use this software as a virtual design wall to select fabrics for future projects.

















STASH software even prints out shopping lists, which I find very helpful {more helpful than I would have originally thought}.

I also love the "notecards" that are available for each fabric.  These notecards contain very helpful to know the name of the fabric you may want to search for (e.g. SKU number, designer, etc.), but I find this tool to also help me develop skills to recognize designers and manufacturers of various fabrics that I love.  A skill many quilters have, while some do not care about, yet one that I'm currently trying to build on my personal abilities to recognize designers and manufacturers when I see a particular piece of fabric (best card/fabric game for quilters).

While a standalone program, STASH Fall 2009 software, as well as the entire STASH software collection, all has electronic fabric swatches that can easily be imported into Electric Quilt's quilt design program (EQ 5 or 6) via their Fabric Library.

For more information on this software, or to order:  http://www.electricquilt.com/Shop/Stash/Current.asp

I also want to share that prior editions of STASH are still available.  And, I've added these to my wish list.  While you may think some older fabrics are no longer available to buy in stores, there are frequently ways to find wonderful fabrics that are no longer considered current releases (e.g. http://www.missingfabrics.com/) .  Plus, STASH software can help you utilize these fabrics to plan future quilts.  And, all the STASH editions provide electric images of over 4400 - 6100 fabrics, from 26 - 34 different fabric manufacturers, in each edition of STASH, which can easily be imported into EQ6.  Plus, the STASH Spring 2009 and back to Fall 2001 is still available for purchase at the EQ website for only $14.95. I love the idea of being able to have a larger color palette in EQ6 for designing quilts, even if I don't make the quilt with a specific fabric that I've used in my EQ6 "modeling".

Personally, I'm so in love with STAH Fall 2009 software, I'm now eager to get a copy of STASH Spring 2009 and also hopeful I can find older copies of the STASH collection.  I know I'm going to be eager to get copies of all future releases of EQ's STASH collection.  Great software and really fun to use to help manage your stash and use in EQ6, when designing quilts.  Ultimately, I've concluded that the STASH software is a great value and a great tool to help any quilter. 

http://www.electricquilt.com/