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Perfect Quilt | ||||||||||
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NOTE: Music, Pattern & Instructional CDs, DVDs,
Videos, Computer Software are NOT returnable.
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Perfect Quilt
Item
Code: I0 |
Minimum System Requirements:
How do
you introduce a software program to the quilting market and not have to reinvent
the wheel? Jenny Haskins did just that by teaming with Quilt-Pro Systems and reintroducing
a wonderful software under her new brand name Perfect Quilt Expressions Quilting
Software Modules. This line consists of 5 outstanding modules: Perfect
Quilt, Perfect Quilt Express, Easy
Strip Piecing, Mariners Compass Collection, and
1200 Classic Foundations.
Perfect Quilt Expressions Modules are a union between two outstanding companies:
As you read this review, keep in mind that Perfect Quilt is a reincarnation of Quilt-Pro 5 and if you have read any of my past review of Quilt-Pro, this one look quite a bit like the others. As I looked very closely at the new Perfect Quilt, I noted that it kept all of Quilt-Pro's easy-to-use operations creating a quick learning curve for previous users of Quilt-Pro. This includes the file structure and file extensions creating an added bonus of allowing files to be shared between Quilt-Pro owners** and Quilt-Perfect owners. **In my experiments, I would come up a little error or two, but the Quilt-Pro block would, after a few clicks, open in Perfect Quilt.
Quilt Perfect offers traditional and innovative quilter wonderful tools to work in the style of their choice. Quilt Perfect's help files make learning fast and easy. Navigation through the Perfect Quilt using Wizards and feature-rich right click menus streamline access to many strong features like layers and simplify setup for each project.
Perfect
Quilt has two types of screens, one for drawing blocks or quilts and one for automatic
quilt layout. Perfect Quilt has the ability to have multiple screens for both
the Block and Quilt Layout open at the same time (see example.) This gives the
user the ability to work on multiple ideas without having to close and open screens
.
The Color Palette can be docked at the bottom of the screen (docked at the bottom of the screen is Sharla's favorite choice) OR, the color palette can also float like the fabric palette does shown in the previous example. (More on fabric palette to follow)
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Perfect Quilt holds true to the standard Window options we have come to expect in software. Perfect Quilt maximizes menus by using the drop-down menus, side flyout menus, dialogue boxes and right click mouse access to menus. Perfect Quilt has streamlined the top menu bar so that you go to the File Menu to open all Files. (See example) Here you will find multiple options like New, Open, Open Recent, Browse, Save Palettes, Save and much more for Quilts, Blocks, Borders, Sashes, Color Palettes, and Fabric Palettes.
The
Edit menu (undo, cut, copy, paste, select all, duplicate) is available
to both the quilt and block screens. My favorite selection is the undo
up to 10 times feature.
For
the Block, Quilt and Screen options use the Wizards with multiple Tabs
to guide you through set up for each. The example shows the quilt layout dialogue
box.
The work space (screen view area) has an option to Show or Hide the Tool Bar, Fabric Palette, and Color Palette depending on your needs and the right click menus allow you quick access without having to go to the top menus to make changes. Preferences allow the setup of large, medium or small Tools Bar to meet your visual or workspace needs. Fabric and Floating Color palettes can be resized.
Streamlined access to Wizards makes automatic quilt layout the star feature of Perfect Quilt . It has the ability to include multiple borders, inner and outer sash, and many layout options including an outstanding medallion quilt layout. The Quilt Wizard in Perfect Quilt has tabs for Layout, Size, Medallion, Borders, Sashes, Binding and Layers that lead you right through the process of selecting all your quilt layout options from beginning to finish.

Binding Options are Straight, French or Bias binding and can be added to any quilt layout.
Below view the Quilt Layout Types and Block Placement options. Nice is the addition of the Freeform Layout (a multi-sized block layout feature) like the one below where you can add a block in any arrangement or size you wish. This style of quilt is used often in the Country Style quilt with multiple borders.
A nice perk to the Perfect Quilt's Quilt Layout is the 1 click block drop. Once you select a block in the Block Browser or Library all you need to do is click on the Quilt Layout and the block inserts its.




Quilts with Borders added
2 Straight Block Layout created using the Rotate
Block Tool
and a Free Form Quilt Layout for custom sized blocks
Hexagon and Baby Block Layout
No borders added
The operation methods in the Draw screen are very similar to regular graphic programs on the market with the addition of built-in quilt features that make quilting software more friendly when drawing patches for blocks and is the real reason to buy a quilt a quilt program. Blocks can be drawn with geometric shapes or using appliqué and the helpful layering option. This is a truly rich program for drawing blocks.
Perfect Quilt Tools Bar has 44 tools used to aide in drawing a block or assist in quick browsing through blocks, scanned photos and fabric palettes. The Tools include zoom tools, coloring tools, rotary cutter, patches, rotate arrows, edit tool, text tool, tape measure, grain lines, align marker, and grid tools. To help you identify each tool, hover the mouse over the icon and a text block will appear that identifies the tool.
Use the Text Tool to open the Enter Text dialogue box. Create documentation, quilt labels, lettering and more for a block or quilt. The background can be a solid or fabric fill. Font type, style, and size can be personalized.
The
rotary cutter allows you to slice up patches, similar to using
a rotary cutter on fabric.
Perfect Quilt has an alignment marker tool that will help with alignment of patches when drawing a block as well as when printing, cutting and piecing. Also find the ability to add a grain line that can be added when printing templates.
To round out the Tools Bar functionality Quilt Perfect has optional functions tied to the Tools for rotating tools at the bottom of the Tools Bar for easy access and quick changes. These options appear when options are part of the tool. (Note the Angle, Horizontal, and Vertical options at the bottom of the Tools Bar.)
Drawing in Perfect Quilt does not require a closed patch like many of the other quilting programs. This option allows the line, arc and bezier curve tools to be used to create patches when joined (a separate function) or act as quilt lines on the blocks, great when creating stencils. Adding to the flexibility of drawn patches is the ability to select line width, color or style with dash, solid or dotted. These options allow you to create dashed lines that can look very much like a quilting stitch.
The
Patch Stamp tool brings you a prebuilt library of common geometric and
appliqué shapes. The Patch Stamp dialogue box shows what has already been
drawn and you can save new stamps to the library of stamps. Simply select one
and draw it on the screen.
The Round Arranger is new in Perfect Quilt and can be found under the Effects Menu. It allows you to take any design and see what it will look like arranged around a circle. Flexibility is added to the setup options by allowing you determine how many designs to set, create an off set, add more than one ring, and determine the angle of the layout. The Round Arranger is wonderful for creating appliqué and wreath designs. Use geometric shapes to create kaleidoscope effects.

Make a wreath from patches using the Round Arranger
Included are 7 different grids for helping you create blocks. Check out the circle and 8-point star grids, pretty nifty! Perfect Quilt also has the ability to create and save your own custom grid from a drawing on the Block screen. Add powerful snap-to options like Snap-to Point, Snap-to Line and Snap-to Grid and the auto alignment for setting patches how and where you want are as good as any paint and draw program out there.

Quilt
Perfect Effects Menu give you powerful drawing tools that are usually
found in the big gun programs like Corel Draw and Adobe Illustrator.
Draw foundation blocks that can be numbered using the Foundation Wizard for sewing sequence, sectioning and printing with accurate seam allowance size of your choice.
For
additional information about how Perfect Quilt draws, refer to the resource section
that includes Perfect Quilt Hints and Tips by Frank Smith and more.
Those familiar with graphic programs will find learning Perfect Quilt very easy.
For the rest of you, the Perfect Quilt Assistant allows instant access to rich how-to information. When the Perfect Quilt Assistant is achieved by a mouse click on any tool or menu item and the help file instantly jumps to the relevant topic. (See next example.) This new mouse activated assistant eliminates the need to search through content indexes that often turn up dead-end searches because you do not know the correct keyword or phrase. It is optional to have the Assistant on the screen. Close the dialogue box to optimize the screen size and quickly reopen with a click of the ? in the top menu bar.

Another valuable Assistant function is small video clips for some drawing tools. For those you who do better by seeing than by reading, these little clips will certainly fill the bill.


Help is enhanced with optional Hints & Tips pop-ups that can be turned off when it is no longer of benefit in the learning curve. For example after drawing a patch, the following pop-up will appear indicating possible choices for proceeding.

To
add to the ease of learning Perfect Quilt 's menus follow the usual standard
Windows fare with commands like duplicate, copy, paste, select all, and
when function requires you will also find quilt buzz words like grid,
quilt wizard, rotary cutting charts and more.
The on-screen Tools Bar, color and fabric palettes are graphically descriptive and makes it obvious most of the time where to go for what. Perfect Quilt does have some functions tied to the right mouse button for easy access that are not always as obvious, this is where the Perfect Quilt Assistant fills a gap by telling you when a right click menu may be necessary. I would suggest when you think a tool should do more, it probably will and I suggest using the right click to see.
The help is well written. If you use the Internet, there is an online help manual.
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Background Trace ScreenPerfect Quilt has the ability to import a bitmap into the background of the Block Screen that can be used to trace/draw landscapes, portraits, and other sources of inspiration. The trace option allows the creation of very complex designs in Perfect Quilt that can become templates, blocks, quilts and printed out as needed. |
Perfect Quilt exports blocks as usable vector images to vector based programs like Corel DRAW, Freehand, and Adobe Illustrator and similar software. And, the block or quilt can be copied to the clipboard that can be pasted into other programs like Word for Clipart.
Below are some images created in CorelDraw from an original Perfect Quilt Quilt. To see how the export feature works, refer to Sharla Hicks' article, Import Quilts created in Perfect Quilt to CorelDRAW or Corel PhotoPaint to add innovative Coloring and Distortions.
Original Quilt from Perfect Quilt |
Envelope in CorelDRAW |
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You can e-mail your friends Perfect Quilt folders by saving the file as a packet file. A packet file is a special Perfect Quilt or Quilt-Pro owners file that compresses the block or quilt and fabrics into one file that you can e-mail. The person receiving the file must have also have Perfect Quilt or Quilt-Pro to open and view the file. Wow, this is fun option for participating in round robins and group projects. For additional information about helpful resource look at the following Quilt-Pro files click here.
Scanning
Wizard The new Scanning Wizard makes scanning your favorite fabrics or photos a breeze. If you are familiar with a scanner interfaces with a program, Perfect Quilt is the similar. Plus, for the more novice scanner user, Perfect Quilt 's hands-on Scanning Wizard takes you step-by-step through each step of interface needed to proceed. Then Perfect Quilt automatically saves your fabrics in the fabric, embroidery design or photo library folders.



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![]() | In the Block/Draw Screen, use the Text Tool to add any notes that you wish to include directly with the printout of a Block or Quilt. This option is very helpful for teachers who want to create a handout from drawn patches. There is no limitations on the amount of text that can be placed in the text box or the number of text boxes that you can add. Each text box can be customized with font, font size, borders and color inside the box. |


Perfect Quilt includes enhanced Template Wizard for Print Preview and the ability to arrange Templates to fit optimally on page BEFORE printing.

The block printing options includes custom size, templates (with variable seam allowance options), foundation piecing and the ability to print across multiple pages if block size is larger than paper size.

Templates can be individually selected for printing. A small diagram of the block in the print window makes this very easy to do. For a block with repetitive patches, Perfect Quilt can automatically select one of each repetitive patch for printing allowing you to save paper and printer ink.
Foundation Piecing options includes the ability to section a block into piecing sections that can then be constructed into a whole block. Blocks can be flip vertically, horizontally, or mirrored/reversed (for iron-on). Foundation block or sections can be automatically numbered in the order that the pieces where drawn which at times is not correct and then you will want to use the tool that allows you to modify the number order. Perfect Quilt automatically determines how many patterns will fit on a page and inform how many pages are required to print out the foundation pattern.
BONUS BONUS BONUS
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Fabulous Fabrics
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NEWS October 2007NEW Quilting Software Modules released at Quilt Market in Houston, TexasHow do you introduce a software program to the quilting market and not have to reinvent the wheel? Jenny Haskins did just that by teaming with Quilt-Pro Systems and reintroducing a wonderful software under her new brand name Perfect Quilt Expressions Quilting Software Modules. This line consists of 5 outstanding modules: What is the FREE Fabulous Fabric CD?
Preview 2000 of the latest fabrics and easily
sort into your own personal fabric collections. Jenny’s “virtual fabric
library” includes fully functional demos of all Perfect Quilt Expressions
Modules for your review.
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40% off Books & Magazines
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Jenny Haskins Index |
| Perfect Quilt Expressions Software Modules | Digitized Embroidery CD Series |
| Special Edition Creative Expressions Magazines | |
| Books | |
Perfect Quilt Expressions
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Perfect Quilt |
![]() Perfect Quilt Express |
![]() Easy Strip Piecing |
![]() 1200 Classic Foundations |
![]() Mariners Compass Collection |
Jenny Haskins
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Batting: Fusible Lightweight ![]() Quilt Magic® (1 side) Fusible Fleece & Quilt Magic® PLUS (2 sided) Fusible Fleece Note: 59" Wide Sold by Yd, 5 yd or Bolt 59" Wide
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Jenny's Thread Collection Sets:
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Jenny's Stabilizers
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Jenny's Stabilizers
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Jenny Haskins Private Selection Stabilizers Styles
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stabilizer Cutaway Magic 12" x 10 yds 20" x 10 yds |
stabilizer![]() Dissolve Magic 12" x 12 yds 20" x 12 yds |
stabilizer
Heat Magic 10" x 10 yds 20" x 10 yds |
stabilizer Hoop Magic 12" x 10 yds 20" x 10 yds |
stabilizer![]() Sheer Magic 30" x 3 yds |
stabilizer![]() Sheer Magic Plus 30" x 3 yds |
stabilizer![]() Template Magic (20) 8.5" x 11" sheets |
stabilizer![]() Tearaway Magic 12" x 10yds 20" x 10 yds (20) 8.5" x 11" 20 sheets |
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Using Stabilizers![]() Machine Embroidery on Difficult Materials by Deborah Jones |
stabilizer Water Soluble Magic 10" x 10 yds 20" x 10 yds |
A Galleria of Machine Artistry and Quilting presented by Jenny Haskins |
40% off Special Edition |
![]() A Place in the Sun, A Quilt in a Hoop by Jenny Haskins |
Bk w/ Instruct DVD |
Book w/ CD![]() Sharman's Vintage Garden by Jenny Haskins A quilt by Jenny & Simon Haskins |
A Galleria of Machine Artistry and Quilting presented by Jenny Haskins |
40% off Special Edition |
![]() A Place in the Sun, A Quilt in a Hoop by Jenny Haskins |
Bk w/ Instruct DVD |
Book w/ CD![]() Sharman's Vintage Garden by Jenny Haskins A quilt by Jenny & Simon Haskins |
Jenny Haskins Designs: Digitized Machine Embroidery CDsNOTE: Many of these OLDER CD's are being discontinued by Jenny, get them while you can! |
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CD |
CD |
CD![]() Bella Fiora Jenny Haskins Designs |
CD![]() Beyond Color Purple Jenny Haskins Designs |
New 2009 CD |
CD![]() Color Purple The Next Generation Jenny Haskins Designs |
NEW 2007![]() Delicate Delights Jenny Haskins Designs |
CD![]() Desginer Neck Ties Jenny Haskins Designs |
CD![]() Floral Appliqué Magic Jenny Haskins Designs |
CD![]() Floral Rhapsody Jenny Haskins Designs |
CD ![]() Gilded Memories Jenny Haskins Designs |
NEW 2007![]() Gracious Impressions Jenny Haskins Designs |
New 2010 10% off Digitized Embroidery CD ![]() Harvey's Garden Jenny Haskins Designs + Children's Story |
CD![]() Lace Glorious Lace Jenny Haskins Designs |
NEW 2008![]() Laura's Vintage Embellishments Jenny Haskins Designs |
New 2009![]() Lottie's Poppies Jenny Haskins Designs |
New 2010![]() Margaret's Magnificent Melody Jenny Haskins Designs |
Mag/CD New 2009 CD ![]() Robyn's Romance Jenny Haskins Designs |
CD ![]() Rose Buds Jenny Haskins Designs |
CD ![]() Roses for Mary Jenny Haskins Designs |
NEW 2008
Sharman's Garden Jenny Haskins Designs |
New 2009![]() Simon's Terrific Trims Jenny Haskins Designs |
CD![]() Twin Needle Shadow Work Jenny Haskins Designs |
Victorian & Vintage Series
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NEW 2008![]() Laura's Vintage Embellishments Jenny Haskins Designs |
![]() Vintage Needlework Jenny Haskins Designs
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CD![]() Victorian Bows & Baskets Jenny Haskins Designs |
CD![]() Victorian Embroidery From the Heart Jenny Haskins Designs |
CD![]() Victorian Fantasy with Fans Jenny Haskins Designs |
CD![]() Victorian Pansies Jenny Haskins Designs |
CD![]() Victorian Piano Shawl Jenny Haskins Designs |
CD![]() Victorian Roses Jenny Haskins Designs |
CD![]() Victorian Scripts & Antique Frames Jenny Haskins Designs |
CD![]() Victorian Scrolls & Curlicues Jenny Haskins Designs |
Home Website Design by Sharla
R. Hicks, Soft Expressions, all text and art contained on this site ©
1996-2009
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