YOUR IPHONE IS MORE THAN JUST…..

I’ve had my iPhone for a number of monthes & I absolutely LOVE it! I just found some Apps that I’d like to share with those among you who use an iPhone or iTouch or iPad and who are of the crafty quilty type!

Fabric Stash by Blueshift Software is really a cool app for collecting all your stash. I’m planning on getting this one!

FABRIC STASH

I don’t carry a purse, so it’s a hassle to carry around samples of fabrics I’m looking for other fabrics to go with. With this, I’ll be able to have my whole stash right in my pocket!

Description

With FabricStash you can keep your entire stash, no matter how big, in the palm of your hand. It’s easy, just snap a photo of your fabric, enter as many details as you’d like, and you’re ready to go! With fabric stash you can:

-Match old fabrics with new using large, full color photos- no more carrying fabric samples while shop-hopping.

-Create project lists, allowing for easy access to a list of the fabrics you’ve gathered for your next project, or used in past projects.

– Organize and view your stash by color, style, manufacturer, line or project.

-Keep track of exactly how much of a fabric you have.

-Make a wish list of fabrics you’d like to obtain in the future.

-Enter custom category names and notes about your fabrics.

– Save money- no more duplicate purchases.

Fully customizable, FabricStash can be personalized in many ways to fit your individual needs. FabricStash is also smart, if you’ve entered a custom description before, it will remember it for later use.

QUICK N’ EASY BLOCK  TOOL

Description

102 Rotary-Cut Quilt Blocks in 5 Sizes
Simple Cutting Charts
Helpful Reference Tables

C&T Publishing unveils a new era in quiltmaking with the Quick & Easy Quilt Block Tool, an innovative application for planning quilt blocks!

This application features rotary-cutting directions for over 500 options for making traditional quilt blocks, plus bonus reference tables every quilter needs.

The Quick & Easy Quilt Block Tool is so useful, versatile, and portable, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it!

• 102 most-popular pieced blocks in 5 sizes each, with design details and construction diagrams

• Find cutting instructions at your fingertips with our quick and easy rotary-cutting charts and indexes!

• Helpful reference tables, such as yardage requirements, diagonal measurements, and more

• User-friendly instructions and a complete block index and grid index

• It’s the ultimate no-math reference guide for quilters!

• Create your own index of favorites

• Zoom in on piecing diagrams for crystal clear viewing

QUILT ENVI

Description

A giant collection of cozy quilts, in your pocket! Quilt Envi brings lovely quilt photos straight from the worldwide web to your iPhone, along with in-depth information on patterns, designers and shows. It’s a visual tour of homespun style, expert craftsmanship and gentle living.

From antique 18th century American quilts, to Amish and Mennonite designs, to art quilts and crazy designs you’ve never thought of, Quilt Envi displays Web-based quilt photos the way you would expect on the iPhone: full screen, with multi-touch controls, in automated slide shows or scrolling image arrays. Old-fashioned and modern styles, designers, apparel, silks and wool. Traditional patterns like Baby Blocks, Baskets, Friendship, Hearts and Flowers, Log Cabin, and Wedding Knot, as well as some not-so-traditional ones. Quilt Envi brings them all from the Web to you, organized by age, place of origin and designer.

Quilt Envi is also more than just a bunch of pretty pictures. It includes access to Web-based information on popular patterns, expert designers and an assortment of festivals and shows, as well as the different styles of quilts. And you can add even more in-depth collections on other fun topics from the app itself.

Please also check out our other Envi apps, all based on the acclaimed iEnvision Web-image browser. Classic and modern art and architecture, hot sports cars and motorcycles, cool haircuts, outer space from planet Earth to the furthest reaches of the Hubble, the great outdoors, and lots of just plain fun. There’s an Envi app for that!

QUILT FAB

QuiltFab 3.0 is now available in the App Store and will do even more to help you determine how much fabric you need for some common backing, binding, border, and sashing fabric choices and construction methods for making quilts. The following new features are available.

Borders:
The border feature has been expanded to include a couple new options, including pieced borders and a second border. The borders can be mitered or finished square. A mitered border, with the ends of each strip finished at an angle, requires more fabric. Other border options, including more than 2 borders, are beyond the scope of this tool.

If you are willing to piece the borders, we assume you will cut the border
strips on the crosswise grain, selvage to selvage. If you request unpieced borders, then the strips will be cut from lengths of fabric (parallel to the selvages). If you have directional prints, or want to center or match repeating motifs, additional fabric will be needed.

Blocks:
Plain blocks are often used as alternate blocks, or are used to make setting triangles. Within this tool, the number of blocks and their size do not need to “fit” into the quilt in any way: they are independent of the other details of your quilt project.

Sashing:
A quilt design may use sashing strips to separate the blocks within the quilt. Although these sashing strips may be cut and sewn to the sides of the individual blocks, still the amount of fabric required is only slightly less than if they were used as long strips, running horizontally and vertically across the quilt, up to, but not extending into any borders. This tool will determine the fabric needed for the long strips.

BLOCK FAB

BlockFab is a free fabric calculator utility application for the Apple iPhone and iPod touch, available on the Apple App Store as BlockFab [App Store link].

BlockFab is not a quilt design app. However, it will let you quickly see the results of various design, color, and layout possibilities. And if you already have a pattern you like but you want to customize it by changing the size or number of blocks or by adding a pieced border, BlockFab will calculate the fabric required.

Choose from a small library of about 50 grid-based blocks, or from a library of patch shapes commonly used by quilters. Then choose the number and size of blocks or patches. BlockFab will determine the amount of fabric you need to buy, and will give you some hints on cutting out the blocks or patches, based on the cutting assumptions used for calculating the fabric needed. Both English and metric units of measure are supported.

Not ready to make those blocks, but just want to dream and plan? You can play around with the blocks in sample layouts while varying colorways, layout styles, number of blocks, and pairing of blocks. With just a flick, tap, pinch, or twist, you can view thousands of variations. Simply follow the blue arrows.

You can mail a copy of the yardage needs so you will have a record of the fabric for this set of blocks.

When you leave the application, your latest block and fabric choices will be saved, and this information will appear the next time you use the application. Thus you can customize BlockFab to use your own preferred fabric and quilting methods.

If you know of any more quilting apps…let me know!!! I’m always looking for ways to have more fun with my little friend, Mr. iPhone!!

Disclaimer: I haven’t actually used any of these. I was just searching & found them. If they’re good, GREAT, if they’re not to your liking, I’m sorry, but I just wanted to let you know what’s out there.

Fat Quarter Give-Away!!

 

This is a VERY nice giveaway from Jaybird Quilts:

 sponsored giveaway: featuring The Fat Quarter Shop

It’s for a fat quarter bundle of the entire collection of Pure by Sweetwater! That’s 37 fat quarters!!!  How awesome is THAT!!!  Hurry over…deadline is Thursday nite!

Fun With 4 Patch

Saturday, after I got done hosing down the deck on S/V Outrageous & doing ‘bug spot removal’ with bleach in the cockpit, I decided to sew up the 2″ squares I’d purchased recently. I paired them with a small dark blue & just started cutting & sewing.

You’ll notice, I’m sure, that this is not what one might call a big cutting surface. Ergo…itty bitty stuff. Any major cutting I have to do at home & bring along with to sew here. When we finally move aboard, I’ll have larger, but for now, this is fine. I’m here for weekends & usually sew a few hours if it’s rainy or too hot & humid or I just want a quiet moment. So there’s no need for a full set of equipment.

I sew at the salon table, and normally iron on the bed in our cabin.  Flat space & electric outlets are not in abundance.

But since I’d have SOOO many things to iron, I moved my boards out into the galley & ironed there. Lucy is usually on the settee next to me, while Molly prefers to lie on the floor near my feet.

My Cute Little Iron

I love my little iron…it really heats up well. I iron dry & use a spray bottle…I steam my fingers WAY too often. At this point, since it’s such a casual summer situation, I’m using a towel covered wooden board for my ‘ironing board’ & use it’s mate as a flat surface to rest my iron & water bottle upon. (They’re actually sink covers, used to extend my kitchen counter by covering the 2 small sinks in the galley.) When this life becomes a reality, I’ll have a proper cutting surface & ironing board.

This is on the counter in the galley…on top of the top loading refrigerator.  This model also has a door in the front, so you can use the frig and the counter at the same time.

Not real sure what to do with these..saw where someone had used small pateches for a circular center of a quilt…I’m thinkin’ maybe…..we’ll see.

It was just so humid here this weekend. Mid 80’s for both the temp & the humidity index, I do believe. And not near enough wind to go sailing. So we were marina bound. BUT…there was a ‘Toga Party’ hosted by our boat club. No, I didn’t wear a toga. But I DID win the 50/50 raffle…$84!!

Fabric Giveaway! from Sew Love Christmas

Rachel, over at Stitched in Color is having a great Give-Away  on the bright & beautiful Christmas Spice fabric line by Michael Miller!!

Check her out: http://stitchedincolor.wordpress.com/

It’s never to early to get started on those Christmas gifts!!!!

BLACK & WHITE & FUSHIA DONE

Black & White & Fushia

Back

 I finally got my 1st quilt with my new machine done. It was meant to try out all the many decorative stitches on the machine. It was a lot of fun, but not knowing exactly what I was doing, it certainly didn’t turn out like I’d hoped! Actually, I really hate the back.  I certainly didn’t think it thru properly. But what’s done is done, and I learned a lot on it. (Think I’ll give it to my Sissy…she’ll appreciate it, just becuz I made it.)

I remember the 1st watercolors I painted….It took me years to get past that “beginner’s look”. You have to do something a lot of times before you become proficient.  So even though I’m an advanced seamstress, quilting is just  a whole new ballgame. Back to being a beginner!!!

But all you wonderful quilters out there inspire me…your creative designs & color choices, your talent & techniques that you share on your blogs…I’ll get there eventually!!

TAG SURFING IS ADDICTIVE!!

I Love Surfing....The Web!!

I love reading other Crafty Quilting blogs! Not only do I Tag Surf on my home site, WordPress, but I have just discovered that there are ‘Blog Directories’ , from which you have the big wide world of the internet at your fingertips to find concentrations of your favorite topic with just a few taps of the keyboard! I’ve included several buttons on the lower right section of my page for places you can go to see lots of other blogs. These are not subscription, but are free. I’ve added MY blog to their directories as well.

There’s lots of directories requiring paid subscriptions. For the person blogging to promote their products/service, this would perhaps be a good investment. But for those of us blogging to show off our ‘stuff’ & ideas as a kind of personal outlet, there’s no incentive to pay for ‘blog traffic’ But it IS fun to use to find more kindred spirits & see who’s doing what!

We all would like our ‘moment in the sun’…and the blog allows everyone the potential for just that. I know that many quilters enjoy some notoriety in ‘blogland’. These folk have worked very hard on their craft, and have worked on their blogging as well. These are the people you will find in my LONG list on the right. Some of them have selling venues of one sort or another. Whether it be an Etsy Shop, website, retail store or home based custom business, they’ve included a blog from which they can extend their love of quilting in yet one more direction. 

You find tons of tutorials on the internet. In all shapes & sizes & degrees of proficiency. Some folks have Youtube videos imbedded in their blog, others make PDF documents, others photo & write tutorials as posts. That’s another thing about crafters. Sharing what you do. In the past, craft would pass from one to another locally…at a quilting bee, in church basements, living rooms, craft stores. In this post-modern era we are more and more insular. I see many bloggers have virtual quilting bee’s, shop hops, get-togethers. We still basically just want to reach out to others.

It’s also very ego boosting when your site gets hits, or someone leaves a comment. And that ego boost in itself is tempting. How many hits did you have today? Did anyone leave a comment on my latest post? Guess it all boils down to…we just want to be loved and appreciated. Same ancient desire, just a new century.

MODA LUNA NOTTE CHARM PACKS..MINE!!

Moda Luna Notte

Recieved 4 Charm Packs of this pretty Moda Luna Notte in today’s mail from emeraldcityfabricandcraft…another eBay seller that I want to recommend. You can find her at:

http://stores.ebay.com/Emerald-City-Fabric-and-Craft

I love the soft quiet look of this group of colors…I just want to cuddle up underneath it!!