Quilting in the 21st Century

Quilt Design Software
If a quilter wanted to blueprint their own design in the past, graph paper and pencil were the practical tools. These days, that task is becoming easier and more accessible to the masses with the advent of computer software for quilt design. Imagine the possibilities—exploration is only a mouse-click away with many virtual fabrics selections at your fingertips. And, sashing design changes are simple and fast, allowing the freedom to explore overall design choice in seconds instead of hours that it could take with graph paper.

There are a number of quilt design software programs available to consumers, and most work similarly to those demonstrated on this episode of Simply Quilts. Software seen on this show includes Electric Quilt, Creative Impulse, PC Quilt, Bargello Designer 32, Virtual Quilt and Quilt-Pro. Here are some directions for using the Quilt-Pro brand.

1. Select Quilt Layout choices for quilt, sash and border.
   
2. Add a block outline.
   
3. Build a quick fabric palette from several open palettes. Fabrics can be found in the program or if you want to use something more specific, you can load fabrics into the program by scanning the cloth, or selecting fabric palettes stored on disks.
   
4. "Paint" blocks with scanned fabric.

Tip: It's also handy to combine the use of a word processing program if you need letters or specialized fonts. Photo programs can also come in handy for transforming photographs into line art that can be used in quilt design.

Applique
Most quilt design software programs come with a selection of applique patterns for easy access to popular shapes.

Quilt Labels
Don't forget your quilt label. Today, there are software programs that offer clipart specifically for quilters. But, any program that allows text and pictures can be used. Some quilters even use greeting card programs.