I hope you all received all the quilty gifts you asked for. I didn’t have a big list this year because the one thing I really wanted was an Apple Pencil for my iPad. What does that have to do with quilting you might be wondering? Well, the iPad or any tablet that lets you download quilting apps is a great tool to help you design a quilt, decide on color choices and placement, and choose a quilting design.
Here are some of the best quilting apps
Quilting Calculator – good for calculating how much fabric you need
This app is essential for your fabric buying trip and it works out how much fabric is required. Simply enter the length and width of the quilt and it will tell you how many yards to buy for backing. This quilting app also tells you how many pieces you can get per yard to help you know if you have enough fabric for a particular pattern. You can also figure the size for set in and corner triangles, borders, and binding. The app is free.
Quilter 2 – quilt patterns, quilting tutorials and more
From quilt ideas to custom layouts featuring fabrics from your stash, Quilter 2 is an amazing quilding app to help you step up your quilting game. Scan in photos of your stash fabrics and try them out in different blocks, customize a design layout by mixing and matching blocks, discover unique color combinations with the color wheel. There are so many things this app can do. I haven’t even used all of the features yet. Best of all, there are accompanying YouTube video tutorials. The app does cost $14.99, but it is well worth the money.
Quiltography
Organize your fabric stash, try out different fabrics in patterns, and layout blocks with your desired fabrics before you stitch. If you have ever made an ‘ugly quilt’, you know what I’m talking about. Sometimes what looks good in our minds looks terrible when it is actually done. This quilting app lets you try your fabric in pieced blocks so you can see exactly how it will look before you cut and sew. The app also has a cool feature that lets you take any .jpg image and turn it into a digital canvas for art quilts. For $14.99, the app is well worth it to keep you from wasting your valuable fabric.
YouDoodle
If you are unsure what quilting designs to use, you need the YouDoodle app. This drawing program allows you to upload a photo and then draw on top of it to audition quilting designs. If you don’t like what you did, just press undo and start over. I use this a lot when suggesting quilting designs to customers. This is a free quilting app and works with a finger, a stylus, or the Apple Pencil.
Final thoughts on best quilting app for iOS
Use any of these quilting apps to take you quilting to the next level and I am sure you will find them a useful source of ideas and a way to save time and effort and still get great results.
Whether you are after quilting calculators, a quilt pattern or any easy quilt block tool, these quilting apps are a great option to make quilting easier and more enjoyable.