After taking a look at this app in the App Store, and then looking them up on their website I contacted the company, based in the UK, requesting the opportunity to try and review this product and they were gracious enough to comply. I found myself reticent to shell out the $14.99 - however after using it and realizing that they do have plans for expanding this app in the future to add even more feature I believe it's really worth it. I especially love the mobility of it - as when I travel or even just visit coffee shops I generally always have my iPad with me. (***This is an iPad only app, it will not work on the iPhone.***)
What I Like:
1. The number one thing here that I like? The fact that within one day, the company responded to my question that I messaged them via their Facebook page. In this day in age good customer service is extremely hard to find. So far, these guys are top notch in that area.
2. The ease of use. This program is really pretty intuitive (if you can use your iPad, you can use this program.) All of the main pages offer a button that is a question mark, that will give you a brief, step-by-step run down of what you can do with that feature page. My only complaint on this would be if you accidentally click the question mark, there is no escape, you have to click through to the end of the tutorial. (An opt out button would be marvelous, hint, hint.)
3. Adding your own fabric. There are not a ton of fabric options available within the program (I can't say for sure, but I'm guessing it's likely an licensing issue with fabric companies and designers...a lot of you know how I feel about that already.) However, adding your own fabric has never been easier! You can either use a picture that is already in your camera roll, or take a picture right then and there. (This would also allow you to take higher quality photos on your phone and send them or or access them from your iPad.)
The cool thing is, you can use any image to make a fabric option! I tried it out with a picture I snapped of my lilacs this spring.
4. Decent block selection. While there maybe aren't the number of blocks you might find in desktop programs, there is a pretty good selection of the most common quilt blocks. You can customize the colors for them. You can't currently create your own blocks, but perhaps that will be a feature we see in the future?
5. Photo to Quilt option. You can take any photo in your camera roll, or snap a current picture with the iPad camera and turn it into a pattern for a quilt. The app will let you decide how many squares you want to do (in increments), how many colors, and the size squares you want to work with. It will then formulate a nice printable PDF pattern for you as well that you can email to yourself and print.
What I Wish Were Different:
I will tell you upfront, it does not have a pattern printing option once you've picked your blocks and designed your quilt. You'd still have to figure that out on your own (sizes and pieces, yardage etc.) The design a quilt functions more as a sort of high tech sketchbook in this regard.
That being said, I wouldn't let that deter me from buying the program as I find it to be an extremely useful tool for my quilting studio (and on the go). Modern quilters out there might really like this program as well - and it might be a tie for whether they would like the quilt design part more, or the picture to quilt! There are some pretty cool results when using odd images for the photo to quilt.
***Word from the company is there are plans in the works for a fabric calculator in the future, and possible pattern printing as well. Gosh I hope so!***
All in all, I would definitely recommend buying this app!
Here's all you need for reading about, contacting and learning about Quiltography:
Quiltography Website
Quiltography Facebook Page
Quiltography App on iTunes
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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