Did you know that iPhones only make up about 12% of all "Smart Phones" nowadays? Over 80% of Smart Phones are Android phones now, so I thought I would write a post about some of the quilting and sewing apps that you can download on your Android phones:
Robert Kaufman Fabrics and Quilter's Paradise have joined forces to bring you this collection of essential quilting calculators. Designed by quilters, all work with both U.S. and metric measurements. You'll quickly see how much fabric is needed for backing, batting and borders, and how many rectangular pieces can be cut from a larger piece. There are even calculators for square-in-a-square, set-in, and corner triangles.
Almost a more powerful version of Quilting Calculators, this Stitcher's Helper app has several advanced features:
- Several calculators for calculating yardage, cost, or many other measurements.
- Project tracking. Mark your project as "In Progress", "On Hold", or "Completed".
- Attach pictures to projects
- Attach project items to projects. These can be either any of the below calculators with your yardage and data saved, or simply a needed item.
- Projects also have space for pattern information and notes.
- Automatically generated shopping list page that can either be added on the fly or marked as "Include on Shopping List" on the project item edit screen. These items are grouped by project for easy organization.
A very interesting app that lets you take photos of fabric (or anything, really), then create a quilt pattern and apply the fabric photos to the quilt pattern to see what they'd look like on the finished quilt. It doesn't have the most easy-to-use interface, but it can be great way to see what certain fabric combinations look like together in a finished quilt without having to buy swatches and swap them around. Plus you can save your projects and export them to your phone's image gallery.
Quilt Shops is a free application to find quilt shops across the U.S. from Quilters Club of America and Fons & Porter.
- Use your smart phone or tablet to search for 2,500+ quilt shops (U.S. stores only currently)
- Versions will be available for iPhone, iTouch, iPad and Android phones
- Search for quilt shop by city, state, Zip, or see stores closest to your current location
- Look up individual stores to see location, Web site URL, map directions and dial store phone number
- Feedback form enables users to easily alert us if a store is missing or needs updated information
- Requires internet connection for GPS mapping and distance calculations
More of an app for inspiration rather than utilitarian uses, Quilt Index to Go has images of over 50,000 real-world quilts from the whole range of quilting history. With this app you get a quilt a day from the Quilt Index (http://www.quiltindex.org). There is a Browsing page to scroll endlessly through 50,000+ quilt records
Detailed quilt record information is available for each quilt (when documented) such as:
- quilt pattern names
- quilt-maker names
- dates and/or date ranges
- collection
- links to full information on the quiltindex.org collection record
• Fabric U
A handy reference to more than 120 different types of fabric used for quilting, crafting, and sewing. Written by Mary Beth Klatt, the app shares her extensive knowledge about needle and thread combos for various sewing projects. Includes links and videos to help users choose appropriate fabrics and how to care for them.
An informational reference app that is full of all sorts of information about the art and craft of quilting. If you're an expert quilter already this might not be as useful as if you were a beginner, but there are probably some good tidbits that you could find in the many different sections:
- A Notion About Notions
- Add Life to your Quilting with Embroidery
- All About Appliqué
- All About Hoffman Fabrics
- All About Quilting
- All About Thread For Quilting
- Best Books for Quilting
- Choosing And Preparing Fabric
- Choosing Fabrics for Quilting
- Choosing Quilt Fabric
- Essential Supplies for Quilting
- How to Choose the Right Batting
- How to Use Stencils for Quilting
- How to Use Templates in Quilting
- Making Sense OF Quilt Patterns
- Patchwork Techniques
- Quilting 101
- Sewing Tips For Beginning Quilters
- So You Want To Make A Quilt
- The Best Quilting Pattern For Your Needs
- What Are Quilts?
- Where to Find Free Quilt Patterns
And more!
• You can look at these and more apps in the Android store by clicking here: https://play.google.com/store/search?q=quilt&c=apps
Do you use any sewing or quilting apps for your smart phone? If so, let us know about them in the comments.
Happy sewing,
Chris
