Documentation
Colours
Define your palette ahead of time or add colours whenever you need them.
The colours in your Custom Palette will appear in all palettes wherever you need to colour a unit.
Take care not to pick transparent colours, since you would find it hard to transfer them to real world fabric colours.
Add colours
Find a colour using the colour picker.
If you already know some colour values, you can insert them directly into the field below the colour picker area.
The formats available are rgb, hsl, and hex (just move the arrows up or down).
The colour your cursor is on will automatically transfer the field next to the "Add to Palette" button.
When you are satisfied with your choice, press the "Add to Palette" button, and the colour will appear in the "Custom Palette" selection.
Delete colour
To delete a colour from the Custom Palette, click on the respective square which will make the colour appear next to the "Remove colour" button. Press the button, and the colour is gone.
Please note: in order to remove a colour it needs to be completely out of use first!
Premades (Big Blocks)
To make designing quilt patterns more effective - and way more fun! - we provide a wide selection of "Big Blocks" to choose from. Big Blocks are premade patterned blocks you can use to replace repetitive patterns throughout a design, or to play with in a lot of variations.
Your selection
Preselect the Big Blocks you plan to use. Like colours in your custom palette they will be available whenever you are working with Big Blocks.
Choice of premades
Big Blocks come in different patch sizes: right now you can choose from 2 by 2 through 6 by 6, but there may be up to 9 by 9 in the future.
Most Big Blocks have a 2 colours scheme, though we plan to add 3 colour blocks, too.
Patterns are divided into Full Squares only, Half Square Triangles (HST) only, and Mixed, to make finding blocks more transparent and structured.
Add Big Block
To add a Big Block to the palette, just click on the block you want to pick. The block will then show up in your Big Block palette.
Delete Big Block
To remove a Big Block from the palette, just click on the block you want to delete.
Rows
Add Row
Add a new row by clicking on the "+" button above the line you want the new row to appear. The new row will always be created below the row with the "+" button.
Newly added rows will always contain Full Squares by default.
In this fashion you can create as many rows you need and where you want them.
Note: you cannot add a row when a Big Block is sitting on the row you are adding from and the following row combined. In this case you need to size down the Big Block or remove it entirely.
Delete Row
Delete
Columns
Add Column
Add a new column by clicking on the "+" button on the left of the column you want the new column to appear. The new column will always be created to the right of the column with the "+" button.
Newly added columns will always contain Full Squares by default.
In this fashion you can create as many columns you need and where you want them.
Note: you cannot add a column when a Big Block is sitting on the column you are adding from and the following column combined. In this case you need to size down the Big Block or remove it entirely.
Delete Column
Delete
Colorize
Colorize Squares
Click on the square you want to colorize.
In the dialog popup that appears, the "Full Square" is already highlighted as the default option.
Click on a colour in the Square Palette. The square will take the selected colour.
Colorize HST (Half Square Triangles)
Choose a square and click on it.
In the dialog popup that appears, click the "HST up" or "HST down" option, depending on your choice. The full square will transform to a diagonally divided square, with both a left and a right triangle.
Each triangle has its own palette. Upon clicking on a colour, the pertaining triangle will take the selected colour.
Sashing Columns
Any column can be switched to be a sashing column. Individual squares will then be integrated into the sashing, sharing one collective colour, and without the possibility of being handled individually.
One caveat though: You can't switch to sashing as long as a Big Block is sitting on one of the column's squares.
Click on the "S" on top of the column to call up the dialog box.
When you click the "Switch to Sashing" button, all squares within the column will change from individual squares to members of the sashing column.
Colour the entire column by clicking on a colour in the palette.
You can also resize the width of the sashing column in steps of half units (1 unit is the square width).
Sashing Rows
Like columns, any row can be switched to be a sashing row.
You"ll find the "S" button to the left of the row in question.
As with columns, you also can't switch a row to sashing as long as a Big Block is sitting on one of the row's squares.
Click the "Switch to Sashing" button to change all squares within the row from individual squares to members of a sashing row.
Colour them all by clicking on the selected colour in the palette, and/or resize the height of the sashing row.
Sashing Cross
Squares contained in a sashing row or sashing column can't be handled individually, with one exception: the sashing cross, which is the square where row and column meet.
This special square can be coloured individually, divided into HSTs, or - if width and height are equal - accentuated with a Big Block, which in itself has all styling options available to it, except resizing due to the size constraints the sashings impose.
Big Blocks
A Big Block is just another styling option on the squares dialog box. Click on it and the Big Block dialog box opens.
On top of the dialog box you"ll find your selection of premade blocks.
Click on one and the selected square will change to contain this Big Block.
You can turn the block to the right or to the left which gives you twice or even four times more designing options depending on the pattern of the block. In some cases you could even create a circular pattern just by positioning 4 blocks in 4 directions next to each other.
You can also resize a Big Block to span over as many squares as you wish, as long as they are already available in the underlying structure. The Big Block will always grow to the right and to the bottom of its position.
Each Big Block pattern comes with a defined number of colours (mostly 2), and each colouring option has its own palette. Click on a colour in the respective palettes to colour the block.
Big Block on Sashing Cross
A special styling option for a sashing cross is to cover it with a Big Block, provided that the square's width and height are equal.
Apart from resizing, there are no restrictions. You can choose any Big Block and turn or colorize to your liking.
Borders
With the 'B' (Borders) dialog box you can add and remove borders, size all 4 border parts individually, and of course colorize the border. However, you can"t remove all borders, there will always remain a minimum of 1 border.
To add a new border, click on the '+' symbol of an existing one, the new border will appear inside of it.
Click on the pen symbol to get the pertaining width and colour forms.
A click on the '-' symbol of a specific border will remove it.
Download
Pause your work at any time. Click the "Download" button and save what you have. Your results will be packed in a .json file which upon re-upload will produce the graphic result you left.
Upload
Clicking the "Upload" button will produce a dialog that lets you upload the work (the .json file) you downloaded earlier.
You can easily work on multiple projects in parallel - just download your work and re-upload it to continue.
Preview
Depending on the size of your project, but also on the size of your screen, you might not be able to view the whole work without scrolling. That's where the preview function comes in handy. Clicking the "Preview" button will give you an overlay with a view of your work compressed inside the limits of your screen.
Calculate Fabrics
When you are done designing you want to know how much fabric you'll need. Just hit the "Calculate" button and fill in the form.
Every colour you included in your design is represented here. Choose the fabric width that's closest to what your piece is or what you will presumably be able to buy.
Then select the real life size the "plan squares" will translate into.
And finally select the seam allowance you want to employ. Opt for a bit more width, if you plan to straighten up squares after sewing some pieces together.
Upon hitting "Calculate Fabric Requirements" you will be provided with a list of measurements, along with a visual representation of the number of blocks counted per colour and size. Half Square Triangles are consolidated into Squares, if possible.
Squares of different heights are lined up each in their own row(s). Therefore the fabric requirement will mostly be on the generous side, but the visual representation will still be a good basis to narrow down the requirement, if you need to economize on a specific fabric.
Finally you can download the calculation, of course with the graphics included.