5 ways to use a camera as a quilting tool

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In the olden days, photography used to be expensive and time consuming. You would have to buy film, take your pictures and then pay and wait for your photos to be developed. With the advent of smart phones, most people now have a camera in their pocket. Your camera can be a great tool when you are quilting. Today I am going to share five ways to use your phone camera as a quilting tool.

If you have a smartphone, you probably already use it when you are making quilts. There are many apps and different things that it can do. Today I’m gong to talk about five ways you can use your camera and photo app.

Check light / dark balance

When choosing fabric for a quilt, it is important to use both light and dark fabrics. This gives your finished quilt more depth and interest.

But sometimes it is hard to decide what fabrics are dark and what fabrics are light. How do you know how to categorize what you have?

An easy way to do this is to lay out your fabric and take a quick picture. In the photo app, you can change that photo to black and white.

In a black and white image, it is much easier to tell what is dark, what is medium and what is light fabric.

This is especially helpful when you are making a scrappy quilt, so keep your camera close by when sorting scraps.

Double check layout

If you are making a quilt without an exact pattern, it can be difficult to decide on a quilt layout. That is why people use design walls to help them see the big picture.

Once you decide on the layout you want, take a picture of it so that you can remember it. This will be very helpful when you are assembling the quilt.

It is very easy to accidentally rotate pieces during assembly of both blocks and quilts.

Then while you are assembling the quilt, take a quick snap and look at the picture before moving on to the next step. Sometimes things that we miss when looking at the large quilt jump out at us when looking at the picture.

Have you ever assembled a quilt, quilted it and been halfway through the binding when you realized that a piece in your quilt was rotated. Only me? Using a picture as reference will help.

If you want an extra level of checking, post a picture of your completed quilt top on Facebook before starting to quilt it. Someone else will surely see problems even if you miss them.

Remember machine settings

While you are sewing, you might use different settings on your sewing machine.

Move the needle to get an accurate seam allowance? Change the stitch length for either piecing or quilting? Use a decorative stitch?

These are all settings that often get re-set when your machine is shut off.

To help you remember what settings you are using, take a quick picture of your machine. Then the next time you come to sew, you can just duplicate the settings and get right to sewing.

Even on a small project, you will be happy that you did this if the power goes out. It only takes a second but can save you time and frustration in the future.

Preview quilting designs

Once your quilt top is done, you have the big decision about how you are going to quilt it. Here you can use your photo app again.

Most photo apps have a tool that will allow you to draw lines on your image. You can use this to preview quilting designs.

You can even duplicate the image and compare different designs before you decide.

This works with straight line quilting or walking foot quilting. Your drawing doesn’t have to be perfect, but it will give you an idea of how your quilting and piecing will work together.

Document quilts

Most quilters give a lot of their quilts away. That’s very nice, but over time, it can be difficult to remember what you made.

What fabric did you use in that pattern? How were those block laid out?

Taking pictures of your finished quilts is a great way to document your work. You can save them all in a folder so that you have an easy reference collection.

This is nice to look back on and reminisce and helpful if someone else wants inspiration for a project.

More Quilting Tips

See more quilting hacks and quick answers to your questions HERE.