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Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Computers and Quilting

What do you do with your computer? 
  • Do you blog?
  • Just read blogs? 
  • Buy fabric? 
  • Look for patterns? 
  • Look for helpful tutorials? 
  • Use QuiltPro or Electric Quilt to design your own quilts? 
  • Upload your digital photographs (quilt or other)? 
  • Track your stash?
  • Track your UFOs, PIGS, WIPs, etc
  • What else?
  • All of the above?
I'd get more quilting done if I'd stay off the computer.  Well, I tell myself that, I'm not sure it's completely true.  I'm usually on the computer when I'm too tired to sew, like in the evenings after work.   Me and a rotary cutter after a day of budget meetings would be a rather dangerous mix.  When I'm tired, it's hard to design. anything either.  There are only so many blogs you can read. Returning emails or acknowledging comments might not be safe either (for some reason my grasp of the English language becomes somewhat tenuous under those conditions).  I really don't need any fabric, patterns, etc. 

So what else is there?  I construct pretty graphs in Excel (I could do a really nice presentation on my stash utilization, UFO completions, WIPs, etc).  I've also discovered Microsoft Publisher.  I have a publication on my completed quilts, and another on my UFOs, which have tables of contents and graphs (I just can't leave them in Excel).   I have publications for quilts I'm planning, with pictures of the fabric swatches, alternate quilt designs I'm playing with, cutting instructions, piecing instructions etc.  Well, I do find the quilt plans useful, since I have a few projects I've been playing with for a few years and haven't yet gotten to where I want with them.   I recently built a publication where I mapped out the complete history of my quilt projects.  I kinda like the map, it's a one page summary of my progress over the years.  But it's not something that I really need.



Does anyone else play with pretty graphics and construct documents that no one else will ever see?  Do you do something unique on the computer that helps you with your creative juices or helps you manage your quilting life?  Or is it just one more thing that pulls you away from quilting? 
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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousSeptember 19, 2010 at 5:51 PM

    This post speaks to me completely.

    I tend to seek out things to do with the computer and with quilting. Have explored pixlr, picnik, a flow diagram program, word program. I recently discovered inkscape as a free vector graphics program and I can see creating quilting designs all over the place.

    I have used a few fractal programs to create quilts to make, used photoshop extensively, and electric quilt 7 less extensively.

    There are times when the computer is the inspiration, the blogs, the direction, the tutorials, the catalyst.

    And there are times when the computer is the absolute distraction, the evil time sucker. Many days after work I feel the same way you describe above and fall into the e-mail/facebook trap.

    I have thought about using excel for stash, quilt project organization but haven't yet. Or thought about using power point (don't have publisher or that would be on the list as well). I did try to organize pictures of where I bought fabrics by taking digital pictures of my fabrics when i purchased them, uploaded them to the computer and put them into powerpoint. That lasted a whole month, however.

    Another benefit to the computer - keeping track of quilt shows, events with google calendar.

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