Tech Post

Long before I started quilting I did computer Tech Support for a large financial software company.   At that point if you had told me that 10 years later I would be a longarm quilter I would have laughed.  I still love the technical world, but my small world has changed dramatically since then.  

So not surprisingly I am loving being able to blend my too worlds.  I still love all things computer.   My life is buzzing with a plethora of electronics.  And before you ask, no, I have not ordered a computer system for my longarm.  I may someday, but I am still in love with freemotion quilting.  For now, there will be no computer added to my beloved APQS Millennium.  

I started thinking about how I use technology in my business.  When I started I was fine with my laptop.  Then it crashed and I decided that maybe I should put my financial software on my desktop.  I got a new laptop and I did use it daily, mostly for websurfing and blog posting.  When Matt gave me my iPad that changed, I really only use my laptop for blogging, because it is painful to do on my iPad.  My iPad has changed the way that I quilt.  I now do my design work on my iPad.  I have a couple apps that I love to work with.  One is Adobe Ideas.  I can take a picture of the quilt top with the camera  bring it into Adobe Ideas and draw on the picture.  This has truly changed my creative process.  I also like Evernote and Skitch.  I have been working on drawing all of my fills in Skitch and importing them into Evernote.

This way I can show my customers a sample of what I am thinking about using on their quilts, on the go.  Evernote has become my digital sketch pad.  

Plus I can email out of any of those programs so if I am working with a customer that is not local we can send ideas back and forth.  This came in really handy for a recent quilt that was shipped to me.  The customer emailed a photo of the quilt.  I was able to do the design work before the top even got to my studio.

Another plus with Evernote is that I can log onto it from my PC and smartphone so I can get to those pictures from anywhere I am.