Technology Toys for a Renaissance Girl: iPad Apps for Virtual Quilting, Music, and Design Inspiration

Beth asked a great question about yesterday's post, wondering which app I use on my iPad to doodle quilting designs like this one:

Auditioning Quilting Possibilities on my iPad Mini 4

I realized that it's been awhile since I've posted about my favorite design tech toys, so today I'm going to give an overview of the iPad apps I'm using most frequently for my right brain creative endeavors.

Apple 7.9" iPad Mini 4,9.7" Regular iPad, and 12.9" iPad Pro 

Currently I'm using an iPad Mini 4, the one on the left in the photo above, which is small enough to carry in my handbag every day but really not ideal for design or for music performance.  I have ordered a 12" iPad Pro that will be delivered on Monday (finally!).  Keep in mind that all of these screen sizes indicate a diagonal measurement of the screen, the way TV sizes are advertised.  The 12.9" Pro model has a screen size that is approximately equivalent to an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of paper, yet it only weighs one and a half pounds.  That's much less than my 3-ring binders full of music for Christmas caroling or choral performances, and WAY less than the laptop computer that I currently lug around for client presentations.  The iPad Pro is designed to be more of a hybrid between a laptop computer and a tablet, and I'm looking forward to using it for both presenting to clients and for sketching designs on the fly.  I bought a new cover for it from my favorite luxury tech cover manufacturer, Piel Frama, and I chose black lizard-embossed calfskin because it's elegant and professional enough for my interior design meetings, yet from a distance it will resemble a regular black music folder:

Piel Frama 12.9" Frama Slim iPad Pro Case

As much as I might personally prefer crocodile-embossed red leather, my choral directors tend to favor a uniform look...  :-)

Apple Pencil Stylus

In conjunction with the Apple Pencil, which draws much more smoothly and "pen-like" than any other stylus I've tried, I'm looking forward to getting even more use out of my new iPad Pro for both interior design and quilting design.  When using an Apple Pencil, I'll be able to rest my hand on the iPad screen without my hand creating stray marks, and in my music app the use of an Apple Pencil will enable me to bring up the annotations menu immediately when the stylus touches the screen, so I can scribble notes in music scores quickly during rehearsals.  However, if you're only interested in the apps I'm using for quilting, know that they work just fine on all three iPad sizes, but the new Apple Pencil stylus is only compatible with the iPad Pro.  With the regular or the Mini, you would just need to use a different stylus.

So, which apps have me so jazzed up about the iPad to make me buy a newer, bigger model?  The app I use most frequently on my current iPad, besides email and web browsing, is Pinterest for design inspiration and for communicating with clients.  You can see all of my public Pinterest boards here.  I currently have over 12,00 images pinned to over 125 different boards.  I have boards for things like FMQ inspiration, Applique Blocks, or Dresden Plate quilts, so I can quickly find those images that caught my fancy months ago when I'm brainstorming for ideas on a specific type of quilt: 

Some of My Pinterest Quilting Boards

I've also got separate boards for Kitchens, Draperies, Decorative Tile, Lighting, and things like that for keeping track of all of the inspirational interior design eye candy out there on the web:

Some of My Interior Design Pinterest Boards

These boards can be very handy when I'm meeting with a design client and I want to show them different possibilities and get their feedback.  I can learn a new client's tastes and preferences a lot faster when they are reacting to visuals than just having them try to describe their style verbally.  When it comes to design, a picture truly is worth a thousand words! 

My next favorite design apps are the ones I use for sketches and doodling.  When I want to just practice doodling quilting motifs for developing muscle memory, I tend to prefer the Paper 53 app because I get reasonably decent, fluid lines even with a cheapo stylus or when drawing with my finger:

Quilt Doodling in Paper app by 53

But the app I used for trying out quilting designs on a photo of a completed quilt top is the Drawing Pad app by Murtha Design, a coloring app that I originally downloaded so my kids could play with it when they were younger. 

Drawing Pad app for iPad

This app includes an assortment of virtual mediums for coloring including pencils, crayons, charcoals, paints, markers, and stamps.  But the key feature for my quilting purposes is that you can easily import photos and use them as the background "paper" in the Drawing Pad app.  So I can take a photo of the quilt top on my design wall with the iPad itself, and then select it as my paper from my camera roll, and sketch out possible quilt designs right on top of the photo.  If I like it I can save it, and if not, I can quickly toss my scribbles and start again on a clean photo.  This is the app I used to doodle quilting ideas for my math quilt during last Sunday's sermon, using the quilt top photo as my "paper" background and a thin marker or crayon line to sketch out a quilting plan:

Quilt Design Sketched in Drawing Pad app with Quilt Top Photo Imported as "Paper"

I'm also using my iPad mini a great deal for reading, but now that I'm in my forties I'm finding that reading glasses are becoming more and more necessary for reading extensively without my eyes getting tired.  Yes, I can increase the font size on my iPad, but I'm looking forward to the larger screen for reading with or without my glasses anyway.  I use the free Kindle app to read digital editions of books on my iPad, and I am also a digital subscriber to The New York Times and I read the newspaper on my iPad using their app as well.

I've saved the best (for me, personally) for last.  The ForScore music app is pricey as far as apps go, at $9.99, but for musicians this app is the greatest thing since the Rolodex was replaced by the Contacts in your phone and your Day Planner was replaced by your Calendar app.  Seriously! 

Screen Shot of Bach St. John's Passion in ForScore app with Keyboard Active

A number of singers in the upcoming VOX St. John's Passion performances have been using the ForScore app on their iPads or Android tablets throughout rehearsals, and after watching them out of the corner of my eye for a couple of rehearsals I decided to give the app a try on my iPad mini.  Oh, how do I love thee?!!!

The entire score of Bach's St. John's Passion was provided to us as a PDF.  My church choir director has started using an online app where all of the music for both traditional and contemporary choirs are posted as PDFs that I can download, including the hymns.  The music for the Christmas caroling group I sing with is also available as PDFs that group members download, print, and lug around in a black 3-ring binder.  So now ALL of that music can live in the ForScore app on my iPad, with tags and labels so I can quickly find music I need for a specific group.  And I can create set lists for rehearsals, performances, and worship services that allows me to page continuously through all of the music in order on my iPad rather than fumbling around with a bunch of different books, octavos, and hymnals.

I can annotate my music to my heart's content, highlighting and using bold red and blue "ink" rather than the pencil I have to use on paper music, since I can easily erase any and all markings completely on the iPad app if needed.  I can white out cut sections of music in this app, delete entire cut pages, and duplicate pages so that those dreadful D.S. al Coda repeats don't send me flipping back and forth all over the place -- I can just page through continuously without having to go back and forth.  The app includes a pitch pipe, which will be fabulous for a cappella carol singing, a metronome, and best of all -- I can pull up a keyboard to play tricky intervals when I'm learning music, no matter where I am.  I used to have to work those sections out in front of my piano, but now I can work on learning music while I'm waiting in the carpool line, or during rehearsal without having to ask the director to play our part for us.  This is SO AWESOME!

The only drawback is that the screen size on the iPad mini is really too small for reading music notes or words accurately while singing, especially the German for the Bach movements that are sung at a fast tempo.  The regular 9.7" iPad would probably be acceptable, but the 12" iPad Pro screen is going to be AWESOME.  Cannot wait to try that out once the new tech toy arrives on Monday!

Meanwhile, there's some sewing to get done this weekend.  I have nothing to wear for the Bach concert next weekend but I have some fabric that I ordered from Emma One Sock, a fabulous Burda pattern, and a patient and talented seamstress for a mother who is willing to collaborate with me to ensure that the dress gets done in a timely fashion and I don't have to sing naked next weekend!  Stay tuned; if I have time I'll be blogging about the dress but it might not be until AFTER the concert has come and gone.

Happy weekend and happy Spring, everyone!

Jingle BOM Quilt Pieced Block No. 1 and School Musical Wrap-Up

"Jingle" BOM Quilt Pieced Block #1 Completed!

I managed to finish my Jingle BOM Pieced Block No. 1 today after the kids' play wrapped up.  Since I'm catching up on this BOM (Block of the Month), I'm doing the blocks out of order and have already completed Pieced Block No. 2.  After this, I have the first two appliqued blocks to do and a big, scary, appliqued center medallion for the quilt, and then I'll be caught up.  The pattern was designed by Erin Russek of One Piece at a Time, and you can visit her blog here to catch up if you'd like to join in.

I've never done one of these BOM things before, but I'm finding that there are some advantages to working this way.  For instance, usually when I start a quilt, I pick out all of my fabrics and cut out every single piece before I start sewing anything together.  This way, doing only one block at a time, I find that I'm not rushing as much because I don't have an intimidating stack of little squares and triangles waiting to be pieced together.  I am doing a lot more frog stitching (Rip it!  Rip it!), taking seams out and redoing them until they are perfect before moving on to the next unit.  I can't stand when my crisp little triangle points get eaten in the seam, and I want those seam intersections to match up perfectly. 

Well, this year's school musical officially wrapped up after the final matinee performance this afternoon.  Dads disassembled the sets while moms sorted out costumes, and now the Willy Wonka Jr. production is just a memory.  I thought I would be relieved, since the late night rehearsals (and even later nights fighting with small actors who think theatre should exempt them from other schoolwork) have been running me pretty ragged.  Naturally I'm glad the let's-make-lederhosen experience is behind me (what was I thinking?!).  I volunteered as a "child-wrangler" for two of the four performances, which entailed patrolling backstage and shushing actors who were not currently on stage.  It turns out that I am a terrible child-wrangler -- since the kids were all quiet, I sat down in the hallway where I could intimidate them with my presence (hopefully) and control them with an occasional scowl or shush.  I took out my iPad and stylus, opened the Paper by 53 drawing app, and started practicing quilting designs:
 

Before long, I had a flock of kids huddled around watching me draw, which I thought was great, because they were quiet, right?  Except that some of them were so interested in my doodles that they missed their cues and did not appear on stage when they were supposed to.  Oops.  Don't tell the director -- I don't want to be the first parent volunteer ever to be fired!

I don't think the kids were as interested in my drawings as they were in the app I was using to draw them. 

In any case, the show is done, the lederhosen is done, and the two pieced blocks for the Jingle quilt are behind me now.  That makes next week a fresh page, perfect for starting something new -- like needle-turn applique!  I may sneak in a little free-motion quilting on Monday, now, too.  After all of that doodling, I feel like quilting some feathers!

Enjoy what's left of your weekend!