Playing with PhotoScape

Hi, Today I would like to share some news about a neat little program I came across today. It is called PhotoScape and it is a free photo editing software program that you can download. I saw a tutorial about it linked on Saturday’s Show Off Saturday over at Sew Can She. Joy who blogs over at Joy’s Jots,Shots & Whatnots did a tutorial on how to use PhotoScape to test a Quilt block design. Since I do not have Photoshop or an ElectricQuilt software program, I thought this was an interesting concept. I decided to download the program and in just a couple minutes after following Joy’s tutorial I had photos made of what entire quilts would like using the quilt block I designed for the Fabri-Quilt New Block Blog Hop. I wish I would have known about this a couple weeks ago.

My Blue Island Tribal Block

I discovered when playing with the program that it is best if you use a straight overhead view of your photo as if it is angled in anyway it can be hard to crop the photo properly. The tutorial has you crop your design at what should be the 1/4 inch seam so that the pieces mesh together like they should in an actual quilt.

Blue Island Tribal Quilt (30 blocks) approx. 60 by 72 inches

I am really excited to see all the blocks together. It would make a really neat quilt. This is 30- 12 inch blocks that would make an approximate 60 by 72 inch quilt. I have to reassess what I have left of my solid colors to see if I can make this in the near future, or I will certainly be purchasing more solids in the future to make a similar quilt.

My test block for Blue version of Blue Island Tribal

This is my test block of Blue Island Tribal using fabrics from my stash.

Blue-Blue Island Tribal quilt concept

This is what 30 of the blue blocks look like in a quilt. This too makes a striking a quilt. I more than likely have material for this style of quilt in my stash.

Appliqued Hibiscus Flower version of Blue Island Tribal

Here is the last block that I made as a possible verison of my Blue Island Tribal design.

Appliqued Hibiscus-Blue Island Tribal

This is what 30 of the appliqued hibiscus flower blocks looks like in a quilt top. I tried to flip my block photo with the program and you can change the direction of it, but it does not end up looking right. I tried mirroring the block but the seams did not match up in the photos. You may be able to work around that but I do not know yet. This is just my first attempt with the software. I am wondering how this design would look with every other row with the tribal triangles block flipped the opposite direction and ending up with a row of tribal triangles blocks on the right outside row as well???

I have been working on calculating how much fabric is needed to make a decent size quilt throw from my block designs. I am looking to be able to share a pattern in the near future.

Thanks for stopping by my blog. I appreciate all comments. I will be linking up this post with various weekly linky parties that you can find links for on my Linky Party page at the top of this blog.

Update: Also check out my next post for more pattern options.

Hope you are having a great week.

Happy Sewing,

Shelley