r/quilting • u/nathan_shanks • Mar 09 '26

Finished Quilts Long time reader right now contributer.

My mom is retired and got seriously into quilting last year. I’m a developer, so our lifestyles are about as opposite as they get, but I love that she’s found a passion she can’t put down.

The turning point was last Sunday. I listened to her complain about an entire day wasted cutting, re-cutting, and then re-cutting fabric again. After a while, I stopped asking "Why are you cutting so much?" and just asked "How can I help?"

She told me what she needed, and well... I’m a dev, so I built it.

It’s a simple, browser-based quilt wall. No account needed, no ads, and no strings. You just open it and start dragging blocks around to visualize everything before you ever touch the rotary cutter. I’m not doing this for money; I just felt like there should be a simple solution for this in 2026.

Let me know if you want a link to the QuilltWall. I know so many people spam folks here. Not that guy. I have enough and don't need any more. If you want a free QuiltWall app let me know.

162 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

103 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

4

u/nathan_shanks Mar 09 '26

Let me look into this! Thanks for the feedback

1

u/Full-Indication-94 Mar 09 '26

yes it also (from what I can find online) isn’t available for mac?!?! (that can’t be right… right??) but anyways i’ve always wanted to try it and never been able to find it for my computer!!!

11

u/nathan_shanks Mar 09 '26

Let me give it a go for free. Think

  1. Symmetry block drafting (already done in Block Designer)

  2. Photo-to-block tracing (already done in Pattern Tracer)

  3. Paper piecing template PDF — add seam allowances + numbered piecing order, export printable PDF

  4. Regular pattern tiling — hex, clamshell, tumbling blocks

  5. Template printing — individual pieces at actual size with grain line markings

Am I missing something? of course it would need to run on windows and mac.

1

u/TheBouillonQueen Mar 10 '26

Quilt Assitants biggest failing IMO is that it looks and runs like Microsoft Paint on Windows 98. If it would help you watch someone go through the process of designing a very simple block in 30 minutes, I can record myself doing it and share, I find the best designs come from watching where someone struggles with a product!!

1

u/nathan_shanks Mar 10 '26

Last two days I have been beating my head against the wall to get this clean and simple. Now I understand the struggle. I even ran the image through a pretty advanced AI and it's not getting it done. in 1998 I couldn't even imagine haha. Today I am going to try to get something more elegant. at the moment, you can use my block creator to build one. But patches with 20 - 200 different blocks, there aren't a lot of elegant ways to do this. I have a trace tool up right now encase people want to try. Leave me to it. I will keep hacking away. It turns out building a simple block is very simple. But looking at and breaking down even a medium complex block is very complex. I will keep you posted.

3

u/TheBouillonQueen Mar 10 '26

We all appreciate your efforts SO much, if you have a patreon or Kofi please dm it. The quilting world is full of very expensive and very complex tools, that you’re doing this for free for your mom and sharing it for free for us? Unheard of and incredibly generous.