Using Quarter Inch · Starting a quilt
Make a sampler quilt with blocks of different sizes
Blocks at different sizes, placed where you want them to the ⅛″, with the background worked out into pieces you can cut and sew.
The short answer
Place blocks of different sizes where you want them, and the background is worked out into pieces you can cut and sew. Choose New quilt, More ways to start, Custom layout, give the finished size, then add each block with its size and its distance from the top left corner. Apply arrangement saves it.
A custom layout is a sampler without a grid: whole blocks at different sizes, placed where you want them by measurement. Quarter Inch pieces the background around them into real rectangles, works out the seams that join it all, and gives you cutting and sewing instructions for every piece.
Start a custom layout
Choose New quilt, then Guided. Under the bed sizes, open More ways to start and choose Custom layout.
Type a Quilt name, the Finished width (inches) and Finished height (inches), and choose the Starting fabrics.
Choose Start my custom quilt. It opens empty, ready for blocks.
Sizes are in inches and eighths: type 36, 36.125, 36 1/8 or 36⅛. Measurements are never rounded.
Place a block
Under Add a complete block, choose a Library block.
Type its Finished block size, inches (from 2″ to 24″), and where its top left corner goes: X from left, inches and Y from top, inches, measured from the finished quilt’s top left corner.
Choose Place block in preview. The block appears on the quilt, with the background drawn around it.
When the preview looks right, choose Apply arrangement. It’s saved as one change, so one Undo takes it back. Discard preview leaves the quilt as it was.
Move, turn and color a block
Select a block by tapping it on the quilt, or in the list under Placed blocks. Then:
- Move it with the arrows, by the step chosen under Move by (⅛″, ¼″, ½″ or 1″). On the quilt, the arrow keys move it ⅛″, and 1″ with Shift.
- Put it exactly with Selected X from left, inches, Selected Y from top, inches and Selected finished size, inches, then Preview placement.
- Turn or flip it with Turn 90° clockwise or Mirror left to right.
- Color one of its patches: choose it under Patch to recolour, a fabric under Use selected fabric, then Paint this patch in preview.
- Take it out with Remove selected block.
Every move stays in the preview until you apply it. Under Board and background you can change the quilt’s finished size (Preview board size) and the Background fabric.
What a custom layout can hold
- Whole, square library blocks, from 2″ to 24″, up to 64 of them.
- Blocks can’t overlap, and can’t run off the edge of the quilt.
- The quilt must come apart in straight seams, section by section. An arrangement that would need a set-in (Y) seam to sew is refused, and the preview says where. Move a block a little, or line its edge up with its neighbor’s.
If you’d rather set blocks in rows, use a layout instead: The layouts, one by one. For why set-in seams are harder, see How to sew Y-seams.
Cutting and sewing it
On the Cutting page, a Custom layout placement table gives every block and background piece its position and size, measured from the finished quilt’s top left corner. B labels are the blocks, P labels the background pieces; follow the numbered joins to sew it together.
On an iPad or a phone
A custom layout is one of your 3 quilts on the Free plan. Its cutting chart, placement table and printing need Quilter.
If it doesn’t look right
- “Its position has not changed.” The move would put part of the block outside the quilt, or make it impossible to piece. Try a smaller step.
- Apply arrangement is grayed out. The preview has a problem to fix first, or the quilt is still saving.
- A measurement isn’t taken. Use eighths of an inch: 6.125, 6 1/8 or 6⅛.
Checked against the app on
Questions
Short answers.
Something else? A real person replies.
hello@quarterinch.app
Can I use blocks of different sizes in one quilt?
Yes. A custom layout takes whole library blocks from 2″ to 24″, placed by measurement.
How is the background cut?
Quarter Inch pieces it into rectangles around the blocks, and the Cutting page lists each piece with its size and where it goes.
Why won’t a block go where I put it?
It would overlap another block, run off the edge, or need a set-in seam to sew. Move it a little, or line its edge up with its neighbor’s.