PiXeL QuiLT 2000

guide, tips & ideas

guide.txt

How it works

Draw a doodle or upload a picture, and the grid on the right turns it into a pieced quilt pattern: a fabric list, cutting sizes, yardage, and a row-by-row piecing guide.

  1. Pick Draw or Upload in the input window.
  2. Set how many blocks across/down you want, how many fabrics (colors) to use, and your finished block size.
  3. The pattern updates as you go — or hit Make my quilt to force a refresh.
  4. Switch to Pattern chart for a numbered, symbol-keyed chart you can print or follow while piecing.

Drawing tools

Pencil
Freehand drawing. Keep your lines at least as thick as one grid square, or they can get lost during conversion.
Block
Fills one whole grid square per click — the most reliable way to get crisp, gap-free results. Drag to fill a run of squares; right-click to erase a square.
Eraser
Freehand erasing, same as the pencil but paints with the background color.
Line
Hold Shift while dragging to snap the line to 45°.
Rectangle
Hold Shift while dragging to constrain it to a square.
Ellipse
Hold Shift while dragging to constrain it to a circle.
Paint bucket
Flood-fills a connected area with the current color.
Eyedropper
Picks up a color already on the canvas.
Undo
Steps back one stroke at a time — also works with Ctrl/Cmd+Z.
tips.txt

Tips for a clean pattern

Use the Block tool. It fills exact grid squares with no anti-aliasing, so what you draw is exactly what converts — no surprise gaps or blurred edges.
Keep it bold and high-contrast. Simple shapes with a handful of solid colors convert far more cleanly than soft gradients or busy detail.
Watch your fabric count. Fewer Max fabrics means fewer colors to cut and piece — start around 4–8 and raise it only if your design needs it.
Tune the line threshold. When drawing, a lower threshold keeps thin outlines from disappearing; a higher one smooths out stray pixels for cleaner edges.
Start with a smaller grid. A 16×16 or 24×24 block grid is much faster to piece than a 45×45 one — size up only once you like the shape.
Photos work best simplified. For uploads, images with bold shapes and few colors (logos, silhouettes, clip art) convert better than detailed photos. Try Crisp (graphics) sampling for flat art and Smooth (photos) for photographs.
ideas.txt

Project ideas

Not sure what to make? Here are a few starting points.

Sampler

Split your grid into sections — a simple 2×2, a 3×3, or a looser scatter — and draw a different small motif in each one. It's a forgiving way to fill a bigger quilt without committing to a single design, and a great way to work through a mixed scrap stash.

Spell it out

A block doesn't have to stand alone: piece one letter, number, or small motif per block and set several side by side to spell a word or build a larger repeating pattern. Set Blocks across/down to 12 with a 1″ Finished block size and you'll get a tidy 12″ quilt block — or scale the grid down for something you can piece in an afternoon, or up for extra detail.

A scrappy pieced alphabet sampler quilt, with each letter made from small fabric squares
Borrow a cross-stitch chart

Charted cross-stitch and filet-crochet patterns are already gridded, high-contrast designs, which makes them translate beautifully into pixel quilt blocks — monogram alphabets especially, for a quick, personalized gift.

A charted cross-stitch monogram letter A on graph paper A charted cross-stitch monogram letter P on graph paper