[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":809},["ShallowReactive",2],{"posts-list":3},[4,290,461,624],{"id":5,"title":6,"banner":7,"bannerAlt":8,"body":9,"date":281,"description":273,"draft":282,"extension":283,"meta":284,"navigation":285,"path":286,"seo":287,"stem":288,"__hash__":289},"posts\u002Fposts\u002Ffeature-set.md","Feature Set","\u002Fimages\u002F0518-header.png",null,{"type":10,"value":11,"toc":272},"minimark",[12,17,22,26,30,37,43,49,55,61,67,73,77,83,87,93,99,105,109,113,119,123,129,135,139,145,151,157,159,165,171,175,181,187,193,198,202,208,214,220,225,231,237,242,248,254,260,264,267],[13,14,16],"h2",{"id":15},"bloqloft-feature-set-so-far","BloqLoft Feature Set (so far)",[18,19],"photo-wide",{"alt":20,"caption":21,"src":7},"Behind the Scenes","A patchwork quilt design.",[23,24,25],"p",{},"Here is a list of what BloqLoft will (should) be able to do out-of-the-box, as of this third full week of May, 2026:",[13,27,29],{"id":28},"block-editor","Block Editor",[23,31,32,36],{},[33,34,35],"strong",{},"Cell-by-cell editing in a true grid workspace."," Tap a cell to select it, or use single-finger-single-tap\u002Ftwo-finger-single-tap combination gesture to grab every cell with the same shape and fill in one move. You can then group edit color, shapes, fabrics at-will.",[23,38,39,42],{},[33,40,41],{},"Per-cell rotation."," Rotate any selected cell, or every cell in a multi-selection, to common angles: 0, 90, 180, 270.",[23,44,45,48],{},[33,46,47],{},"Built-in shapes from shape library or make your own custom shapes."," Apply any shape from the built-in library or any custom shape designed in Shape Studio. The shape picker is organized by category, and a batch replace tool swaps every instance of one shape for another across the whole block with fill counts adjusted automatically.",[23,50,51,54],{},[33,52,53],{},"Solid colors and fabric prints on the same surface."," A full hue, saturation, and brightness color picker drives solid fills, and a fabric library browser sorts swatches by perceptual closeness to the active fill so the next pick is one tap away. Pinch the fabric grid to change density from four columns down to one for a closer look.",[23,56,57,60],{},[33,58,59],{},"Fussy cutting."," Open the fussy cut panel on any fabric fill to position the fabric pattern inside the patch shape with offset and scale controls. Move a patch later and the fabric stays aligned to the fussy-cut origin.",[23,62,63,66],{},[33,64,65],{},"Palette tools."," Pick from a library of palettes, duplicate one to start a variant, or delete one entirely. Lock individual color positions so a palette rotation does not shuffle them off. Cycle through every color and fabric in the block in order, respecting the locks.",[23,68,69,72],{},[33,70,71],{},"Colorway strip for live hue exploration."," Slide a hue rotation across all solid fills in the block at once and preview the shift on the canvas. \"Add to My Blocks\" saves the rotated palette as a new variant. The block-level colorway uses Oklab color space, which keeps the perceptual lightness of every color as close as possible to where it started.",[18,74],{"alt":75,"caption":75,"src":76},"Colorway tool in action","\u002Fimages\u002FIMG_0594.png",[23,78,79,82],{},[33,80,81],{},"Collectionway swap."," Pick a fabric collection, slide the hue rotation, and the block’s fabrics are replaced with the closest perceptual match from that collection. Useful for trying a finished block in a different fabric line without rebuilding it.",[18,84],{"alt":85,"caption":85,"src":86},"Collectionway tool using Sitara Fabric Collection","\u002Fimages\u002FIMG_0595.png",[23,88,89,92],{},[33,90,91],{},"Camera and rulers."," Pan, pinch, zoom, and reset the camera the same way the quilt designer works. Toggle a multi-level grid (quarter-inch, inch, and cell boundaries with zoom-adaptive density) and rulers on the top and left edges with tick density that appears at finer measurements as the zoom level grows.",[23,94,95,98],{},[33,96,97],{},"Undo and redo with a deep history."," Every change is undoable, with full snapshots and deltas under the hood so the stack stays responsive even on long sessions.",[23,100,101,104],{},[33,102,103],{},"Output actions out of the box."," From the Actions panel inside the block editor, build a quilt from the block being currently edited, open a materials estimate, open cutting diagrams, generate cut templates as a PDF, generate foundation paper piecing sheets as a PDF, or generate a coloring page. All personally-made block designs can be quickly shared via several formats.",[18,106],{"alt":107,"caption":107,"src":108},"Actions panel in Block Editor","\u002Fimages\u002FIMG_0590.png",[13,110,112],{"id":111},"quilt-editor","Quilt Editor",[23,114,115,118],{},[33,116,117],{},"Three grid systems for whole-quilt layout."," Build quilts on a rectangular grid, on-point (45-degree rotated blocks with setting triangles on the edges), or a patchwork grid that paints primitive patches directly across the canvas without block slots. Each grid type drives sashing, borders, and binding behavior automatically. Bed-size chips (Baby through California King) snap the quilt to standard dimensions with a Fit or Fill toggle, or set rows, columns, and finished block size by hand.",[18,120],{"alt":121,"caption":121,"src":122},"Quilt layout options","\u002Fimages\u002Fquilt-layout-options.png",[23,124,125,128],{},[33,126,127],{},"Sashing with per-cell control."," Toggle sashing on or off, then dial in the strip width from a half-inch to twelve inches. Use a single fill for horizontal strips, vertical strips, and cornerstones, or break sashing into individual segments and fill each one separately. Tap a sashing cell on the canvas and the inspector routes the fill change to exactly that segment.",[23,130,131,134],{},[33,132,133],{},"Stacked borders with edge and corner control."," Add as many border layers as a design calls for, drag and drop to re-order them in the list, and pick a layout style per layer: long horizontal (top and bottom run full width), long vertical (sides run full height), corner blocks (four separate corner squares), or mitered. Run a single fill around all four edges, or split the border into north, south, east, and west segments with independent fabrics. The same split applies to corner blocks when that style is active.",[18,136],{"alt":137,"caption":137,"src":138},"Border Details view in Quilt Editor Panel","\u002Fimages\u002FIMG_0598.png",[23,140,141,144],{},[33,142,143],{},"Block placement and selection."," Drop blocks into grid cells from the pattern library, rotate them at 90 degree intervals, as needed. Tap to select a block, tap more to extend the selection, or use \"select all like\" to grab every block on the quilt that shares the same source pattern. Copy and paste block fills between selections.",[23,146,147,150],{},[33,148,149],{},"Patch-level fill editing."," Double-tap a block to drill in and select individual patches inside it. Change a single patch's fill without disturbing the rest of the block. Changes can be applied across every block that shares the same source pattern with same fills.",[23,152,153,156],{},[33,154,155],{},"Eyedropper sampling."," Tap the eyedropper, then drag loupe over any patch on the canvas to pull its fill straight into the active fill slot. Works across blocks, sashing, borders, and binding, color fills and fabric patterns.",[18,158],{"alt":107,"caption":107,"src":108},[23,160,161,164],{},[33,162,163],{},"Patchwork painting tools."," On the patchwork grid, arm a primitive shape (Square, Half-Square Triangle, Hourglass, Isosceles, Four-Patch, Four-Patch by Four, Nine-Patch, Nine-Patch by Three) and stamp it across the canvas one cell at a time. Rotate the armed primitive in ninety-degree steps by hand, or hand the rotation off to a Sequential, Random, or Position mode that varies it automatically as the brush moves. An eraser toggle clears stamped cells.",[23,166,167,170],{},[33,168,169],{},"Kaleidoscope painting."," While painting patchwork, mirror every stamp into two halves or four quadrants of the quilt with flip flags handled automatically. Paint in the control area, the others will mirror and follow.",[18,172],{"alt":173,"caption":173,"src":174},"Patchwork design from kaleidoscope tool","\u002Fimages\u002F2026-05-09-head.png",[23,176,177,180],{},[33,178,179],{},"Camera that follows the work."," Pan with two fingers, pinch to zoom, double-tap a block to zoom in on it, double-tap empty space to reset to a full-quilt frame. Rulers and grid overlays toggle on and off independently.",[23,182,183,186],{},[33,184,185],{},"Undo and redo across the whole design."," Every block placement, every fill change, every border edit lives in a single undo history with full snapshots taken every ten steps and lightweight deltas in between.",[23,188,189,192],{},[33,190,191],{},"Coloring page and materials estimate."," Generate an outline-only coloring page for the whole quilt as a PDF, print or share it from inside the app. Open the materials estimate to see fabric requirements per block pattern and per border layer, rounded up to the nearest eighth of a yard, with identical fabrics collapsed into a single total.",[18,194],{"alt":195,"caption":196,"src":197},"Coloring page","Coloring page sheet in Block Editor","\u002Fimages\u002Fcoloring-page.png",[13,199,201],{"id":200},"fabric-library","Fabric Library",[23,203,204,207],{},[33,205,206],{},"Seven manufacturer solid lines, preloaded."," Design with the real Kona Cotton, Moda Bella, AGF Pure Solids, Andover Century, RJR Cotton Supreme, Riley Blake Confetti, and Michael Miller Couture colors you would find by the bolt in your favorite local fabric store.",[23,209,210,213],{},[33,211,212],{},"Bring your stash in."," Import single fabrics or batches from Photos or Files, or drop in a ZIP archive of fabric scans to process them all at once. On import, BloqLoft pulls the three or four dominant colors from each image, records the original pixel dimensions for accurate fussy cutting, flags vendor swatches that are not square so they are center-cropped on display, and stores designer, manufacturer, line, SKU, colorway, repeat dimensions, fabric type, and free-form tags.",[23,215,216,219],{},[33,217,218],{},"Browse by hue."," A hue-wheel slider lets a fabric search slide around the color wheel and the grid re-sorts live to whatever is closest in perceptual color distance. The sort prefers the dominant color of each fabric and falls back to the average color when that gives a cleaner identity. Achromatic fabrics sort to their own tier so neutrals and prints do not get mixed up.",[18,221],{"alt":222,"caption":223,"src":224},"Color hue filter fabrics","Colorbar hue filtering fabrics","\u002Fimages\u002FIMG_0572.png",[23,226,227,230],{},[33,228,229],{},"Sort and filter every which way."," Sort by name, date added, date updated, manufacturer, designer, color family, or favorites first, in either direction. Filter by All, Favorites, a specific color, Recent, or any collection. The pinch gesture changes grid density from three columns up to seven so the same library can feel like a stash overview or a detail view.",[23,232,233,236],{},[33,234,235],{},"Fabric Collections."," Group fabrics into named collections that match real-world bundles (fat-quarter sets, designer lines, themed groups). Collections appear as fanned deck cards with a member count and a dynamic cover fabric picked from the most-recently-used member. Tap a deck to open the collection in full grid for search and sort. Rename, recover, or ungroup collections through context menus.",[18,238],{"alt":239,"caption":240,"src":241},"Fabric by collection","Fabric automatically grouped by collection","\u002Fimages\u002Ffabrics-collections.png",[23,243,244,247],{},[33,245,246],{},"Auto-palette on collection import."," When a fabric collection comes in, BloqLoft can generate a starter palette from the dominant colors of its members and drop the new palette straight into the library.",[23,249,250,253],{},[33,251,252],{},"Multi-select and batch metadata."," Switch the grid into multi-select mode to delete fabrics in bulk or open a batch metadata editor that assigns designer, manufacturer, line, repeat dimensions, and tags to every selected fabric in a single pass.",[23,255,256,259],{},[33,257,258],{},"Procedural weave texture on solids."," Solid-color fabrics render with a procedural woven-cloth texture that gives them the same surface feel as printed fabrics on the canvas. The weave scales with zoom and stays consistent across blocks, sashing, borders, and binding.",[13,261,263],{"id":262},"bloqloft-is-solidifying-into-final-version-1","BloqLoft is Solidifying into Final Version 1",[23,265,266],{},"I still have a lot of cleanup to do, still need to get my fabulous Beta Testing Team up and running, and have about 25% more to go to get macOS version on par with the iPad version. We will make it, and it will be fun and cool and awesome.",[18,268],{"alt":269,"caption":270,"src":271},"Then and Now","Then (2022) and now (2026)","\u002Fimages\u002Fbipbip.webp",{"title":273,"searchDepth":274,"depth":274,"links":275},"",2,[276,277,278,279,280],{"id":15,"depth":274,"text":16},{"id":28,"depth":274,"text":29},{"id":111,"depth":274,"text":112},{"id":200,"depth":274,"text":201},{"id":262,"depth":274,"text":263},"2026-05-18",false,"md",{},true,"\u002Fposts\u002Ffeature-set",{"title":6,"description":273},"posts\u002Ffeature-set","vex9FVJIaiZxlG1R1PSPr9926U3djaaDyx3caf9PwFU",{"id":291,"title":292,"banner":293,"bannerAlt":8,"body":294,"date":455,"description":273,"draft":282,"extension":283,"meta":456,"navigation":285,"path":457,"seo":458,"stem":459,"__hash__":460},"posts\u002Fposts\u002Fshow-n-tell.md","A Little Show-n-Tell","\u002Fimages\u002FIMG_0574.png",{"type":10,"value":295,"toc":449},[296,300,303,307,310,313,321,324,328,331,336,339,350,353,357,360,363,376,381,388,393,398,401,405,408,413,417,420,423,428,433,438,442,446],[13,297,299],{"id":298},"some-things-im-proud-of-in-bloqloft","Some Things I'm Proud of in BloqLoft",[23,301,302],{},"From the beginning, there have been core attributes and key features that I wanted to make sure was part of the BloqLoft build. I thought I'd share some of what those are, why they matter to me, and how I hope everyone finds either satisfaction, delight or relief in them.",[13,304,306],{"id":305},"auto-save-all-our-creative-souls","Auto-save (all our creative souls)",[23,308,309],{},"I cannot, for the life of me, understand how we are making any application in this day and age, the Year 2026, without auto-save as a basic, core feature. ",[18,311],{"alt":20,"caption":21,"src":312},"\u002Fimages\u002FIMG_0575.png",[23,314,315,316,320],{},"I am human, or, at least my wife ",[317,318,319],"em",{},"somewhat"," believes me when I say that. I am assuming everyone using BloqLoft will be a human as well. One of the things I have learned as a human is that prevention is so much more enjoyable than repair.",[23,322,323],{},"So when it comes to the creative process, I have (and continue to do so) put into place auto-save captures in such a way that if you forget, if your battery dies, if you suddenly have to drop everything to go do the thing you forgot, if someone else uses your gear and closes the application, if ... if.. if... whatever the case may be, I hope all the fallback hooks I have in place helps anyone get back to where they were with as little pain as possible.",[13,325,327],{"id":326},"make-fabric-shine","Make Fabric Shine",[23,329,330],{},"Fabric, obviously, is more important than life. Its texture, its pattern, its vivid hues (or muted, I can't tell you what to use) are all part of the glory that is quilt design. Without some of the great designers and creatives we have providing us with fabric vision we could never compose ourselves, I would probably be a little bit more sad. ",[18,332],{"alt":333,"caption":334,"src":335},"Quilt Editor with imported fabric","Zoomed in view of imported fabric in quilt editor","\u002Fimages\u002FIMG_0581.png",[23,337,338],{},"But I'm not, and I am making sure that whatever fabric you import into BloqLoft will shine. The texture of it, the print, the colors - every bit of our rendering engine is tuned to make sure fabric appears as glorious as it can in real life. ",[23,340,341,342,345,346,349],{},"Furthermore, to help any new user get off the ground running, BloqLoft will come with hundreds of ",[317,343,344],{},"solids"," color swatches installed from the big names you know and maybe some smaller ones too, for balance. Whatever we land on for our first version, what we ",[317,347,348],{},"have"," done is make sure that all of those colors have at least some sense of texture, so that they look great alongside the custom print collections you decide to import along the way.",[18,351],{"alt":352,"caption":352,"src":293},"Close up showing fabric texture for imported Kona Solids Colors",[13,354,356],{"id":355},"keep-it-super-simple-to-get-going-with-a-quilt-design","Keep it Super Simple to Get Going with a Quilt Design",[23,358,359],{},"Another one of my main goals with BloqLoft was to make it dead simple to get started with a quilt design. I watched far too many YouTube videos, tutorials, read too many multi-multi-step how-to's for different platforms and software packages than I care to remember. And frankly, many of them just left me tired. So I made an effort to make starting out with a quilt design as simple as possible.",[23,361,362],{},"You can have a base quilt design generated for you in as few as three taps. For example:",[364,365,366,370,373],"ol",{},[367,368,369],"li",{},"Block Templates (1 tap), scroll, pick a block pattern (2nd tap), hit the \"Create Quilt with Block\" (3rd tap) - and then you'll be transported to Quilt Editor with a standard quilt with that block populating each block slot, ready to use.",[367,371,372],{},"Block Design Studio (1 tap), long press any block pattern (2nd tap), and a contextual menu pops up (Apple-standard iPad gesture); select \"Create quilt\" (3rd tap)",[367,374,375],{},"Quilt Editor (1 tap), hit plus sign (1 tap), figure out what type of quilt, how big, hit go - blank quilt ready to be painted with blocks (less than 5 taps)",[18,377],{"alt":378,"caption":379,"src":380},"Create quilt from one block pattern","Long press block pattern to get contextual menu, then select \"Create Quilt\"","\u002Fimages\u002FIMG_0576.png",[23,382,383,384,387],{},"Sure, sashing is already turned on, but that's a toggle off if you don't want any, and blocks may or may not be the size you end up working with or wanting to use, but you're ",[317,385,386],{},"there",", with a quilt of some form, ready to go on with the design you have in your head.",[18,389],{"alt":390,"caption":391,"src":392},"Quilt generated from a single block pattern","Result of selecting \"Create Quilt\" - a throw-sized quilt design","\u002Fimages\u002Fgenerated-quilt.png",[394,395,397],"h1",{"id":396},"inform-user-of-common-sizes-make-re-sizing-easy","Inform User of Common Sizes \u002F Make Re-sizing Easy",[23,399,400],{},"Recent addition is a ranged-size pill carousel in the quilt editor panel that updates as the user adds\u002Fsubtacts rows and columns, or resizes the quilt by other means. However the user chooses to resize a quilt, the pill carousel of common sizes will update to reflect the nearest common size the quilt's size currently matches. Neat.",[18,402],{"alt":403,"caption":403,"src":404},"Quilt editor working on a baby quilt","\u002Fimages\u002FIMG_0580.png",[23,406,407],{},"Also, it seemed laborious to have to fill in block slots with blocks already in the quilt design myself, so I added logic to BloqLoft that tries to determine what (if) kind of layout you might have going on in your quilt - checkerboard, rows, columns, diagonal, etc, and then based upon that math, populate your newly formed rows and columns with the appropriate block patterns. This way, you can pretty well see different quilt sizes seamlessly without having to do so much grunt work.",[18,409],{"alt":410,"caption":411,"src":412},"Quilt editor working on a twin-sized quilt","Quilt editor showing twin-sized quilt with auto-filled blocks after resizing from baby quilt","\u002Fimages\u002FIMG_0579.png",[394,414,416],{"id":415},"seeing-is-believing","Seeing is Believing",[23,418,419],{},"Some of us are older, and need things to be bigger to see them better. Some of us are younger and see just fine, and they can go somewhere else for now.",[23,421,422],{},"Being fully aware that the demographics of the active quilting world remains skewed towards our more life-experienced humans, another mechanic I have been adding into different places of the interface is ability to pinch-zoom kinda wherever there are a grid of things, in order to get a better visual on what is there. The Template Library, the Block Design Studio landing page, and even the Block and Quilt Editors are places where users will find that pinching can help them see things better, or, if their eyesight is great, and they would rather rapidly parse through more items at a time, they can un-pinch to zoom out and have even more fun!",[18,424],{"alt":425,"caption":426,"src":427},"Block Template view zoomed out","Block Template \"View all\" view zoomed out","\u002Fimages\u002FIMG_0570.png",[18,429],{"alt":430,"caption":431,"src":432},"Block Design Studio zoomed in","Block Design Studio landing page with view zoomed in","\u002Fimages\u002FIMG_0583.png",[18,434],{"alt":435,"caption":436,"src":437},"Block Editor with fabrics zoomed out","Block Editor with fabrics panel zoomed out","\u002Fimages\u002FIMG_0585.png",[18,439],{"alt":440,"caption":440,"src":441},"Block Editor with fabrics panel zoomed in","\u002Fimages\u002FIMG_0584.png",[394,443,445],{"id":444},"thats-all-for-now","That's all for now",[23,447,448],{},"I hope this helps give some insight into some of the mechanics, priorities, and built-in capabilities that BloqLoft has to offer. As I have built, I have tried to balance what I hear from quilters I know, what I see online in comments and have heard at quilt shows, and what my own vision has been for the product. Oh, and also make it so that Apple stays happy and thinks it's great and puts it on their Editor's Choice list; that'd be nice.",{"title":273,"searchDepth":274,"depth":274,"links":450},[451,452,453,454],{"id":298,"depth":274,"text":299},{"id":305,"depth":274,"text":306},{"id":326,"depth":274,"text":327},{"id":355,"depth":274,"text":356},"2026-05-12",{},"\u002Fposts\u002Fshow-n-tell",{"title":292,"description":273},"posts\u002Fshow-n-tell","0jSY8aeUZRA4z2fwK-Ql6iC2tZl9YO-djI7N1PJGs8s",{"id":462,"title":463,"banner":464,"bannerAlt":465,"body":466,"date":617,"description":273,"draft":282,"extension":283,"meta":618,"navigation":285,"path":619,"seo":620,"stem":622,"__hash__":623},"posts\u002Fposts\u002Fblock-editor-updates.md","Block Editor Updates","\u002Fimages\u002FIMG_0560.png","Block editor with propeller block pattern",{"type":10,"value":467,"toc":609},[468,472,475,479,482,492,498,509,512,516,519,526,530,534,537,540,547,551,554,558,561,564,568,571,575,578,581,585,588,591,595,598,601,604],[18,469],{"alt":463,"caption":470,"src":471},"Block editor with Propeller pattern","\u002Fimages\u002FIMG_0559.png",[23,473,474],{},"Fell in love with (another) fabric collection and have been using it during ux\u002Fui testing, especially in the block editor. What you see above is the ability of the canvas to have any block set on-point, in case you're wanting to get a feel for how a pattern would look in an on-point layout.",[13,476,478],{"id":477},"i-love-ux-when-i-dont-hate-it","I Love UX When I Don't Hate It",[23,480,481],{},"I've been a developer for longer than I care to admit. I started out building plain HTML websites for boutique businesses, and then ended up delving into building content management systems (before Wordpress existed) for clients as well. It was this process that I first strengthened my UX chops in online application development, and I have been learning ever since.",[23,483,484,485,488,489,491],{},"What I love about UX is that when done ",[317,486,487],{},"well",", it is a beautiful thing to behold. What I hate about UX is getting it to the level of being done ",[317,490,487],{},". When the UX stays out of your way during creative processes, you know you have finally gotten it to a good point. That has always been one of my goals with BloqLoft.",[493,494,495],"blockquote",{},[23,496,497],{},"BloqLoft should never impede a user. It should only always inform.",[23,499,500,501,504,505,508],{},"In other words, if you size a block pattern to be very small, making each patch 1\u002F2\" square, BloqLoft won't stop you. It ",[317,502,503],{},"will, however",", put a small alert icon letting you know that you might be in for a more ",[317,506,507],{},"challenging"," time, if you decide to keep the size at that scale.",[18,510],{"alt":463,"caption":511,"src":464},"Block editor with focus on primitives (shapes) for block patches",[13,513,515],{"id":514},"block-editor-is-a-ux-goldmine","Block Editor is a UX Goldmine",[23,517,518],{},"When I first started working on BloqLoft, I immediately gravitated to working on the Block Editor. In my mind, a quilt is, quite often, simply a collection of the same or similar block patterns, repeated in alternating or completely different colorways. The actual block pattern, in many traditional quilts, is the same. Working on the block editor first and making it shine seemed logical.",[23,520,521,522,525],{},"What I did not know is that it would soon become a sort of ",[317,523,524],{},"opus magnum"," of mine.",[18,527],{"alt":463,"caption":528,"src":529},"Crown icon denoting like-kind patches selected","\u002Fimages\u002FIMG_0564.png",[13,531,533],{"id":532},"ux-for-touch","UX for Touch",[23,535,536],{},"The Block Editor started with simple taps for every single thought and action. It sometimes took as many as four taps to change one fill on one patch.",[23,538,539],{},"Now, it has combo gestures, dual-gestures, sequence-recognition, context-recognition, and state awareness.",[23,541,542,543,546],{},"For example, my favorite addition to the gesture repoitoire is an initial single-tap on any currently unselected patch, followed by a two-finger tap somewhere near the patch that was just single-tapped. The result? All patches that have the same shape and fills as the current prime patch aka The Patch Queen - ",[33,544,545],{},"the one with the crown"," - are now selected as well. The user is then free to edit all of them as a group, to rotate, change the shapes, or change fills in that group selection, making wholesale changes simple and easy to implement.",[18,548],{"alt":463,"caption":549,"src":550},"Group rotation of like-kind patches","\u002Fimages\u002FIMG_0534.png",[23,552,553],{},"UX for touch brings certain challenges to the developer (me), but if you can learn to harness it, and work with what we as humans tend to do naturally, it can open up a world of interactive fun.",[13,555,557],{"id":556},"special-options","Special Options",[23,559,560],{},"It was hard figuring out what to do with buttons for things like printing, material estimates, cut diagrams and the like. I finally settled on a slightly generic, but capable title, \"Actions\", and it is serving us well.",[23,562,563],{},"Actions is generic enough that it doesn't pigeonhole me into a specific channel of thought. If I had labelled it \"Export\", or \"Print\", then users would only go there for those exact abilities. Actions, however, leaves room for discovery.",[18,565],{"alt":463,"caption":566,"src":567},"Block pattern with Foundation Paper Piecing option","\u002Fimages\u002FIMG_0563.png",[23,569,570],{},"And so the user can discover that actions can show an exploded view of the pattern so they can realize which patches are which, how they join together, etc. but also actions is where they will know to go when they want to print out cutting templates, or check out how their material use is adding up with a pattern resize, or using more of a particular fabric.",[13,572,574],{"id":573},"details-matter-its-the-little-things","Details Matter (it's the \"little\" things)",[23,576,577],{},"I take pride in thinking of the little things that might help make the experience that much more enjoyable. After all, quilt designing should be fun, or meditative. One example of detail that was implemented is when using the Exploded View option, if the user has fabric fills in the patches, the exploded view will simply take the average color of those fabrics and use them as simple fill colors for the exploded view.",[23,579,580],{},"Leaving the exploded view to render in neutral colors was jarring - especially if transitioning from bright colors in the non-exploded view. Making the exploded views fills at least somewhat match what the fabrics look like in hue and tone helped bring cohesion to the transition process.",[18,582],{"alt":463,"caption":583,"src":584},"Block pattern exploded view, using color averages","\u002Fimages\u002FIMG_0561.png",[23,586,587],{},"Another small ux detail is that in nearly any grid layout view in the application, there is an available pinch\u002Fzoom gesture that users can apply to show grid items smaller or larger than their default sizing.",[23,589,590],{},"Speaking of pinch and zooming, the invisible but always watching canvas has zoom triggers built in so that as a user zooms \"closer in\" to any block pattern, the grid lines denoting subdivisions of inches in measurement either appear or disappear, helping define smaller units of space while they are scaled up in size. Zooming out, causes those same lines to fade away, leaving plenty of room for the larger unit grid lines to have reasonable space between each other.",[13,592,594],{"id":593},"what-remains-to-be-completed","What Remains to Be Completed",[23,596,597],{},"There is still much more testing to be done in the block editor. And what remains to be done are things like interface highlighting adjustments, making sure materails estimates are correct and clear, finessing the layouts of cut templates, and finally, once the module is hooked in and connected, checking foundation paper piecing for logic misses and gaps.",[23,599,600],{},"There will be additional gestures and abilities that will be added, such as resize handlers on patches so users can resize a square into a rectangle, or an HST into an elongated triangles rectangle, and so much more.",[23,602,603],{},"However, what is clear is that the Block Editor is effectively MVP ready, and so therefore is ready for the Beta team to take over and run it through its paces.",[18,605],{"alt":606,"caption":607,"src":608},"Cut templates sheet in block editor","Cut templates (mis-titled) sheet ready to print or share from Block Editor","\u002Fimages\u002FIMG_0562.png",{"title":273,"searchDepth":274,"depth":274,"links":610},[611,612,613,614,615,616],{"id":477,"depth":274,"text":478},{"id":514,"depth":274,"text":515},{"id":532,"depth":274,"text":533},{"id":556,"depth":274,"text":557},{"id":573,"depth":274,"text":574},{"id":593,"depth":274,"text":594},"2026-05-10",{},"\u002Fposts\u002Fblock-editor-updates",{"title":463,"description":621},"Some new things, some old things, in block editor.","posts\u002Fblock-editor-updates","A8bL3H2Ijel6j3X0R5OBOcU7PH8PDPOMQmCAEDTjwTw",{"id":625,"title":626,"banner":174,"bannerAlt":8,"body":627,"date":803,"description":273,"draft":282,"extension":283,"meta":804,"navigation":285,"path":805,"seo":806,"stem":807,"__hash__":808},"posts\u002Fposts\u002Fwelcome.md","Welcome",{"type":10,"value":628,"toc":796},[629,633,635,642,649,653,664,667,672,679,682,685,688,697,700,703,708,711,716,719,724,731,746,751,762,765,772,775,783,787,794],[13,630,632],{"id":631},"behind-the-scenes-with-bloqloft","Behind the Scenes with BloqLoft",[18,634],{"alt":20,"caption":21,"src":174},[23,636,637,638,641],{},"My first post, so welcome! It's been a couple ",[317,639,640],{},"decades"," since I have written anything online in any capacity. So forgive any of my wandering, trailing thoughts that feel more like rabbit trails into oblivion than concrete paths of intentional direction.",[23,643,644,645,648],{},"For this first post, and introduction to me, let me ",[317,646,647],{},"briefly"," tell how any of this came to pass and what really started it all.",[13,650,652],{"id":651},"why-bloqloft","Why BloqLoft?",[23,654,655,656,659,660,663],{},"I wander the internet, ",[317,657,658],{},"a lot",". I owned my own domain name in 1997, and I was building websites for people by 1998. Fast forward to 2018, and I wandered across this video of a lovely person showing how to design your own quilt with ",[317,661,662],{},"graph paper and map colors",". In 2018.",[23,665,666],{},"I was flabbergasted.",[18,668],{"alt":669,"caption":670,"src":671},"A four-patch quilt block","Graph paper and color markers. And math.","\u002Fimages\u002Fgraph-paper.png",[23,673,674,675,678],{},"I was like, this is crazy! We have ipads! We have tablets! We have so many cool things that could be so much better than this labor-intensive approach! There ",[317,676,677],{},"has"," to be some sort of software out there for this!",[23,680,681],{},"So I called my sis and she was like, \"well yeah, there is. It's called EQ7 (at the time EQ8 had barely been out), and it's expensive.\"",[23,683,684],{},"I'm like, \"there has to be something for ipad, surely.\"",[23,686,687],{},"Very Dear Sister: \"Nope. [pause] YOU SHOULD BUILD ONE.\" ",[23,689,690,691],{},"*To be fair, I believe Quiltology existed (exists?), but I had a much different vision, and my sister was like, need something *",[317,692,693,696],{},[33,694,695],{},"not like"," this.",[23,698,699],{},"I liked the idea of building something that didn't really exist in the form my sister wanted, and most certainly did not fit the vision I had in my head of what the shape of it could be, and how it could be brought to life.",[23,701,702],{},"So the mission was clear:",[23,704,705],{},[33,706,707],{},"Create an app for the ipad that was fun, intuitive, and made quilt design easy.",[23,709,710],{},"And, just as important:",[23,712,713],{},[33,714,715],{},"Millennials and the next generation(s) of quilters needed to be able to afford it without breaking their piggy banks.",[23,717,718],{},"Thus I began my journey of all things quilt app designing, and let me tell you what: I had no idea how big of a mountain I had chosen to start climbing!",[18,720],{"alt":721,"caption":722,"src":723},"Notebook notes from the beginning","OG notebook and graph, figuring out primitives as foundational blocks","\u002Fimages\u002FIMG_1604.webp",[13,725,727,728],{"id":726},"apple-ipad-and-swiftswiftui-oh-my","Apple, iPad, and Swift\u002FSwiftUI, ",[317,729,730],{},"oh my",[23,732,733,734,737,738,741,742,745],{},"This application was ",[317,735,736],{},"never"," going to be built before 2020, let alone before 2024. When my sister and I had that conversation in 2018, Apple's new language, Swift, was still very ",[317,739,740],{},"not"," production ready, fragile at best, and it was constantly in flux. It wouldn't be for another year or so that things were stable enough that companies trusted it to build with and ship products based in Swift and SwiftUI. It would be another two or three years before anyone could use ",[317,743,744],{},"just"," the Swift and SwiftUI framework (and SwiftData, et al), to build their applications and ship production-level material.",[18,747],{"alt":748,"caption":749,"src":750},"Xcode code at work","Much code. Such pain. More learn.","\u002Fimages\u002Fxcode-code.png",[23,752,753,754,757,758,761],{},"What I am able to do today with Apple's flagship language wasn't even ",[317,755,756],{},"completely"," possible even two or three years ago. I would have had to learn C++ and integrate an archaic framework into the more modern side of the application and that situation would ",[317,759,760],{},"always"," be a weak link in the entire build.",[23,763,764],{},"The amount of time it has been since the idea first seeded itself in my head to when it was mechanically, programmatically, and physically feasible has been years. But through those years I have kept researching, kept learning, kept taking notes, kept the idea alive.",[23,766,767,768,771],{},"And I have literally ",[317,769,770],{},"just waited"," for Apple to finish transposing older pieces of UIKit and other frameworks into Swift and SwiftUI so I could finally use them, and make a better, stronger product.",[23,773,774],{},"So to sum up:",[364,776,777,780],{},[367,778,779],{},"I'm never learning C++. No thank you.",[367,781,782],{},"I'm building now just fine. Fall of 2025 saw everything start to come together and for the first time in years, I was making headway again.",[13,784,786],{"id":785},"more-more-more","More, more, more",[23,788,789,790,793],{},"There's a lot more to do: QA to finish, Beta testing to finish, so many things to button up, polish, re-tool, and test, test, ",[317,791,792],{},"test"," again. But we’re gonna get there, SOON, and it's going to be awesome.",[18,795],{"alt":269,"caption":270,"src":271},{"title":273,"searchDepth":274,"depth":274,"links":797},[798,799,800,802],{"id":631,"depth":274,"text":632},{"id":651,"depth":274,"text":652},{"id":726,"depth":274,"text":801},"Apple, iPad, and Swift\u002FSwiftUI, oh my",{"id":785,"depth":274,"text":786},"2026-05-09",{},"\u002Fposts\u002Fwelcome",{"title":626,"description":273},"posts\u002Fwelcome","-af8H5iwYS23mY78oxU9vzqB0bvGmxn3qOMOwDs8-iE",1779439457812]