n
ot long after seeing the pixelated portrait quilt trend
explode on social media and at quilt shows, I decided
on a lark to try my hand at designing my own quilt. With
a professional headshot as my starting image, I used the
pixelating service at youpatch.com and, within 15 minutes,
came away with a design. But that is not all: YouPatch created
a personalized pattern, yardage requirements, cutting chart,
and detailed instructions for my quilt, all emailed to me as a
PDF. I was hooked.As an art quilter, I can see so many possibilities with this
software that extend far beyond portraits. Impressionistic
landscapes, city scenes, and fabric substitutions are just some
of the options I am considering for my next quilts. But the
most straightforward use will likely be portraits. I asked Andi
Herman, who along with her husband Dan Prager created
YouPatch, to give me a few pointers about designing a quilt
for pixilation.with Vivika Hansen DeNegre
Technology Meets Art
Make your own pixelated quilt
artist
Q &A
Vivika: What kind of images work
well for a pixelated quilt? Are there
certain images you’d avoid?
Andi: The best images have a
single primary subject, are cropped
closely, and have a very simple
background. Having said that,
some of our customers have broken
these rules with fabulous results.
Faces usually work well—human
or otherwise—but images with fi ne
lines such as the Eiffel Tower can
be diffi cult to pixelate well.
Vivika: What if you have a great
photo and can’t seem to get the
pattern right on your own?
Andi: In the early days, we
gave quite a lot of assistance to
customers which helped them
make their quilts more easily, and
helped us learn more about what
our clients need from the design
software. Now we offer a design
service for customers who needDaniel Prager and Andi Herman
created pixelating software for
their company YouPatch.com.Photo by Meg Cox