Quarter Inch

The Problem

Quilting is geometry in eighths of an inch. Every patch needs a seam allowance, every fabric needs a yardage, and a slip in the arithmetic is found at the cutting mat, after the fabric is cut. The software most quilters design in dates from 2017 and runs only on a desktop, while more of the planning now happens on an iPad at the sewing table or a phone in the fabric shop.

The Solution

Quarter Inch is Avoxy Technologies' own product, which I build and run. A quilter starts from a traditional block, a sample quilt, a sketch or a photo of the fabric they already own, and designs on whatever device is to hand. The app works out the seam allowances, yardage and cutting list in fractions, then prints templates at true size, with a one-inch test square on every page.

What it does

• Checked cutting — Seam allowances, yardage and cuts in fractions, curves and appliqué included
• True-size printing — Templates and foundations, with a 1-inch test square on each page
• Opens EQ8 projects — Imports .pj8 files, with a report on each one
• Runs where the quilter is — iPad, Mac, Windows, Chromebook, iPhone and Android
• Patterns for designers — One quilt in up to five sizes, with the designer's name and logo

Technical Approach

Mostly plain software. The geometry runs on an exact-arithmetic kernel written in TypeScript: lengths are kept as fractions and square roots, never rounded decimals, so a 45° diamond or a hexagon gets a yardage and a cut that are decided exactly. Decimals only appear when the quilt is drawn on screen.

A separate package reads EQ8's project files and reports what it could and could not bring across. The app is Next.js on Postgres, the print PDFs are generated at true size, and billing runs on Stripe subscriptions. AI is opt-in: Help builds or changes a quilt from a typed request only when asked, can be switched off, and designs are not used for training.