The camera-- a quilting tool

Throwing a bunch of photos all into one post.  Should I save this for a Wed. post and call it Wordless Wednesday? Nah. These are mostly design wall shots of works in progress.

Scrolling through my dropbox files reminded me of how important a camera is to me as a quilting tool.  Here are just a few of the ways I use a camera (often just the one on my cell phone) as a tool for my quilting.

• I often photograph fabrics I've just purchased.  It's super easy to put that photo into Evernote along with a notation of the yardage, manufacturer and fabric line, price, source -- and my ideas for using it.

• I photograph a specific piece of fabric to help with finding a matching or coordinating fabric (though colors can be tricky).

• I photograph my blocks up on the design wall -- something about seeing it on a screen makes it easier for me to pick out mistakes in orientation or problems with color distribution. 

• I also use the photos on the design wall as back up documentation.  Nothing is more annoying that having the perfect arrangement only to lose it to a gust of wind or an annoying cat -- photo to the rescue.

• I photograph my finished quilts, and again make notes on Evernote to keep track of what batting I used (and if I liked it), thread and needle issues, things I wish I had done differently and will remedy next time (ha!), stuff like that.

• And I like to take a finished product photo, ideally in natural light, in a cool setting.  Many of my quilts are gifts, so I like keeping an array of photos so I can continue to enjoy them.  I sometimes use close ups of the quilting as my background on my computer, or as my header on Facebook or Flickr. I've used photos of quilts I've made to create greeting cards. And I've gotten in the habit of putting together a photo book every 2 or 3 years documenting my quilts. Nothing fancy, and not very expensive when you use one of the frequent promotional special offers.

Ok -- so to the photo dump:

Hmmm.  I spotted a couple of UFO*s there.  Maybe this will motivate me to pull them out and give them the use-it-or-lose-it treatment.

What about you?  Do your camera and your sewing machine support each other? Do you find your cell phone and aps are useful quilting tools?