Last post of 2019

Looking over my posting history, the first year I had this blog, I had posted 24 posts during the year, and not that much since then, except in 2017 with 40!

Just to have 24 posts for 2019, along with a resolution to post every 2 weeks in 2020 - I needed one more post:

Patience, a definition

Patience is a noun but sometimes you need a verb - what to do while being patient!

I prayed on it and got the answer:

Patience = Productive Preparation

To Illustrate the Construction Process of a Quilt

The first post of this quilt is in "Older Posts" below.

You have designed a quilt and made a worksheet.
 Now you want to illustrate how you constructed your quilt.

You can take an image that is drawn and colored on graph paper,
         copy it several times to have images to cut apart
         and paste down to a new piece of paper - or

You can save your image as a metafile (.EMF or .WMF), and
do it digitally.

I use Windows 10, thus save as .EMF - Mac users will save as WMF - 
                       I believe, correct me if I'm wrong. 
I work in Adobe Illustrator/Photoshop, but it can be with most photo editing
software, thus I will use the language of that program:

            visual-integrity.com provided me with instructions.

Select the image; right click; save as; and choose the file format
you will work in.

Once your image can be edited (i.e. bits are broken apart and
can be moved around, copied and pasted) you will open it in
your photo editing software.

I place the image on one artboard, then open another artboard
to hold the bits. When I have some of the bits put together,
(showing the construction of bits that will be joined and
made more than once) I can select those bits and "group"
them together, so they can be used as a single unit.

An image being edited. The grey units represent white in the quilt.
The background being white, I needed a contrasting color so it
would show up. The yellow square indicates a unit that has
been moved, for illustration purposes only.

The two parts of a half square triangle have not yet
been joined up, but have been moved to the
new page. The Corner Unit and Star unit
have been joined and grouped.

The Red Border indicates a unit of 3 that can be cut as 1,
saving time and fabric.

Now that you know just a little of all the work that goes into 

creating a pattern, you really won't mind spending all that money on 

a pattern someone has published, will you?

Drafting for the Creative Quilter, by Sally Collins - a Book Review

Front Cover

Drafting for the Creative Quilter

Author, Sally Collins

© 2010 by Sally Collins

Back Cover

C & T Publishing
















Anyone who ever wanted to design their own quilts would benefit
from having Drafting for the Creative Quilter in their library.

Sally approaches drafting from the standpoint of graph paper, aka cross
section paper, pencils, rulers, and other drawing tools. However,
it is a simple transition to drafting digitally in a drawing or quilt
program.

For her beautiful 36" Sedona shown on the back cover, Sally begins
with a classic: Carpenters Wheel. The Lemoyne Star is another of
her choices for creating new blocks from old patterns.

I have been drafting since taking a mechanical/architectural drawing
course in high school - 1961-62. Even so, Sally's instruction has
answered many questions regarding drafting quilt patterns, and enables
me to draw many geometric quilt patterns I see.

The book does not take the place of purchasing a quilt pattern, however.
There is much more to a good published pattern than the picture
of the quilt.

Colonial Comfort

Colonial Comfort

While learning to weave on a floor loom, I was introduced to
Colonial Overshot weaving and loved the geometric simplicity
and the use of only two colors: white linen, and navy blue wool.

It had long been a goal to design a quilt that expressed those
qualities, but was something that lay in the back of my mind.

Putting my blocks "On Point" was the final piece to the puzzle
when I drew my quilt with graph paper and pencil. The design
has more to be done to finesse it - but this is a start. There is no
pattern published as yet - perhaps in the future - meanwhile
if you wish you may take the idea and run with it, provided
that I am given credit for the original drawing, and you do
not sell any reproduction, or publication for profit of my design.

Fire Blossom

This is a quilt I designed in EQ 8 (a new toy). I use Microsoft Excel to plan patterns for folks who don't have EQ 8. My spreadsheet in Excel gets a screen print for sharing. I like the visual "recipe" for the quilt: no shipping, no downloads. The size of the pattern can be changed with borders, or by changing the size of the finished square. Remember that a 3" square is cut 3.5" for a quarter inch seam allowance. How much fabric to buy? Sorry - do the math. Here's how: Divide the width of the fabric by 3.5" to find how many blocks you get out of each strip. Half square triangles require more fabric than a simple square. If paper piecing the HSTs, I print squares on art pad tracing papers that are cut down to 8.5 x 11, and print them on my home printer.

See also at https://www.bloglovin.com/@elainerutledge/fire-blossom

Designing A Quilt Plan Worksheet

To Make a worksheet

Sunday, December 15, 2019 9:02 AM

Open quilt in EQ 8

Select file/Export Marquee Selection/Copy to Windows Clipboard

Open a prepared Excel Spreadsheet - columns and rows make squares.

Paste the image of the quilt, and size it so the size of the rows match the size of the rows in the spreadsheet.
Go back to the EQ 8.

 Enlarge the quilt to make it easier to see and drag the marquee around the blocks. 

To see exactly which fabrics are used in the current quilt variation, print the yardage page for the printout.

Make a marquee selection of a block and paste it to the Block Count Section to the right of the quilt. 

Adjust the size to fit the square in the spreadsheet. It is easier to make it oversize, and adjust it smaller.

In the case of a half square triangle: do each color combination, but not each block rotation.

Repeat for each block - placing a sample of a block in the header row

With each block represented in the Block Count Section, as illustrated, refine the formatting of the spreadsheet. Count each block in the row.

1. 1. Confirmation that the row is accurate
2. 2. Quilt
3. 3. Block Count Section
4. 4. Auto Sum of Total in Row

NOTE: if you discover an error in the quilt, or the coloring of the blocks - return to quilt in EQ 8, fix the error, make a new marquee selection, copied to the Windows clipboard. Go back to Excel and delete the existing quilt image. Paste and size the corrected quilt image. For example: See the block within

the black rectangle on the illustration.

The Worksheet gives me the assurance of accuracy, and the exact numbers of each block needed in the quilt to allow me

to calculate the number of strips to cut , and the number of blocks to make.