So, I’ve always wanted to draw a tessellation. They are so cool the way they interlock and look like animals sometimes. I never thought I was creative enough to figure it out and draw it. Then I had an “Aha!” moment.

I’m still not anywhere close to M.C. Escher artwork, but, I’ve figured out something fun in EQ6 I thought I’d share.

A tessellation is easy if you start with a square and what you subtract from one side you add to the other.
square
This is a silly way to do it, but start a new PatchDraw Block. On the Pieced tab, fill the block with half-square triangles. (My block is 10×10 and I kept only 6×6 in the center.) With the Pick tool, move a triangle from one side of the block to the other. Keep going until you’ve moved as much as you want. Stop if you think you’ve lost your place. Then save the block, convert it to guides, and draw with the PolyLine tool around the outside to create one patch. Save the block again and set it to size on a custom set quilt (my blocks are 10×10 and the positions of the patches actually ended up being at inch marks.)

steps

I’m hoping I will find an animal in there some day, for now I’ll just be content that I finally drew one and the pieces interlock.

custom set quilt

Happy EQ-ing!

UPDATE: Sarah @ EQ and I both found a bunny in the original design. I’m so happy that I made an animal that interlocks. Wooohooo. Here’s the picture:

bunny