Welcome to the Block 2 post for the EQ7 Summer Drawing Series! We’ll start each month with a drawing lesson that focuses on one of the drawing styles available on the Block Worktable. Then, at the end of the month, we’ll have a link up post where everyone can show off a photo of their sewn block. That’s right, we’re not just drawing in this series, we’re SEWING too!

Block 2 is drawn on the PatchDraw Block Worktable. The PatchDraw Block Worktable has both Pieced and Appliqué tabs at the bottom of the screen. We’ll only use the Pieced tab for this lesson. We’ll tackle that Appliqué tab next month!

PatchDraw is aptly named because you construct the block by drawing closed patches (unlike EasyDraw where you drew straight or curved lines and the software created the patches for you). The best part of Pieced PatchDraw is the specialized click-and-snap grids. They make drawing rather tricky blocks (like LeMoyne Stars, New York Beauties, and Compasses) easy-peasy!

Here are the basic “rules” for Pieced PatchDraw:

  • All patches must be closed shapes. If you do not close a patch correctly, the unfinished patch will disappear from the worktable when you switch to another tab or save to the Sketchbook.
  • To be a finished design, the entire block must be filled with patches, otherwise you’ll leave an empty hole in your block.
  • Do not overlap patches. Remember these are pieced blocks, therefore the patches must fit adjacent to each other as they would when you’re sewing the patches together.

Let’s get started with our block!
(Want an easy-to-print version of this lesson? Click here to download the Block 2 Lesson PDF file.)

  1. Open EQ7.
  2. Click the Open an existing project tab in the Project Helper window and open your sew along project file, which we named EQ7 Summer Drawing Sew Along in the first lesson. Most likely, your project will be listed under Most recently used projects (unless you’ve designed lots of projects since our last lesson!). Click on the project file name to select it, then click OK. The Sketchbook will appear, click Close to put it away.
  3. Click the Work on Block tool . You are now looking at the Block Worktable.
  4. Click Block > New Block > PatchDraw Block.
  5. Make sure your Precision Bar is visible by clicking VIEW and then looking for the checkmark next to Precision Bar. If there isn’t, click to put a checkmark there.
    Note: If you accidentally click on the worktable, you will have a “sticky” blue line attached to your cursor. Just click the ESC key on your keyboard to release the line from your cursor.
  6. Now we’ll set up the Precision Bar. Input the following settings:
    Block Width and Height: 12
    Grid: Octagon
    Dimension 1 and Dimension 2: 8 (these are your snap points)
    Graph Paper Cells: OFF
    About those Dimensions…
    The Pieced layer of PatchDraw has automatic snapping based on the grid you are working on. With the PolyDraw tools, you’ll notice that with each click your line will snap to the closest grid point or arc.
    Snap dots are in two different dimensions within each of the different polygon shapes. For the Octagon grid, the two dimensions in each of the different shapes are illustrated by the red lines.
    For more information about the special grids, go to HELP > Contents. On the left, click Drawing Blocks > Pieced Blocks Using PatchDraw > About the PatchDraw Pieced Grids.
  7. Click and hold on the Polydraw tool on the left toolbar to make the flyout appear and choose the PolyLine tool.

    The drawing method in Pieced PatchDraw is different from that of EasyDraw. In Pieced PatchDraw you click on the points where you want nodes to appear (they will automatically snap to the nearest grid point). Do not hold down your mouse button between clicks. To finish a patch, double-click at the same point where you started.
  8. Click at the center point of the block (#1). You’ll now see a blue line connected to your cursor. Move your cursor up vertically three grid points (#2) and click again. Move to #3 and click, then move to #4 and double-click to finish the triangle.

    The triangle will change to a solid cream color, indicating it is closed.
  9. Using the illustration below as a guide, draw another triangle above the first:
  10. Fill in the rest of the “wedge” by drawing the shapes illustrated below:




    Believe it or not, all of the actual drawing is done! We’ll copy the shapes we’ve just drawn to fill in the rest of the block.
  11. Click EDIT > Select All (or CTRL+A on your keyboard). All of the patches will be selected with a black crosshair in the middle.
  12. On the Precision Bar, click the Clone selected segments tool . Another set of patches will appear on your screen and will be selected with a black crosshair in the middle. Make sure you do not click anywhere else on the worktable—we want these patches to stay selected.
  13. Click the Flip left and right tool  on the Precision Bar.
  14. Position your cursor over the crosshair and click, hold, and drag the new patches next to the original set. We now have a quarter of the block filled in.
  15. Click EDIT > Select All (or CTRL+A) to select all the patches on the worktable again.
  16. Click the Clone selected segments tool . Remember we want to keep this new set of patches selected, so don’t click anywhere else on the worktable.
  17. On the Precision Bar, click the Rotate selected segments tool  two times.

    The Rotate button works differently for each of the Pieced PatchDraw grids. When using the Octagon grid, each click of the Rotate button will rotate the selected patch by 45 degrees.
  18. Position your cursor over the black crosshair and drag the selected patches into place.
  19. Click EDIT > Select All (or CTRL+A) to select all the patches on the worktable again.
  20. Click the Clone selected segments tool .
  21. Click the Rotate selected segments tool  four times.
  22. Position your cursor over the black crosshair and drag the selected patches into place.
  23. The block is complete! Click Add to Sketchbook .
  24. Click the Color tab at the bottom of the screen.
  25. Use the Paintbrush tool  to color your block. You can use fabrics or solid colors. Color the block however you like—get creative!
  26. Click Add to Sketchbook .
  27. Click View Sketchbook . Click the Blocks section on the left and click the last block to select it.
  28. Click the Notecard button. Your cursor should be blinking on the first line of the notecard next to Name. Type “EQ7 Summer Drawing: Block 2”. If you’d like to add more info to the Notecard, click beneath the word Notes to move your cursor there and type.
    Adding information to a block’s notecard helps to keep us organized, especially if you keep lots of in-progress drawings in your Sketchbook. The name that you type on the notecard will appear on your pattern printouts too!
  29. Click the X in the top right corner of the notecard to close it. Then click Close to close the Sketchbook.
  30. Now we need to print our pattern so that we can get to the best part of the design process—sewing! Click the Print button .
  31. The menu appears with the available printing options for this block. You can choose to print whichever pattern style you prefer to piece this block. For more information on printing, refer to Chapter 10 of the EQ7 User Manual. For this lesson, we’re going to take a closer look at Foundation Patterns, so click on that option.
  32. The Print dialog box appears, with the Sections tab selected. The blue lines around the patches indicate the sections.
    The sectioning for this block looks good. However, if you’d like to change the way the block is sectioned, click the Start Over button. Click the patches you’d like grouped together and click Group. Continue in this manner until you’re done.
  33. Click the Numbering tab. This also looks good for our block, but if you’d like to change it click the Change Numbers button and click on the patches in the order you’d like them numbered.
  34. Click the Options tab. Put checkmarks next to whichever options you’d like in the Options section on the right. Leave “Print as many as fit” unchecked if you’d like to be able to move foundation sections on the Print Preview (see step 35).
    Remember that in EQ7 you are working in finished sizes (the final size of your block after all the seams have been sewn). EQ7 adds the seam allowance for you when you print the patterns.
    For this sew along we’ll be drawing all the blocks at 12” and that’s the size I’ll be sewing my blocks too. But you can choose to print and sew your blocks at any size. Type in the finished size for the width and height. Click the Preview button.
  35. On the Print Preview, you may find that some of the foundation sections are spread across two pages. We can fix that—click the Move button.
  36. Click on a section and drag it to a new location. If you’re making a 12” block like me, two sections will fit on each page nicely.
  37. You can click Print to print the Foundation Pattern, or Close to return to the Print dialog box (click Close again in the dialog box to return to the Block Worktable).
  38. After you’ve printed your patterns, click Save to ensure all your work is saved. Now close EQ7 and start sewing!

Come back on June 30 to post a photo of your sewn block!

Want to see this lesson in action? Watch the video below!

Would you like a little extra Pieced PatchDraw homework? Try out the other PatchDraw lessons available in EQ7 by clicking HELP on the main menu bar and choosing EQ Lessons (PDFs).

And if you’d like even more drawing practice, check out Patti Anderson’s book EQ with Me: Pieced Drawing! You’ll be a block drawing expert in no time!