Welcome to the Block 3 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 3 is drawn on the PatchDraw Block Worktable, just like Block 2. However, this time we’re going to work on the Appliqué tab. On the Appliqué tab, patches can be closed or open. Closed patches can be filled with fabric or solid colors. Open patches will be treated as thread, and can be colored with the Set Thread tool.

For this lesson, we’ll be using the default drawing tools on the Appliqué tab. There are more drawing tools available (by clicking Customize Toolbars > Add/Remove Buttons), and I encourage you to try them out yourself.

The Appliqué tab and the appliqué drawing tools work the same on both PatchDraw Blocks and Motifs. So what’s the difference between a PatchDraw Block and a PatchDraw Motif? A PD Block gives your appliqué pieces a background (it can be a plain square or a pieced block). PD Motif does not have a background, so these appliqué pieces can “float” on Layer 2 of a quilt.

Let’s get started with our block!
(Want an easy-to-print version of this lesson? Click here to download the Block 3 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. Click the Applique tab.
  6. Click the Pick tool .
  7. 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.
  8. Now we’ll set up the Precision Bar. Input the following settings:
    Block Width and Height: 12
    Snaps Horizontal and Vertical: 12
    Graph Paper Cells: ON
    Graph Paper Horizontal and Vertical: 2

    Snapping Options: Auto Join Segments ON (the 5th button), turn the rest of the snapping options OFF

Flower #1

  1. We’ll draw a different flower in each of the four quadrants of the block. On the left toolbar, click and hold on the Oval tool. In the flyout menu that appears, click the petal (fourth shape).
  2. Starting at the center of the upper left quadrant, click hold and drag to the right creating the petal shape.

    When you release the mouse the shape will fill to a solid cream color (if Auto Fill  is pressed in on the Precision Bar).
  3. Continue drawing petals to finish the flower.

    The first flower is finished, but the petals are not uniformly sized or spaced (not that real flowers are perfectly shaped!). Let’s try another method that will create perfectly spaced petals.

Flower #2

  1. Click and hold on the Oval tool and click the heart on the flyout menu.
  2. Draw the next flower in the upper right quadrant. Place your cursor on the top center grid point of the quadrant and drag down to the center grid point.
  3. Click the Pick tool  on the left toolbar. The heart shape will remain selected.
  4. On the Precision Bar, click the Wreathmaker tool .
  5. In the dialog box, input these settings:
    Number of clusters: 6
    Cluster spacing: 5%
    Resize cluster: 100%
    Click OK.
  6. A “wreath” of hearts will appear in the center of the block. Position your cursor on the black crosshair in the center of the wreath and drag it to the top right quadrant.
  7. Click and hold on the Oval tool and click the circle on the flyout menu.
  8. Draw a center for your heart petals. You may need to drag the circle into position after you’ve drawn the circle. Just position your cursor over the black crosshair and drag.

Flower #3

  1. Click and hold on the Oval tool and click the curved teardrop shape (second from the right).
  2. In the lower right quadrant, draw a teardrop as illustrated below.
  3. Click the Pick tool .
  4. Click the small red box on the Pick tool to make the Symmetry box appear. Click the Clone button to make another teardrop shape, then click the Flip H button. The second teardrop is now a mirror image of the original teardrop.
  5. Position your cursor over the black crosshair and drag the second petal to the right so that the bottom points of the two petals match up.
  6. Click and hold on the Oval tool and click the petal on the flyout menu.
  7. Place your cursor on the top center grid point of the quadrant and drag straight down.
  8. While the new petal is still selected, right-click and choose Send to Back from the menu.

    And there’s our finished tulip.

Flower #4

  1. Click and hold on the Polygon tool. Click the hexagon on the flyout menu.
  2. In the lower left quadrant, position your cursor near the top center and drag straight down to create the hexagon.
  3. We’ll be changing this hexagon quite a bit, so let’s zoom in to get a better look at the shape. Click the Zoom In tool  and drag a marquee box around the hexagon.
  4. Click the Shape tool  on the left toolbar. Click the small red box on the Shape tool to make the Edit Arc box appear.
  5. Click on one of the lines of the hexagon to select it.
  6. Click the toCurve button in the Edit Arc box.
  7. There are now “handles” attached to this line that we can drag to create a curve. Click on the blue square at the end of the handle and drag away from the hexagon to pull out a curve. Repeat for the second handle.
  8. Repeat this process (select line, toCurve, drag handles) for the remaining straight lines of the hexagon.
  9. Click on the Pick tool , clicking on the small red box as you do so, to open the Symmetry box.
  10. Click on the edge of the flower, to select it.
  11. Click Clone in the Symmetry box.
  12. While the new flower is still selected, right-click and choose Resize from the menu.
  13. In the Resize box, type 70 in both boxes. Click OK.
  14. Drag the smaller flower to center it over the large flower.
  15. Right-click and choose Rotate from the menu.
  16. In the Rotate box, type 30 and click OK.

    Now the small flower petals line up nicely between the large flower petals!
  17. Repeat steps 38-43 to make another smaller flower.
  18. We’ve completed all our flowers! Click Add to Sketchbook . EQ7 automatically adds a plain background square to the block when we Add to Sketchbook.
  19. Click Fit to Worktable  to see the whole block again.
  20. Click the Color tab at the bottom of the screen.
  21. Use the Paintbrush tool  to color your block. You can use fabrics or solid colors.
  22. Click Add to Sketchbook .
  23. Click View Sketchbook . Click the Blocks section on the left and click the flower block to select it.
  24. Click the Notecard button. Your cursor should be blinking on the first line of the notecard next to Name. Type “EQ7 Summer Drawing: Block 3”. 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!
  25. Click the X in the top right corner of the notecard to close it. Then click Close to close the Sketchbook.
  26. 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 .
  27. The menu appears with the available printing options for this block. Click Templates.
  28. The Print dialog box appears. Remember that in EQ7 you are working in finished sizes (the final size of your block after all the seams have been sewn).
    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.
  29. Depending on your appliqué technique, you may want to change the seam allowance settings. You could type in a different width for the seam allowance or uncheck Print seam allowance to not have it print at all. Because I will be machine appliquéing my templates, I have chosen to turn the seam allowance off.
  30. Click the Preview button.
  31. You’ll see that the template pattern includes the large background square. Because most of us would prefer to cut a square with a rotary cutter, rather than a template, we can delete this template.
    Click the the Delete button at the top. Then click the square template to select it (it will have a red outline).

    Hit the Delete key on your keyboard and the square will disappear.
  32. Now we can move the templates around to conserve even more paper. Click the Move button and then drag the templates around on the pages.
  33. You can click Print to print the templates, or Close to return to the Print dialog box (click Close again in the dialog box to return to the Block Worktable).
  34. After you’ve printed your patterns, click Save to ensure all your work is saved. Now close EQ7 and start sewing!

If you’re not excited about stitching all four of these flowers, visit the blog on July 15 for the Block 3 Mini Lesson. I’ll talk about ways to use these four flowers to create a block variation more to your liking!

Come back on July 31 to post a photo of your sewn block!

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