Patchpieces: Drawing a dahlia block in EQ4

Drawing a Giant Dahlia Block in EQ4

This is what we are going to draw. Did you ever make a design similar to this using a compass? Drawing it in EQ is somewhat similar, but we'll be making a Dresden Plate-type center and the Arc tool will be our compass. If you looked at the different quilts on the Giant Dahlia page, you'll notice that we all drew our centers different sizes, but the process is basically the same.

NOTE: To draw this you need to use the Advanced Drawing tools. If you don't have them turned on: Go to the File menu and select Preferences. Click on the Drawing Options tab. Check the boxes by Customize the drawing toolbars and Advanced drawing features. Click OK. You can add these tools as buttons to the EasyDraw Tool bar to make them easy to toggle on and off -- see the EQ4 Help files for more information. If you do NOT add them to the tool bar, you will need to go to the Drawing Board Setup/EasyDraw to turn them on and off. You will also find out more about the function of each tool by reading about them in the Help files. Or... if you haven't got it already...I highly recommend Barb Vlack's book, EQ4 Magic. You will find lots of lessons for using the Advanced Drawing tools in her book. Also, I will leave it up to you to save your steps along the way as you are drawing. Remember to Save to Sketchbook AND then Save the project file..

Note #2. Please don't give this lesson to an English teacher, he/she'd probably cover it with red marks! If you find any gross errors (a.k.a. big boo-boos) please be kind and kindly email me to let me know.

Now, let's get started...

Step 1. Set Up the Drawing Board. On the Block Worktable, click on the Block menu and select New block/EasyDraw. Click on the Block menu again and choose Drawing Board Setup. Click on the General tab and set the Snap to Grid Points, 48 x 48 and make the Block size 6" x 6". Click on the Graph Paper tab and make the Number of divisions 6 x 6 and make sure under the Options you have Graph paper lines showing. Still in the Drawing Board Setup, click on the EasyDraw tab. Where it says, Node size, select Large -- this will make it easier to see the nodes when we're drawing our dahlia petals. Click OK.

Step2. Draw the dahlia center.
A. (Snap to Grid ON, Snap to Node ON) With the Arc tool, draw arcs to make two circles one inside the other in the center of the block. (fig. 1) The larger circle will begin at 2 1/4" on the grid and the smaller one begins at 2 3/8". In other words, the inside circle is 1/8 inch smaller than the larger. (Hint: If you can't see the Rulers on the Drawing Board, go to the View menu and click on Rulers. You also have the graph paper lines to guide you since they are at 1 inch intervals.) When drawing the arcs to make the circles, start and stop at 12:00, 3:00, 6:00, and 9:00 at equal distances from the center. Save.

fig. 1

B. Pointing to the small dark corner, click on the Edit tool, so that the Edit menu comes up. In the Edit menu menu, change the Partition number and the Stagger number to 4. Point to one of the arcs of the inner circle and click Stagger. (fig. 2) Repeat for the remaining three arcs. Click on one of the arcs of the outer circle and click on Partition, repeat for remaining arcs. It should now look like fig. 3. Save.

fig. 2

fig. 3

C. With only Snap to Node ON, use the Line tool to draw lines to make the spokes and then the points of the dahlia center. (Skip the extra node that is at 12:00, 3:00, 6:00 and 9:00.) (fig. 4a & 4b) You will find it helpful to zoom in to do this. After your lines and points are drawn, go back and delete the arc segments that are not needed on the inner circle only. (fig. 5) Save.

fig. 4a

fig. 4b

fig. 5

Step 3. Drawing the outermost large circle.
(Snap to Grid and Snap to Node ON) With the Arc tool, draw the largest circle of the dahlia block, beginning at 1/4" from the top center edge of the block. Then as in Step 2-B, Partition each of the four arcs in 8. Turn off Snap to Grid. Draw a 45 degree line from each corner of the block to the center node on each arc of the circle. Save.

fig. 6

Step 4. Draw the petals.
Now for the fun part...With only the Snap to Node on, use the Arc tool to draw the petals. To keep from getting confused, begin drawing the petals at 12:00 and go clockwise around the circle as you draw the remaining petals. The first petal begins on the point of the spoke just above 9:00. If the arc is not curving the right way, press the space bar on your keyboard before releasing the mouse button and it will reverse the curve. As you draw the petals, skip every other node on the outermost circle. Once you get the idea it will go quickly...really. In figure 7 below, I exported the Drawing board into CorelDraw and added numbers to get you started...it's kind of like connect the dots...only with arcs. <grin>

fig.7Save to Sketchbook and save your project after drawing 3 or 4 petals -- just in case you make a mistake -- that way you won't have to start over from the beginning. Note: When you get to the 7th petal (fig. 8) notice that you will be making a second arc from the same point of the center design. This is the way it's supposed to be and as you continue around the dahlia, you will see the symmetrical shapes forming. Keep your eye on these shapes as you draw and they can tell you if you made a mistake somewhere (hey, it can happen). Save. When you've finished drawing all the petals, zoom into the center and delete the segments of the circle that are not needed. Save again.

fig. 8

Step 5. Add an outside row of petals. This step is optional, but you've come this far... so why not? :-) With just the Snap to Node on, use the Arc tool and then using the nodes that are already established, draw the petals as illustrated below. (fig. 9a) When you've finished all the petals, save to Sketchbook to establish nodes and then go back and delete the segments not needed. (fig. 9)

fig. 9a

fig. 9b

Congratulations!! Now you can color your Giant Dahlia as you like. I recommend you save the block to the "My Library" files. In fact...you could save all the blocks in your project so that you can remember the steps you followed to create it. Plus if you get carried away with coloring and fabrics, the project file will get HUGE. If you want to try a different set of fabrics, open a new project and retrieve your block from the My Library files.

CLICK HERE TO SEE A SLIDESHOW OF ALL THESE STEPS!

Back to the EQ patch