Originally Posted by seweasy
Hi! Linda and Diana, Thanks so much for all your help, I made it through all the Mystery Lessons and so glad I did it but now I have whole new "boatload" of questions!!!
The biggee, when you see a quilt block in a magazine or you're dreaming up a new block, how do you know what setting to use in EasyDraw? I noticed that in several of the blocks in the Mystery Lessons, all had changes to block size and snap grid, some had changes with Grid Setup and Graph Paper. How do you know when to use which tools? Were those changes that were made in these blocks pretty much the standard changes made for making patchwork blocks?
I've got the EQ5 Drawing book by Patti Anderson, didn't know if that is what I should do next to learn more about this aspect of EQ or is there something better? I know eventually I'll see a block that I want to duplicate and I know I need to learn how now before I need to know. That's my husband favorite motto, learn now so you're prepared for later!!!
Thanks so for your patience and willingness to help me, Chris
The first thing you must do before starting is take a good look at the block you are trying to duplicate. It is necessary to visualize what the underlying gird is. As MTS said a 9-patch is based on a 3x3 grid. Sometimes it can be difficult to figure out the base grid. I've encountered a couple of 7x7, 11x11, 25x25 and so on. A good resource is one of the block encyclopedias like Barbara Brackman's which organizes the blocks by grid size. Often you can find the block you are trying to make or a precursor block in it.
Once you've determined your underlying grid size, plug that number into the "block" size spot. Don't worry if you want your block to be 8" or 12" or whatever, you can resize the block at will. The primary focus is to get the pattern drawn.
Then make the "grid number" the same as the block size and the same with the "snap" to point number. The graph number is really what is most important because that is the visual netting on which you will draw your design. If you need to have midway points to snap to, make the grid/snap number double the amount of the size or graph numbers. This will give you an additional snap point between each graph line and in the center of each graph square.
After this try drawing your block. If it doesn't look quite right, you may have mistaken a 5x5 for a 4x4. Some blocks are very hard to tell apart.
When you finished with a block that is right, you can change the size when you go to the print window. Just plug in whatever size you want the block to be and that is how it will print.
Hope this helps :-)
Diana