Enlarging block patterns
 

I have a BHG book of quilt blocks and finally picked out a pattern for a paper pieced star. The picture shows the pattern in about a 4" square.....way too small for me to just trace and use! I sent the book with my DD so she could use the school's copier to enlarge the pattern to 8.5", but am wondering what do you do when you need to make a pattern bigger. If it was just squares I could have drawn it, figuring out the sizes. But this had angles and such and I didn't know how. I've only done one PP block in my life and it was the kind where you sew the fabric to the paper pattern and that was relatively easy. I would prefer to stick to that method for the time being. Is there an easy way to enlarge patterns other than using a copier? Do I have to be a computer guru to accomplish?

I always take mine to the Instanty Print Shop and use their copier, so I am no real help.

If its a paper pieced pattern to start with , just enlarge and sew! One more reason I love paper piecing. If you are using a standard pattern not for paper piecing, use the layout pattern and use the unit but you will need to re- draw/add the 1/4 inch seam allowance. If you do use a template that has the seam allowances you will need to re draw them as while you were enlarging .. you also enlarged the seam allowance.
I do find using the copier to be the fastest way to get accurate enlarged or reduced patterns.

If I were working on a paper pieced block, I would use a standard copier (assuming the paper size is large enough - I have 11x17 paper on hand if I need it for large projects), and be certain to make more copies than I think I need, so as not to have to return to enlarging at a later time. I wouldn't want to risk the size coming out a hair different on the second trip to the copier.

Cheers, K

If you have Electric Quilts, you could reproduce it there and print out the PP pattern in any size, otherwise the copy machine works best. For patterns that don't have a lot of acute angles, I use graph paper or Electric Quilts. If I graph it, I count the number of blocks and figure out how large I want it to be. I draw it on graph paper in the scale I want then add the seam allowance to the blocks.

Electric Quilt is one of the best investments that I've made in my quilting supplies. you can draw out the block and make it any size that you want in your quilt.

Great question! Sounds like you've got some goods answers that many of us could use.

I just use a copier and make all the copies at once. If I need 20 I will make 30 copies. And NEVER use a different
machine. I just tried my hubby's copy machine and what came out was 1/2 inch smaller so always make your copies on the same machine and make extras.

If you run out of copies you can also tape one of your copies to another piece of paper - tape it to a window & trace a copy - on straight lines - make sure you use a ruler.

My printer can be set to enlarge or reduce what it prints so it's really easy to change the size of online paper piecing patterns. And when copying them, don't forget to make sure the printer/copier is set to 'print actual size' so it doesn't scale them at all.