Hi all! Today I’m excited to be sharing some details about my quilt design process as part of the DIY Block Design Challenge and Blog Hop by Alyce @ Blossom Heart Quilts. Alyce recently released an e-book called DIY Block Design (follow the link for information and purchasing details). The book focuses on the math behind creating quilt blocks along with encouragement and guidance for creating your own designs. It’s a great resource if the math part of quilting is something that you struggle with! (And for what it’s worth, I do far more complicated math in quilting than I ever did in my job as a computer scientist, and find it quite challenging!)
For this week, Alyce is focusing on sketching, so I thought I would talk about how I “sketch” my designs. For my own process, I (not surprisingly) let the computer do as much heavy lifting as possible, and so I do almost all of my sketching using Adobe Illustrator. Illustrator is a vector-based program which means that instead of storing images as a set of pixels (those little squares you see when you zoom in on an image in a photo editor), it stores everything as a mathematical equation. This gives some really great flexibility in the ability to resize up or down without it going all pixely, changing the color easily without it bleeding out the edges, and moving a specific object without worrying about the other objects on the screen. I find it a really great tool for designing quilts, especially when working with solids.
A quick aside: I do not necessarily think Illustrator is the best tool for designing quilts, it just happens to be the software I already knew, so it was easy enough to pick up when I was learning to design. However, there are many tools available! Just like sewing machines, all the design software out there has pros and cons and different ones are better or worse based on a particular person’s needs and wants. End of aside!
Okay, back at it! To get started, I almost always set some constraint (or limitation) to design around because otherwise I end up staring at a blank canvas for ages. I’ll pick something like a set of colors, a particular shape I want to work with, or a mood I’m trying to capture. For the example I’m using today, I was working with a fat quarter bundle, and I knew I wanted to use each of the colors. Only having a fat quarter bundle to work from also meant that I had a size constraint on my finished project.
When I create my file, I set the size to actual size of the finished quilt, knowing I can change it if necessary. In this case I set the canvas to 36″ x 36″ because that seemed a decent size while still being reasonable to construct with a set of fat quarters.
The next thing I do is set up my colors in the swatches. This makes it easier to change the colors of my objects later without losing any of them. Changing colors is as easy as selecting an object and then clicking on a swatch. Once I have the colors set up, I start playing with shapes.
I will often draw the shapes I want to play with off the canvas (so I have a master copy), and then copy and paste the block into the canvas. I draw the shapes at standard sizes like 3″ or 6″, but I can resize them later if I want to try a different scale. I spend quite a lot of time moving things around and rotating them to see how different shapes interact. I will usually start adding color at this stage as well, playing with combinations to see what colors I like next to each other, and how continuing the color through blocks makes new shapes.
At some point, I will find a shape or set of shapes that catch my interest, and I’ll start playing with the layout to try to finalize where I want things to be. Colors get fiddled with at this stage a lot too, often with layout and color being fine tuned together until I have the design I want. In this case, I finally settled on a quarter-ring shape to experiment with, and paired it rectangles and squares to give it some variety. I also added areas of the same color in the four corners to give the illusion of larger blocks.
Because I’ve drawn everything to size, it’s quite easy to convert the sketch to a finished pattern. I just need to select an object and Illustrator tells me what size it is. From there I just need to add seam allowances to know how big to cut each piece.
To make a cutting list, I grab each object from the sketch and group them by color. This isn’t exactly pretty, but it works really well for me. I have the computer next to me while I cut fabric, and I can visually check that I have all the pieces cut.
From there, it’s just a matter of sewing it all together and voila, quilt!
This is a really high-level overview of my design process, but almost each of these steps could easily be a blog post on their own and I don’t want to bore you all! However, if you have questions, please feel free to ask and I will answer them the best I can.
Also, be sure to check out the other blogs in the blog hop to hear about their design process as well:
October 2
Heidi @ Fabric Mutt
Christa @ ChristaQuilts
Angie @ Gnome Angel
Week 1: Inspiration
October 7
Ros @ Sew Delicious
Leanne @ Sewn By Leanne
Amy @ And Sew We Craft
October 9
Jennie @ Clover & Violet
Jane @ QuiltJane
Melissa @ My Fabric Relish
Week 2: Sketches
October 14
Jen @ Faith And Fabric
Beth @ Cooking Up Quilts
October 16
Sandi @ Crafty Planner
Anne @ Play Crafts <– you are here!
Jess @ Elven Garden Quilts
Week 3: Making
October 21
Joy @ Quilty Joy Joy
Linden @ Vine Lines Quilting
Cassie @ Cassandra Madge
October 23
Keera @ Live Love Sew
Janice @ Better Off Thread
Michelle @ Factotum Of Arts
Week 4: Finishes
October 28
Kelly @ A Place Of My Own
Abby @ Color Bar Quilts
October 30 – Linky opens!
18 thoughts on “DIY Block Design Blog Hop”
WOW! you cut them. Good job. The “round about” keeps the eye in motion, thinking, thinking, thinking.
Now, didn’t that feel good???
But now it’s all gone!!! Hahahaah okay that’s not true, I have scraps. Also the fabric is super soft and nice to work with, which honestly I wasn’t expecting. I’m used to slippery, thin shot cottons and these are definitely not that!
I normally design in Photoshop, because that’s the software I know. But I’ve been wanting to learn Illustrator for awhile. How you use Illustrator inspires me to make the leap.
I love Photoshop and use it all the time for other things. 🙂 One thing you should know is that going from Photoshop to Illustrator can be a bit of a brain buster. The tools often look the same but ACT TOTALLY DIFFERENTLY. Pretend it’s a totally different thing and not at all like Photoshop and you will be in the proper mindset. Because it is a totally different thing and not at all like Photoshop. 🙂
I don’t knwo why but I am always surprised how close the finished quilt looks to the design on the computer but still how much better in fabric form!
It still surprises me, too! Although it’s one of my favorite things about working with solids. 🙂 And yes, it always looks slightly better in fabric somehow! I still have trouble foreseeing that transition!
Thanks for sharing your designing process Anne! It’s nice to see how others go about it! I am so in love with this quilt, really in love! The possibilities are endless with color and design! Inspiring!!!
Thank you so much, Jayne! I think I’ve figured out how I’m going to quilt this sucker, so now I just need to sit down and do it. It’s not as crazy as my last quilt, but it’s still going to be a little time consuming. 🙂
I love that you finish with the flimsy here, Anne! I really like the description of your process. I tend to want to be much more in control of the mathy stuff, but it has also lead to some challenging miscuts on occasion. 😉
I admire people who are in control of the mathy stuff! And even with Illustrator telling me what to do, I still mess up the cutting from time to time. Hahaha The worst part is Illustrator will happily let you do things like make squares that are 5.41029379″ or whatever. So I do have to be careful of that!
A play by play of each step sounds like a great weekly or bi-weekly blog series to me! You know me, there’s nothing more that I enjoy than picking your brain.
Hmm I could do some mini-tutorials, although I think videos would really be easier to understand. I should figure out the software to make those happen!
I love your design process & would be very keen to read a blog post on how you calculate your measurements for cutting. I’m familiar with illustrator & would love to use it for quilt design. You have so inspired me. Thank you .
Thanks Stephanie! I could definitely do a quick tutorial on that, but I basically lay out the pieces in Illustrator on a rectangle that is 40″ wide (width of fabric with some wiggle room for selvages and such). Because the pieces are drawn to size, it’s a pretty accurate depiction of what will fit. 🙂 The hardest part is remembering to add the 1/2″ to height and width of the pieces to make sure the seam allowances are included.
This is fantastic!! I use Illustrator too, but in a much different way than you do! But I think that is what I love about that program, is there are so many things you can do with it! You have inspired me to try new things! Thanks for sharing! and your quilt is beautiful!
Thank you Diane! I would love to hear your process sometime if you have a chance. 🙂 I still have a ton to learn about Illustrator, and I love seeing how other people use it!
Hi, I saw your wonderful Transcendance quilt at Quiltcon! I had admired it before seeing it anyway! Are you planning a pattern I hope? 🙂
Thank you, Linda! I’m glad you got a chance to see it at QuiltCon, too. 😀 I am hoping to do a pattern, but at the rate I’m writing pattern these days, it may be quite a while. 🙁