Electric Quilt 8There are two pieced block drawing styles in EQ: EasyDraw and PolyDraw.
EasyDraw is the easiest and fastest way to draw a pieced block. With these easy-to-use tools you just drag the mouse to draw straight lines and curved arcs. It is like drawing with pencil and paper — easy.
The difficult part is making sure the lines are straight, the curves are smooth, the block is square, and of course, that the patches fit together. With EasyDraw it is all done for you automatically as you draw. The only rule you need to follow when using these tools is to make sure that your lines and arcs touch one another.
PolyDraw tools allow you to draw realistic designs with Bezier curves. Bezier curves, in computer drawing, are ones that are calculated mathematically to connect separate points into smooth curves. With EQ’s PolyDraw tools, you can create complex and realistic shapes, however, you must ensure that all segments are joined together correctly, if you want to fill the patch with color. The curves can be straight line segments or curves, but they cannot cross themselves as in a figure-eight. The patches these curves create must be closed. Closed means that each segment in the curve is joined to the preceding and following segments. Eventually, its end must be joined back to its beginning. These closed curves are referred to as a patch.
The PolyDraw layer allows you to use special grids as guidelines for pieced blocks. You will use the tools to create each closed patch. Unlike EasyDraw pieced blocks, you are creating closed patches and fitting them together in your block.
Click the Open Library button if you’d like to made changes to a block in the EQ Library rather than drawing your own from scratch.
