Morse Star

Linda Franz likes to rewrite movie scenes with witty quilting commentary. [See her blog post here and check the Inklingo Facebook page.] I tend to think of song lyrics when I am designing quilts. Probably because I am usually listening to music. Sometimes the lyrics inspire a quilt design. Or a blog post title.

I was playing around in EQ7 with some quilt blocks in a sampler-style quilt that could be made with Inklingo Collections a while back. When Linda posted to her blog, Billions of Inklingo Stars, I decided to change it up and include only blocks with stars. [Linda’s post title reminded of a line from the old Eagles song, Peaceful Easy Feeling which is where my post title comes from.] In the end, I changed direction again and used quilt blocks made with Inklingo collections that could be fussy cut.

Here’s the result. With EQ7 I could have positioned different fabrics in the blocks to give me the look of fussy cutting but opted not to. I will be fussy cutting / printing my fabrics for this quilt.

Billion Stars wo sashing

I couldn’t decide if I liked all the blocks smooshed up next to one another and added some sashing with more stars to separate the blocks. These are 18 inch blocks with 4.5 inch sashing. This design uses quite a few different Inklingo collections–Free Diamond Triangle Square [makes 4.5 inch LeMoyne Star], 6 inch LeMoyne Star, 9 inch LeMoyne Star, 9 inch Inklingo Star, 4.5 inch Castle Wall, 6 inch Castle Wall and 9 inch Castle Wall.

Billion Stars w sashing

Then I decided to go for broke with a billion stars all around.

Billion Stars w sashing dbl stars

I like this one. It’s one of the three new projects I want to start. I have some fabric set aside for this but need to purchase fabric for the sashing strips and enough yardage of white fabric to use for the background bits in all the blocks. And I need to finish up two more projects before I can start anything new. House rules. [I did manage to get three quilt tops together in the last two weeks.]

When Linda Franz posted a photo of the Morse Star on the Inklingo Facebook page, I commented that I would like to see the second row of partial stars radiate out to make the block large enough to be a baby quilt. The trick to making radiating rows is to add the unit I’ve colored in purple as shown below.

Morse-Star-corner

When drawing a complex block in Electric Quilt, it is simpler to draw just a quarter of the block. When placed into a quilt design, there will be what looks like a seam running vertically and horizontally through the center of the quilt splitting some of the quilt pieces in half.  Obviously you would use the full piece instead of halves when creating the quilt.

1-Morse-Star-RadiatingShall we call the 36 inch block Endeavor?

2-Morse-Star-RadiatingMy idea for the baby quilt.

14-Morse-Star-RadiatingThis 36 inch block makes a fabulous center for a medallion-style quilt. A 72 inch quilt using the Inklingo Star, Castle Wall, and Free Diamond-Triangle-Square Collections.

 


9 inch Inklingo Star

9 inch Castle Wall

Free Diamond-Triangle-Square

 

16-Morse-Star-RadiatingI couldn’t decide if I like the interplay between light, medium and dark better in this one or the one above. Either way, I would be doing some major fussy cutting for the diamonds, kites and Castle Wall centers so I suppose it wouldn’t matter. I made a slideshow gallery to show you some of the other designs I was playing around with in Electric Quilt.

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Linda’s latest Inklingo collection is the Inklingo Star. Linda has been teasing viewers on the Inklingo Facebook page with samples of the 9 inch block. Linda also designed an 18 inch block she is calling Morse Star. I was able to use Linda’s original EQ7 project file for the Inklingo Star to draft a Morse Star block in Electric Quilt. The project file is available to download and I give step-by-step directions on drawing the block in EQ7 below.

Inklingo Morse Star

Inklingo Morse Star

Download my EQ7 project file: EQ7 Morse Star

Let me show you how I took Linda’s Inklingo Star and changed it into the Morse Star. [Note: If you are using EQ6 instead of EQ7, you can use these instructions to create a block in EQ6. Just substitute the number “6” anyplace I have used number “7”.]

First download the EQ7 project file from Linda’s blog post. Save the file to your PJ7 folder. [I have a separate folder for Inklingo project files set up in my PJ7 folder.]

morse-star-0

I opened a new project in Electric Quilt called Inklingo Star rather than opening Linda’s project file so that my default fabric palette would be preserved. [Electric Quilt project files are sometimes compressed and unused fabrics are deleted from the file.] The next step is to import Linda’s project file blocks into my Inklingo Star project. Click > Libraries > Block Library > Import.

morse-star-1

Find the folder where the InklingoStarForBlog project file is saved. Click on the file name and click > Open.

morse-star-2

Hold down your Ctrl key and click on “A” to highlight all the blocks in the file. Click > Add to Sketchbook. All of Linda’s blocks and quilt layouts will be added to your project file.

morse-star-3

Let’s get ready to draw in EQ. [There is actually very little drawing required. Most of it is copying, pasting, flipping and rotating.] First set up an 18 inch EasyDraw block. Click > Worktable > Work on Block. [If your drawing table is not blank, Click > Block > New Block > EasyDraw Block.] On the Drawing Setup ribbon: Set Block Width & Height to 18. Set Graph Paper Horizontal & Vertical to 18. Be sure Snap to Grid is OFF, Snap to Nodes is ON and Snap to Lines/Arcs is OFF. Click > Add to Sketchbook > Click > Yes to save blank block.

morse-star-4

Click on > Sketchbook > Blocks. Click on first Inklingo Star block to highlight. Click > Edit.

morse-star-5

Click Ctrl/A to highlight the whole Inklingo Star block. Click Ctrl/C to copy the block.

morse-star-6

Click > Sketchbook > Highlight your Blank block > click Edit. [It should be the very last block] Click Ctrl/V to paste the copied block to your blank block. Center the block by clicking on the Move button [looks like crossed arrows at the very center] and moving the block into place.

morse-star-7

This is the very center of the 18 inch Morse Star block and needs to be resized to 9 inches—half its current size. Click > Block > Resize. In the Resize box, change the Horizontal and Vertical percents to 50. [See above] Click > Okay. Your block should look like this one.

morse-star-8

We need to Zoom In for the next steps. Click on the Zoom icon. [The magnifying glass with the + sign.] Click on your drawing table while holding down your left mouse button and drag a box around the top right section of the block to enlarge. Now we are going to copy a portion of the block and paste it adjacent to the original block. Be sure you have the Pick Tool selected. Hold down Ctrl & Shift and one-by-one click on the lines inside the purple area I’ve drawn in the picture below. The lines will get bolder when you click on them. HINT: If you need to, zoom in again to select those tiny lines. If you accidentally click the wrong line, click on it again to deselect it. To return to your normal screen, click the magnifying glass with the square.

morse-star-9

Once you have all the lines highlighted, Click > Ctrl/C > Ctrl/V to copy and paste the selected lines.

morse-star-10

Use the Move button to move the copied portion to the outside point of the kite as shown below.

morse-star-11

Click Ctrl/C and Ctrl/V to copy and paste a new section to your drawing board. This section needs to be flipped with the Symmetry tool. Click > Block > Symmetry. In the Symmetry box, Click > Flip H.

morse-star-12

Move the section to the left—next to where you moved your first pasted section. HINT: If you accidentally click on your drawing board before you move your grouped section, it will be deselected. The lines will go back to normal size and ungroup themselves. Clicking on the Undo icon should reselect your grouped section so you can move it again as a group.

morse-star-13

Copy and Paste a new section > Choose > Flip V on the Symmetry box. This section goes on the bottom of your block.

morse-star-14

Move the section to the bottom of the block. Copy, Paste and Flip H for the second section on the bottom.

morse-star-15

Copy, Paste and Click > Rot 90 on the Symmetry box for the next section which goes to the side.

morse-star-16

For the last 3 sections, do the following: [1] Copy, Paste, Flip V, Move; [2] Copy, Paste, Flip H, Move; [3] Copy, Paste, Flip V, Move. Your block should now look like the one pictured below.

morse-star-17

Now comes a bit of drawing. Zoom in to the top right corner. Be sure you have the Line Drawing tool selected. Draw the lines for the 2 half diamonds on either side of the full diamonds. You should see a square form when you have drawn both lines. [If you have never drawn before: Click on the small black square [called a node] and hold down your left mouse button. Move the mouse across the screen to the next node. When you release your mouse button, the line snaps to the node and completes the shape.]

morse-star-18

Finish drawing all the lines for the half diamonds. Draw the lines for the squares and half-square triangles in the 4 corners of the block. After you have drawn all your lines, double check all the nodes to make sure they form a closed shape. [They should all be touching together to form one node.] If you see any spots that are open, Click the Shape Tool. Click on a node that needs to be nudged and move it over a smidgen to get it to snap to its neighbor. Save your block in the Sketchbook.

morse-star-19

HINT: At the bottom of the drawing board is the Color Tab. Click on it to color your block. This is a good way to be sure all your nodes connect. If when you are filling in a shape with a color its neighbor suddenly fills with color too, you will know that you have an open node there. Click back to EasyDraw, find and close the nodes. Save a new copy of the block to your Sketchbook. Remember that the last block saved is the correct one. [The others can be deleted.]

 

 

 

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My focus in 2017:

Sewing in 2017

  • 1 Year of Stitches embroidery project
  • Hexiflowers (aka Grace's Garden)
  • Death Star pillow
  • Tonopah Nevada topographical map
  • 1855 Wales Center map
  • Winnie the Pooh map
  • Ethan's Quilt
  • Thea's Quilt
  • Rachelle Fae CQ block
  • Machine quilting with a walking foot

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