Create your own stitching patterns!
Posted By margaret on August 15, 2009
Use Adobe Illustrator (or a free drawing program) to help decide stitching patterns for your quilts.
Just take a photo of your quilt and use the [Place] command under [File] and place the photo into Illustrator. Next, use [Layers] to create a new layer above the photo. If [Layers] isn’t visible, go to [Window] and pull down to [Layers]. Look across the bottom of the [Layers] window to a small row of icons, the one next to the trash is the [New Layer] icon to choose. The icon looks like a page with one edge folded; click it. Now you have a second layer above the photo. Because you don’t want to draw on the layer with the photo, you will lock that layer.
Look to the left of the word “Layer 1” to see a small blank area; to the left of the blank area is an icon of an eye. The eye will allow you to view the layer and if you click the eye the layer will not be visible. The blank area to the right of the eye is where you will lock the layer (to prevent you from drawing on that layer); click right in the blank and a lock will appear. Both the eye and the lock are simply toggle switches, so you may switch them off and on at will.
When you want to draw your stitching pattern, click the word “Layer 2” so you will be on the proper layer. If you see a pencil with a line through it, it means you are still on the locked layer and can’t draw on that layer, just click Layer 2 and you’re ready to draw your pattern.
If you are not familiar with using the pen tool, you might prefer to use the pencil. I prefer the pen tool; however, there is a learning curve and you might not want to spend time learning the nuances of that tool.
The default is to have a stroke of black and a fill of white. Just look toward the bottom of the toolbox to see a black outline square and a white filled square, those are the defaults. You won’t want the fill of white because it will cover your drawing area, so click on the white fill to bring it to the front and make it active and select the universal symbol for “no”. The symbol, a circle with a line through it, is just below the stroke (square with a black stroke around it), click it and the fill is gone.
If you want to see your drawings without the photo, just click the eye on Layer 1 and the photo will not be visible, click it again and the photo appears.
If you do not have Adobe Illustrator, you may download a free open source drawing program from: www.opensourcewindows.org for pc or www.opensourcemac.org for macs. The program is called, Inkscape. It is a vector based drawing program similar to Illustrator.
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