Tech Sunday - How to Use Triangles in QuiltCAD

In this tutorial we will be continuing our exploration of QuiltCAD.   I am using a quilt that was given to me by a dear friend, Sheri of Maxine and Me Quilting.  She did use Quilt Path to set the individual squares and triangles, but I wanted to find way to do it in QuiltCAD. 

Here is a picture of the quilt that I am using for inspiration.  I will try to get a better picture of the quilt next week.  

In this case she quilted all of the white areas using Quilt Path and then did horizontal and vertical lines in the prints using rulers by hand. 

This is a large quilt, I have not measured it but I would say it is larger than 60 x 60.  I decided to use a 15 inch block for my tutorial.  This is a tutorial that you can use any size blocks you want, as long as you end up with a 4x4 grid.

On the right side of QuiltCAD, click on the Size button.  You want 4 blocks across and 4 blocks down.  Also set the desired block sizing.  The number of blocks in the rows and columns multiplied by the block sizes will equal the size of the quilt. Then tap OK. 

Now click on the Tools tab, which is between Layout and Size.  You will then have a Triangle Blocks tab.                 

You will see three options.  Diagonal from the bottom left to the top right, which I will refer to as right because it leans towards the right.  Diagonal from the bottom right to the top left, which I will refer to as left.  And Criss Cross.  For this tutorial we will be using Diagonal Right and Diagonal Left.  

The first thing I want to explain is that this part of Quilt Path seems to be designed to create mirror images.   You can have it only quilt one side of the mirror, or both sides of the mirror, but you cannot put different designs in the two halves, unless I am completing missing something.  I will double check this with Grace, but for this tutorial we are going under the assumption that we will either be quilting only one side of the triangle or both sides. 

The basic shape of our design is a huge Ohio Star.  You will notice that I have put triangle shapes into the corners and have made the two in the center of each side mirror each other just like you would if you were piecing an Ohio Star.  Remember that you have to click on the square that you were just working on to deselect it before selecting the next square you want to work on. 

The next step is to take away the parts of the triangles you do not want to quilt feathers in. 

Highlight the second square on the top row.  Then take the check off the box on the left triangle.  Notice that the triangle no longer shows on the quilt layout.  Click on that square again to deselect in and then keep working your way around the quilt.

You should now have the star shape on your screen.  Now we want to select the pattern we will be using.  I used a stock pattern called Feathered Triangle.

If you click the blue square in the top right corner of your design it will select all 12 outside squares.  Then tap place pattern.  It will place all of the patterns in all of the squares at once.  

For a printable version of this post click here.

This information was first published at www.ThreadWaggle.com