Tech Sunday - How to draw a straight line in Quilt Path

The first time I went into Design & Create - Patterns, I tried to draw a straight line.    I have not had a lot of time to play in this part of Quilt Path and this is one thing I just could not figure out. 

There is a line button and I was able to draw all kinds of squiggly things with it.  I even used it to sign my name, but I just could get a straight line.  Can you believe it is as easy as clicking one button.  

In PatternCad on the right side under Patterns, click on the Draw button. Then select Line.  See the button with nodes on it under Node Spacing.  It is selected by default, click on it to deselect.  

Now draw a line.  

Yes, it really was that easy.  

Quilt Path - How to make concentric circles

Now that we know how to get Quilt Path to make a circle, we can also have it make concentric circles.

We are going to start with our 50 sided polygon.

Click the nodes button on the left side of the screen.  

This will highlight our circle with solid red nodes.  At the top of the screen click on the copy button.  

On the right side of the screen, under Patterns click on the edit button.

Since both of our circles are the same size we will want to re-size the selected circle.  Let's make it larger.  Click on the Size button.

To keep our circle looking like a circle and not an oval you will want to lock the aspects so that they change together, so we need to click on the lock icon.  We also want to make a dramatic change so let's change our step size to jumbo.  Now click the up button.

Notice how the circles are not concentric.  We still need to move the highlighted circle.  Click the Move button.  It is easier to control where we are going if we also change our step to small. 

Now use the arrow keeps to move the circle to the desired location. 

We now have concentric circles!

Quilt Path - How to make a circle

First off, I want to talk about quilting a circle.  If you are using a circle template on your longarm, you might think you are quilting a perfect circle.  After all, if you did it well, it looks like a circle.  Here is the rub, stitches don't bend, they are straight! So that circle you just quilted is actually a polygon with lots of very tiny straight sides. 

I never thought of that until today, but it is true.  Every curve we quilt is made up of straight stitches, because stitches don't bend.  The smaller your stitches are, the more sides you have and the closer you get to a true circle. 

So how do get Quilt Path to make a circle for us?   Now that we know that any circle we quilt is actually a polygon in disguise, the steps to do this are pretty straight forward.   

From your Home page, in Design & Create choose the Pattern button.

This will bring up PatternCad.  On the right side click on the EZ button.

Now choose the Polygon button.

When the Polygon screen opens you will see a triangle.  At this point you should be having flashbacks to high school geometry.  You can either hit the plus sign 47 times, or click on the number and you will be able to enter 50.  

It looks like a circle!