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© 1999 by Mike Bresciani. All Rights Reserved.
The other day I mentioned to my mom that since she already had CorelDRAW, it would be a great program to make, and experiment with quilting blocks. So of course she said, "Really, show me how." Sigh, me and my big mouth. Well a few hours later, when I asked her if she understood, she said yea, but she would never be able to remember it all. Then she grinned at me and added, "Why don't you make a tutorial so I can look it up later." Sigh, me and my big mouth. Well, mom here it is.
Start by turning on snap to grid. I also made my grid visible because I like the additional feedback, but it's not really necessary. I decided to use a 4-inch block, so I started by creating a square 4 inches on a side. Select the Rectangle tool and hold down on the CTRL key while you drag out a square shape. Watch the edit boxes while you drag it until it says 4.0 inches. Select the Pick tool and click outside the square to deselect it.
Now we're going to put a five point star in the middle, click on the Polygon tool. Set the number of points to 5. Drag out the polygon inside the square. You probably won't be able to get the edges to match up while you are drawing the shape, but we will fix that next.
Now grab the handle on the edge of the polygon and move it over the line on the square until it snaps into place. It should snap to the line without any problem since you have Snap to Grid turned on. Make sure you have the stretch cursor, it looks like two opposite arrows, and not the node edit tool, that looks like a single arrowhead. You'll know you have the wrong one if the side of your pentagon gets a new point.
Then I selected the zoom tool and clicked on the Zoom to All Objects button to get my working area to fill the screen. Turn off the Snap to grid.
There a couple of ways you can go from here. It depends on how many colors you will want in your design, and how complicated you want to get.
Duplicate the pentagon using CTRL D, and fill it with a different color to make it easier to see. If you look along the edges of the pentagon you will see an extra node in the center of each side of the shape. These can be moved to make the shape into a star. When you drag one, they will all follow. While moving the nodes hold down the CTRL key to make sure all the nodes are moved directly toward the center. You now have your shapes. Color them and group them together.
Rather than dragging the nodes you can create a hollow star by clicking on the star button. Again duplicate the pentagon and give it a different color. Make sure the top pentagon is selected, then click on the Polygon/Star button on the Property Bar. Color each shape and group them together.
To be able to color each of the points and the center a different color we need to create each element separately. To do this we will start with the solid star from the first example. Then use the knife tool to cut it apart.
Select the knife tool, it's on the flyout from the Shape tool. It looks like the tip of a scalpel.
To use the knife, move it over the corner for one of the points until the knife is standing straight up and down. Left click, let up on the mouse button then move the knife over to the opposite side of the point, until it stands straight up and down, then left click again. Be careful, that knife is sharp. If you hold down the mouse button while moving the knife you will make a crooked looking freehand cut instead of a straight line cut.
That point is now a new object.
When you create this new object it is created in front of the parent object, so to cut the next point you will need to start your cut away from this new object. Otherwise when you try to cut, the start of your cut will be on one object and the end will be on another object. Which will result in you not being able to complete the cut. This can be rather confusing if you don't understand what is happening. When you get to the last point, that object will be behind all the others. To get to it you will have to move it to the front. Do this with menu Arrange>Order>Move to Front or SHFT PGUP. Then make your last cut. Group all the shapes together.
We can get even more complicated, such that each part of the pentagon is also a different color. To do that we will create five objects to replace the area of the pentagon that is showing. Start with the last block and delete the pentagon shape. Select the Freehand Tool. Turn on Snap to Objects, and make sure Snap to Grid is off.
Start by clicking on one of the points. If you get within 5 pixels of the object the first node will snap to that object. This makes it very easy to align the new triangle shaped object you are about to draw. Now let go of the mouse button and move the cursor over to an adjacent point and click again. To continue the shape click on that same point again to start the next segment.
Note: When you are able to connect to an existing line the cursor will change to look like the one that has the arrow underneath. When you start a new segment with the arrowed cursor it will automatically connect to the line it is close to.
Okay, draw a line to the junction of the two points, click to finish the line and click a second time to start the next line. Drag the cursor over to the first start point and click to finish the object. While doing this make sure you have the cursor with the arrow shape as you connect or your object will not be closed, and you will not be able to fill your object with a color unless you have the Fill Open Curves option selected. Which by default is disabled.
If you did not get your object closed you can still do it by another method. Select both objects you want to connect. That would be the two line segments. Then Combine them. It's possible you have a single object already, and of course the Combine isn't necessary. Using the Node edit tool select both of the nodes you want to connect. Then click on the Join Two Nodes button on the Property Bar. Now drag the new single node into place.
Now that you have the block made the fun part can begin. Color the different shapes with some colors you might want to use for your quilt. Group the objects together then duplicate them. Move the duplicate over so they are next to the first group. If you turn off Snap to Object and turn on the Snap to Grid it will be easier to arrange the blocks next to each other, assuming the size of your block is a multiple of the grid size.
Now let's change the colors. Click on the eyedropper tool. Right click in the drawing window and select Fill/Outline from the popup menu.
Note: you could also use the other choices in this case such as 1x1, but if you decide to use pattern fills or Bitmap fills the eyedropper won't capture the complete fill pattern.
Now left click on one of the colors to pick up that color. After you get the color hold down the SHFT key, this will toggle the eyedropper to the fill bucket. Fill the shape with the new color. You can see which color or pattern you have in the fill bucket by looking at the square next to the bucket. Keep doing this until you have a block that is the opposite of the first block.
Select both blocks, CTRL D to duplicate them, then move the duplicates down under the others. Click on the horizontal mirror button on the Property Bar to flip the selection. Keep building up the pattern.
Changes are easy to make, just grab the blocks and rearrange them to try different patterns. Mirror different rows, change the colors.
Note: For an interesting article on changing colors check out Debbie Cook's tutorial on Color Styles.
Create blocks using traditional patterns or create original ones. Once you have a block you like single it out, save it and print it for future reference. The possibilities are endless. Have fun!
Using CorelDRAW to Make Quilting Blocks · Creating a Painted Effect from a Photograph · Using Grayscale Masks in Corel PHOTO-PAINT · Adding Color to Black and White Photos With Corel PHOTO-PAINT · Fun With Photos -- Selecting Objects Part II · Fun With Photos -- Selecting Objects · Using Corel PHOTO-PAINT's Image Sprayer · 3D Web Buttons with Rolled Edges Tutorial · 3D Web Button Tutorial
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