Pencil vs. Mouse

Camellia  21" x 21"

This is one of my newer applique designs and I'm currently working on a pattern for it.  I did machine quilt it and will have a good photo of the finished quilt soon.

I design all of my appliques using paper and pencil.  I do a lot of sketching and keep files of ideas and also collect things I find in nature to use as patterns. Once I've designed a quilt around my appliques, I use graph paper to map out the exact size appliques I will need and then draw them to fit.  Lots of erasing goes on before I'm happy and have what I want.  If I am drawing a symmetrical flower for example, I do one half on graph paper, fold it on the center line, place it on my window and trace the other half.  Perfect!  Sometimes I  use a simple light box.  I have a set of circle templates and a draftsman's compass for making circles big and small. 

I do use my Electric Quilt program to lay out quilts and color them, but I have never used the graphic drawing part of it to draw appliques.  I've been thinking that I should get myself up to speed and be a little more professional with my design work so.....recently, I enrolled in an online quilting class through Quilt University:  (www.quiltuniversity.com).The class is EQ Applique Design and teaches exactly what I need. I started Lesson One over the weekend and became hopelessly stuck trying to draw a heart.  The teacher even sent me a separate video and I still can't do it.  I think there's a problem with the software - yeah right! 

I could have drawn 1,000 hearts by now on my paper - any size, any shape I chose.  Maybe I should stick with what I know and can do.  I'll keep trying though:  I don't want to "drop out" of university!

The rest of my time right now is devoted to preparing a quilt book proposal with the far off hopes of having it published.  The proposal itself is daunting, but I am working my way through it.