• What is Bubble Jet Set, and how can I use it to make washable prints directly on fabric from my computer
• See how computer design works!!!  Links to individual quilt pages on which the computer design process is discussed and illustrated
• What kind of computer do you use.
• What programs do you use to design your quilts 
• Why do you use a vector drawing program rather than a paint program to design your quilts?
• Can you offer some advice on using Corel Draw! A power clip lesson
  
• How can I find out more about the various programs for quilters? 
• How do you get the design from your computer onto a piece of paper as large as a quilt?

What kind of computer do you use?

Answer: At present I have three PC's and a laptop.  My main computer for doing graphics is "Big George"  This is a state of the art (as of November 2000) Dell system with 60 gigabytes of hard drive space, and 512 megabytes of RAM.  Big George can handle most bit map jobs without choking. He also has a 21" screen, so I can see what I'm doing.  George is networked with Fred and Ethyl.  Fred does all the office work and most of the email.  George and Fred are good friends and usually play nicely together.  Ethyl sleeps most of the time, but when we need to print 100 pattern covers, and don't want to slow George down, she run's the printer.  She was magnificent in her day, but she's a little long in the tooth these days, with only a pentium 133 processor.  Helen Wheels is our most recent addition, and she goes on the road with me.  She's still not quite sure how to collect email from every location, but she loves to help my students turn their photographs into fabric.

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What programs do you use to design your quilts?

Answer: The program I use most often is Corel Draw! #8. (see Corel Draw lessons by Caryl)   It has both a paint program and a vector drawing program.  I seldom use the paint program.  I use the vector drawing program every day. 

In a vector drawing program you play with lines and objects. Most of the programs designed especially for quilters are vector drawing programs. Because we handle objects in our piecing and appliqué, and line in our quilting, the environment in a drawing program generally seems more familiar to quilters.  You can make traditional quilt blocks very simply in Corel Draw, but you can also make free form designs.  You can make any line or object, then change it's size, shape, and proportions and color infinitely. 

My quilt designs are usually a combination of objects that I have drawn directly in the computer and line drawings that I have drawn by hand on paper then scanned into the computer using a flat bed laser scanner.  The objects (birds for instance) are turned into bitmaps by the scanner.  Bitmaps are like microscopic postage stamp quilts.   They are a bunch of little rectangles called pixels that line up in rows and can look like a drawing or a picture.  Individual pixels can be altered in a paint program, but I haven't done much with that.  I immediately change my scanned drawings into vector drawings (with lines and shapes that I can color and manipulate). To convert the bitmap to a vector drawing, I use a little inexpensive program called Streamline.   All it does is convert bitmaps to vector drawings, and it does it very well. I can then import the Streamline file into Corel Draw.  It comes in as a group of objects.   As soon as they are ungrouped they can be changed.  If the lines are converted to closed objects, they can also be colored.  I find that if I want all closed objects (and I usually do) I need to make sure the shapes in my drawing are all closed, with no gaps in the lines.  I have also discovered that a heavier, blacker line, like the line from a fine point sharpie marker works best.

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How do you get the design that is on your computer screen out onto a piece of paper that is as large as a quilt.

Answer: I hang large sheets of paper on my studio wall.  The designs are printed from my computer onto clear acetate and projected onto the paper using an overhead projector.

This allows me to preserve the lines and proportions of the original small drawing. It only provides the general outlines for the quilt design.  I often spend a day or more refining the drawing and adding all the information I will need to piece together the finished quilt.

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Question: How can I find out more about the various programs for quilters.

Answer: There is a recent book on the market called The Quilters Computer Companion, by Judy Heim & Gloria Hansen.  This has information on all the various ways that quilters are using the computer, and information on the various programs that are available.  The book is available from No Starch Press 

I also have a number of links to sites with information about computers and quilts on my links page.

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Question: Why do you use a vector drawing program rather than a paint program for designing your quilts

As a quilt maker I am a "closed shape" person. Whether we are piecers or appliquers, we make shapes with lines around them filled with color, which is what vector drawing programs do. Any shape can be edited infinitely in Corel Draw, and then filled either with a single color or a gradation of color at the click of a mouse, or with a bit map (a bit map could be your photograph, a scan of your fabric, or a direct scan of the dandelions in your yard) (see quilts made from dandelion scans .......

http//www.bryerpatch.com/images/quiltrecords/oxymorons/qrec_dt&d.htm

and

http//www.bryerpatch.com/images/quiltrecords/yellow/qrec_yellow.htm

My quilt "Stars of Africa" which recently won second place at the AQS show in Paducah was designed entirely in Corel Draw. http//www.bryerpatch.com/images/quiltrecords/starsofafrica/qrec_starsofafrica.htm

Each 60 degree diamond is a mini collage of several different photographs. If a photograph needs to be altered in any way, you simply right click on it in Corel Draw, and it takes you immediately to Corel Photo Paint, which allows you to do a million different photo editing tricks. As soon as the image is saved in Corel Photo Paint the image in Corel Draw is automatically changed in the same way.

The trick to making the photos useful for quilters, in shapes other than rectangles, is to create a line drawing of the shape (the shape of a flower for instance) and then put the bit map of the flower inside this shape. This is called a power clip curve (never mind the technical computer lingo, it's much simpler than it sounds) Now you have a single flower without background, which can be superimposed over a different background, duplicated at any angle, skewed, stretched, enlarged, rotated, whatever. It's like cutting and pasting right on the computer screen, but you can make any image any size and any shape. It's the ultimate power trip.

In the case of the quilt made from my South Africa photos, once all the irregular shapes in my mini photo collages were combined, I placed the whole collage inside a sixty degree diamond. I made a second copy of the diamond just enough larger to create a quarter inch seam allowance, and place that behind the original diamond, then printed out only the template and seam allowance for each piece of the quilt. I never had to print the whole photograph and then cut away some of that expensive ink jet printer ink.

As always my philosophy is to try every tool that is available, and use the ones that work for you.

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Web Site Design by Caryl Bryer Fallert © 1997-2005 All Rights Reserved
Bryerpatch Studio, PO Box 116, Paducah, KY 42002

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