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You are here: Home > Community > Lessons > Lesson List > Tracing Letters in PatchDraw - Letter W

EQ Lessons: Tracing Letters in PatchDraw

by Barb Vlack and Angie Maidment

Before drawing the letters in EQ5 we need to get them from Microsoft Word, edit them in Microsoft Paint, and then bring them into EQ5 and start tracing.

Setup

1. In Microsoft Word (or similar word processing program) start a new document and select Arial Black as the font style. Type the desired letter that you would like to trace. For this particular lesson we are going to trace an uppercase "W"
2. Highlight the letter and type in the font size to 200.
3. On the EDIT menu choose Copy or Ctrl+C to copy the selected letter to the clipboard.
4. From the START menu, click on Accesories, and then on Paint, to open MS Paint.
5. In MS Paint, on the EDIT menu choose Paste or Ctrl+V to paste the letter into MS Paint. A window appears that says "The image in the clipboard is larger than the bitmap. Would you like the bitmap emlarged?" Click yes and continue.
6. Click on the Fill coloring tool and click on a color other than black or gray on the color palette bar and click on the letter to change the color of the letter.
7. On the FILE menu choose Save. The letter can be saved as a 24-bit bitmap in the folder of your choice. If you plan on tracing many letters in EQ5, perhaps you would like to make a folder titled "AlphabetBitmaps" and save all your bitmaps in there. Just remember where you saved it!

Setup In EQ

8. In EQ5 open a new project and name it whatever you would like, perhaps "Letters."
9. On the WORKTABLE menu, click on Work on Block.
10. On the BLOCK menu, click on New Block, and then on PatchDraw.
11. On the BLOCK menu, click on Import for Tracing. Find the bitmap that you saved from MS Paint in Step 7 above and click Open.
12. The letter "W" should then appear on the worktable. Center the letter on the drawing board.
13. Click on the Patchdraw tab at the bottom of the screen and you are ready to begin tracing.

Tracing In EQ

14. Click on the Octagon tool found in the extended menu from the Polygon tool button. Position your cursor at the upper left corner of the "W" you're going to trace and drag your cursor so you have an octagon positioned over the letter. Release.
15. Carefully position the point of your cursor on the dark square in the corner of the Bezier Edit tool and click. This will allow the pop-out menu to appear with more editing tools.
16. Click on a node of the octagon and move it to a corner of the "W". Click on each node of the octagon and position at another corner, including the inside points of the "W."
17. Eventually you will run out of nodes to position. Click on the last line of the octagon and there will be some options enabled on the pop-out menu. Click on Add. You will be adding a node to the center of the selected line. Position that node. Repeat this step four more times.

18. Finish up the drawing by deleting the block outline, deleting the imported bitmap, resizing the letter, coloring the letter, and saving your final project.

Have fun and happy quilting!