Fussy Cut and Rotate Fabric Tools

Our best-selling online course is back and better than ever! APQS Longarm Certification Sponsored by Quilting Daily has been revised and updated. Not only will you learn how to make beautiful quilts, you’ll also gain skills to turn your passion into a paycheck with tips on how to run your own quilting business.

EQ7 allows you to design and plan your quilts down to the very last detail, including fussy cutting fabrics and rotating the fabrics for the perfect look.

The Fussy Cut Tool  

The Fussy Cut tool allows you to move a fabric print around in a patch to better place the print image. This works best using fabrics with large objects, florals and stripes.

The Fussy Cut tool is only available on Layers 1 and 2.

Using the Fussy Cut Tool:

  1. Click the Fussy Cut tool to select it.
  2. Click and hold the mouse on the fabric in your quilt or block.
  3. Drag your mouse to make the fabric move in the patch.
  4. When you’ve found the best location for the fabric, release the mouse.
  5. Click Add to Sketchbook to save the quilt and to save the block as a new coloring.

Note:
To nudge the fabric in small increments, use your keyboard arrow keys to move the fabric in the patch.

The Rotate Fabric Tool 

The Rotate Fabric tool allows you to rotate fabric swatches in individual patches of your blocks or quilts. This is especially helpful for striped, pictorial and border prints.

The Rotate Fabric tool is only available on Layers 1 and 2.

Using the Rotate Fabric Tool:

  1. Click the Rotate Fabric tool to select it.
  2. Choose a rotation option from the palette. (See below for more details on rotation options.)
  3. Click on a patch in the quilt.
  4. You may need to use the Fussy Cut tool to adjust your fabric after you rotate.

Note:
For a quicker method of rotating fabric, use Ctrl + click to rotate the fabric in all the matching patches of the quilt. Use Alt + click to rotate the fabric in matching patches of alternating blocks in the quilt.

Unlike the color tools, these two methods rotate matching patches, not matching fabric.

——————————————————————————–

Rotating Fabric Using the Simple Method:

The Simple method rotates the fabric swatch clockwise in 90 degree increments. Four clicks of the mouse will return the fabric to its original orientation.


——————————————————————————–

Rotating Fabric Using the Advanced Method:

The Advanced rotation method allows you to rotate your fabric at any angle (0-359 degrees) and in any number of rotations (1-16). Each click of the mouse will rotate the fabric based on the numbers entered in the palette.

For example:

With the starting angle at 45 degrees and the number of rotations at 8 you’ll see the fabric rotate 45 degrees on click 1.

With the rotation set to 8 rotations, you should expect 8 clicks to return the fabric to the first position (0, or 360). Since 360 degrees divided by 8 is 45, then two clicks is 45 + 45 (90). Three clicks is 45+45+45 (135) and so on.

Calculating Angles:

Count how many rotations are needed (oftentimes it’s the number of patches around the block center).

Divide 360 by number of rotations (for example: 360÷8)

The result will be the angle you need to input in the Rotate Fabric palette.

——————————————————————————–

Rotating Fabric Using the Align to Edge Method:

The Align to Edge rotation method allows you to rotate your fabric based on the actual edges of the patch. If the patch has 5 edges, then you can select any one of the 5 edges for aligning the fabric.

The striped fabric has been aligned to the long edge of the triangle patches.

Appeared in:

Quiltmaker November/December ’15

Related Articles

Join the Conversation!