Using Art and Stitch Plus 

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Sunflower Block Design

I thought I would share with you today how I created my adapted sunflower quilt block in Art and Stitch.   Art & Stitch Plus (for embroidery) contains Accuquilt Go! shapes folder under the library. I have AccuQuilt dies number 55007 and 55042. That gives me a good start on the applique shapes for this project. I pulled the shapes I wanted to use from both dies and added shapes from the Art & Stitch shapes folder under libraries to complete my project.  I am using a combination of AccuQuilt Go! die shapes and Art and Stitch Library Shapes.




With my pattern handy for reference, I drew a 12 inch square. I'll use this square for reference in placing my shapes. I also draw a small half-inch or 1 inch square for test cuts on my Scan N Cut cutting machine.
Once you have laid out your block you can delete any remaining shapes. You no longer need them. I save this file as an ANS working file. This is my master reference file. Assign thread colors to your applique shapes. Next I divided the file shapes according to color or fabric assigned. Place these separate colors in separate files and Save. These will be the files saved in SVG or FCM (Brother native) format. Save in the appropriate extension for your cutting machine.

Now back to the master file. I began by coloring in my applique shapes. For example, select all the sunflower petals and color yellow.
















Under the Properties Panel be sure to check the fill box and click apply.  Repeat on all applique shapes to fill in color. This is only for reference and will not be saved as a stitch or applique file. I will use this in electric quilt as a "photo" block.










If portions of your flowers seem to disappear when coloring remember you can bring them forward (everything's in layers) by changing their order in sequence View.The largest pedal on the sunflower should be first (or behind) the two center shapes.

When complete, click the File tab and Export Image and save the file as a JPG or BMP map.  Unclick the EXPORT BACKDROP box if you used a picture of your block from the pattern to help line up your applique shapes.  Or you may use your Windows Snipping tool to save the image. Either way will work. Just remember where you save any files on your computer.

Last step is to print the block outlines to use as a placement guide.  Back to your master file.  Select the artwork and under the Properties Panel enter a 2 in the Pen Width (mm) box.  Click APPLY.  This should give you nice bold outlines.

Now select the PRINT icon on the upper horizontal toolbar.  A preview should appear and click PRINT.  You should get four pages.

Use the dotted lines on the pages to align and tape.  Now they are ready to use as a placement guide for applique on your blocks.

Next time we'll talk about setting the quilt up in electric quilt.

Previous Posts on this subject:
Sunflowers - Part 1,  Growing Sunflowers - Part 2