Well, used my time to look into the Procreate program on the Ipad as I had seen that Bethanne Nemesh had offered a Procreate for Quilters mini course. Initially went with the general videos that Procreate offers for free and must say, was totally bamboozled with the possibilities. Had no idea how powerful that program was. So far I had only used it for doodling the odd design and to make a little booklet for my Freemotionquilting class.
Did some amazing learning through sitting there for hours on end and managed some spectacular drawings but lacked some insight into the use of layers and moving things around in a less haphazard manner.
Love this little sketch. Traced the original design off a drawing and then multiplied it somehow. Reminded me of a Christmas bauble. Might look good on a Xmas table runner stitched out in gold.
I did end up taking Bethanne's online class as I was interested in the possibilities for quilting and designing. Went through most of it today (2hrs) and must say it is very good. Everything you need to know as a beginner from gestures to brushes, colour fills, selection tools and more... and it did answer some of my questions about the use of layers in a drawing program. So this is what I drew today following along Bethanne's example. Basically created a piece of fabric with that single heart design.
Obviously I am not going to make my own fabric but this was good learning in terms of repeating your design in order to get multiples of the same thing. Very handy for wholecloth work in terms of laying down your ideas and playing around with orientation and settings. The class did clarify a few points where I was utterly confused with all the different gestures and possibilities. Bethanne does have the knack to stay focussed on the essentials which is where I am sometimes lacking. Not gone through the whole class but I am a bit excited about the possibilities.
If you have an Ipad and want to learn how to utilize this more effectively for your quilts, I can highly recommend Bethanne's Procreate for Quilters class.
Karin
First of all, Karin -- my heart goes out to you! This is so bizarre, 2 years of lockdown during which time I knew zero people who had COVID, and now all of a sudden it seems like every time I turn around, someone else I know has come down with it. I hope you're on the upswing and that your recovery is swift and complete. Second... I really appreciate your feedback about Bethanne's Procreate class. I have been doodling quilting designs on my iPad for years already, but just using note taking apps and really simple drawing apps that I'd downloaded for other purposes. I first got a glimpse of Procreate when my tattoo artist was using it to show me the bird design he'd created to cover up an old, faded 30-year-old tattoo on my shoulder. He was using layers with a photo of my existing tattoo showing how/where the new design would fit over it on my shoulder, and showing me with and without color, etc and I thought it looked like such a cool program. I was excited to see that Bethanne had a class on using it specifically for quilting because it's probably like Corel Draw that is so powerful, with so many tools available, that you can just get bogged down and overwhelmed without a clear pathway for learning the basic tools specific to what you're wanting to use it for. Do you know if you can save a line drawing from Procreate as an SVG file? Because if so, the file could be imported into Art & Stitch software, stitches assigned, and it would be a great way to draw quilting designs that could be stitched out by my longarm computer... If you DID design something in Procreate that you liked for custom fabric, I think you could have it digitally printed in a small run either from Spoonflower or from Honest Fabrics -- then you can skip the piecing and get right down to the fun of quilting your designs. Anyway, thanks for the review and Happy Independence Day.
ReplyDeleteI just remembered that you live in Australia and it is NOT Independence Day there... Whoops! Sorry for being an Annoying American. Happy Ordinary Monday to you instead. :-)
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