Pattern 11

Monday, January 19, 2015
I'm going to switch gears now for the next 10 patterns.  This series of patterns will be created from some basic quilt block designs.  For all of these patterns, I will be saving them as .png files just as I did with pattern #3.  If you will recall, .png files support transparency.  So each of these patterns I will be creating in black and transparent.  That way the pattern will allow whatever color is already in the space to show through.

For these patterns, I used some basic built in quilt blocks from Electric Quilt.  I kept the colors simple to just black and white.  I then exported the block to a .jpg file and then opened it in Photoshop Elements.  Using the magic wand tool with 'Continuous' unchecked, I was able to make a selection of all the white areas.  I then deleted them by simply hitting the 'delete' key.  I could then save my quilt block pattern as a .png file to retain the transparent parts.

If you don't have Electric Quilt, you could create these designs directly in Photoshop Elements.  You would need to turn your grid on (View -> Grid), and make sure View -> Snap To -> Grid is checked.  By using the Polygonal Lasso tool, you can select square, rectangular, and triangular sections on your grid and fill them with black using your Paint Bucket tool to create your quilt block design.  If you use the option of 'Add to Selection' while using the Polygonal Lasso tool, you can keep adding until the entire block design is selected at once.  Then when using the Paint Bucket tool, make sure 'Continuous' is not checked so when you do the fill, all of the selected areas will fill at once.

 
I reduced the size of the file to a 2 inch square.  Just a refresh here, go to Image -> Resize -> Image Size, and set the height and width to 2 inches.  To save the pattern, go to Select -> All, and then Edit -> Define Pattern from Selection.  For these patterns, I am naming them with Qlt at the beginning.  This one is Qlt001 2 in.  Here is the pattern filled into an gray 8 inch block.