Inkscape for Quilting: Storm(ish) at Sea!

 This is another post on my evangelicalesque bent on showcasing what one can do with Inkscape for quilt design.

The above is not meant to be a finished quilt, but rather an exposition of some of the "stuff" that you can do.  Notice my inelegant colorway experimentation.

Creating a Palette:  There are many online resources that allow you to create a pallette using color theory on a color wheel.  Here is one such resource from Sessions College for Professional Design.  You can create a palete by using the square builder and filling it with the colors that you have chosen.  (You simply copy the color number into Inkscape fill and stroke box and create a swatch.  (There are online tutorials that you can find.

Here is an example of the pallet that I dispersed in an indiscriminate way to simply experiment with the color selector (eye dropper) and filler (paint bucket).  As you can see, you can have lots of rabbit-holish fun experimenting with colorways.

Creating Assets:  If one is to design (and I'm just experimenting and sharing), you have to create block assets.  But each block asset has to have discrete parts so that you can change colorways--e.g. have something to fill.   Here is a Square in Square in Square Block.

Here is the composition of the square in square to create a collection of grouped objects:

Each side of the HST is a discrete part of the shape that can be selected and filled with any color.  So if you are creating block "assets" using such components with discrete boundaries will allow you to have more flexibility with color.

 

Here is the asset I created for the Triangle in Square: 

There are three separate components (center triangle, and two side triangles) that can be filled with three color combinations if you liked!  Further, you could split the middle triangle to have yet more color ways.  Put to of them together, group them...you have your diamond!

Because Inkscape has several powerful functions that will allow you to manipulate your block assets.  Understand that once you build the assets, you only have to do it once!  Keep your assets saved in a file.  When you want to use them, you can copy and paste them into a new design.  It really is that easy.

Grouping/Ungrouping.  As you create assets that have discrete building blocks, you will want to group them together to have a contiguous block.  CTRL + G groups.   CTRL + Shift + G ungroups.  You will want to use those shortcuts because you will use them "muchly".  A grouped block can be rotated and flipped.  It cannot be colored differently until you ungroup.  Toggling between the grouped and ungrouped states is important.

Creating a Duplicate:  I would suggest grouping before creating a duplicate.  CTRL+D creates a duplicate that rests right on top of the object you have selected.  Simply use the arrow selector tool to grab it and move it where you like.  

Flipping Horizontally and Vertically:  Twisting and turning blocks is easy using the horizontal and vertical flips.  Again, make sure that your block is grouped or you will get some unwanted results.

Segments:  You can create discrete segments (rows, sashing, columns).  Here is an example of a column:

Here is another example: 

You can quickly see how creating just two columns, using the duplicate (CTRL+D) function, you can quickly create a quilt pattern..and in fact, it was simply these two elements that I used to create the very first graphic.  And once you create a row or a column, you can simply flip the objects around:  the column becomes a row, a row can become a column.  You can group two row/columns together and duplicate to finish out your design.

Resizing Assets:  Once you've put the 'hard' work in to create an asset, you can simply resize for any block that you wish. So for example in this quilt a square in square in square that is 1 unit as its smallest measure (e.g. the corners of the nine patch), it is 2 units (2x) bigger in the center.  You don't have to redraw.  If you drew the bigger block first, then simply reduce it by 50%. You will want to lock the object aspect ratio and reduce.  If you drew the smaller block first, you would simply do the obverse.

Is it really that easy?  Yes it is...but only after you do the heavy lifting to understand the interface and explore the programs options.

Save your work as you go.  I had the 1.0 version crash while I was using it.  I lost all of my initial storm at sea assets, though I was sure that I had saved it.  I upgraded to the newer 1.0.1 version.  My second recreation solidified my learnings, it was not a wasted effort.