08 | Change block orientation

Exercise 08

08 | Create a quilt layout by rotating or mirroring your blocks.

Objective | To change the orientation of your quilt blocks in your quilt grid. You can do this by rotating and mirroring your quilt blocks. You'll also learn how to reset your blocks to their default orientation.

01 | Rotate Blocks

PQ Tip: Rotation of blocks is most successful on asymmetrical blocks. This can be either assymetrical in shape or use of color.

We can use both intentional block rotation and random rotation of the blocks. Both are fast and easy to do in PreQuilt.

a | Intentional Block Rotation

1. On the quilt grid, select the blocks to rotate by clicking on them. Selected blocks will be outlined in blue. In this example, I've selected Checker Even.

   • Tip: You can use the selection options from the center Toolbar or to select multiple blocks, keep clicking on them.
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2. Click on the Rotate button () on the central Toolbar.

   
3. The selected blocks have now been rotated 90 degrees.

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b | Random Block Rotation

1. On the quilt grid, select the blocks to rotate by clicking on them. Selected blocks will be outlined in blue. In this example, I've selected all of the blocks by clicking on the infinity symbol in the top left corner of the quilt grid.

   • Tip: You can use the selection options from the center Toolbar or to select multiple blocks, keep clicking on them.

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2. Click on the RANDOMIZE tab on the left side control panel.

   
3. Click on the Rotate button on that tab.

   
4. The blocks will now be randomly rotated.

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02 | Mirror Blocks

PQ Tip: You can mirror blocks vertically (left/right) and horizontally (top/bottom).

a | Vertically Mirroring Blocks

1. On the quilt grid, select the blocks to mirror by clicking on them. Selected blocks will be outlined in blue. In this example, I've selected Columns Even.

   • Tip: You can use the selection options from the center Toolbar or to select multiple blocks, keep clicking on them.

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2. Click on the ROTATE/MIRROR tab on the left side control panel.

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3. Click on the Top/Bottom button.

   
4. The blocks in the even columns are now mirrored upside down.

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b | Horizontally Mirroring Blocks

1. On the quilt grid, select the blocks to mirror by clicking on them. Selected blocks will be outlined in blue. In this example, I've selected Columns Even.

   • Tip: You can use the selection options from the center Toolbar or to select multiple blocks, keep clicking on them.

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2. Click on the ROTATE/MIRROR tab on the left side control panel.

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3. Click on the Left/Right button.

   
4. The blocks in the even columns are now mirrored upside down.

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03 | Use the Magic Quad

Magic Quad: The Magic Quad feature will take the top left quadrant of a quilt and will mirror those blocks as a whole horizontally mirror it into the top right quadrant. It will then also mirror the entire top half of the quilt and mirror it vertically into the bottom half of the quilt.

1. Create a design in the top left quadrant of your quilt. This can be intricate or as simple as placing all the blocks in the same orientation.

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2. Click on the Magic Quad button () on the central Toolbar.

   
3. Now your quilt will look like this.

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04 | Reset Block Orientation

At some point, you'll want to reset the block orientation (rotation or mirroring) back to normal.

1. On the quilt grid, select the blocks to reset by clicking on them. Selected blocks will be outlined in blue. In this example, I've selected all blocks.

   • Tip: You can use the selection options from the center Toolbar or to select multiple blocks, keep clicking on them.

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2. Click on the Reset button () on the central Toolbar.
3. Click on the option you'd like to reset, either Reset Rotation or Reset Mirror. In this example, I'll select Reset Mirror.

   • Tip: This selection will depend on how you rotated your blocks.

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4. Now all the blocks have been reset to their original orientation.

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