Drawing Tools

Over the next few days I plan to show you how to draw for spikey blocks which you foundation piece, like these and New York Beauties etc.





You won't have to do maths but you will need equipment and good pens or pencils.

This is a T Square. You don't need a drawing board to use it on but you do need a table with a straight edge to butt it against. This one is for right hand users as you move it and hold it with your left hand whilst you draw your lines with your right. Not essential but really nice to have.
Even better is a drawing board with parallel motion.

Again not essential but it is a lovely thing to own if you have space. They used to be really expensive and there are far slicker ones than this but they can be picked up for almost nothing (or even nothing on Freecycle , see previous post of a day or two ago), now that draftsmen do all their work on CAD programs. And if you are wondering why I don't do this on my PC, I can but I don't have a printer to print it out big enough.

These are right angled (90º and 45º) set squares and quilting rulers. Cheap sets are fine but again big large ones are nicer to use. Know this, a right angle is 90º.

These would be 60º degree set squares if they weren't my quilting rulers. They are just as good to use though the one on the right doesn't have sharp corners so would be a pain to use without a T square or drawing board. And there is an easy way with a pair of compasses to get the same angle.

And this is a protractor. Note that you always mark off from where the vertical line crosses the horizontal one. This one isn't very big and SIZE MATTERS! (but it is useable).

These are not compasses, they are pairs of compasses. For what I'll be showing you again, bigger is better. The two in the middle are the best as they don't change their angle by accident. Only get these if you feel you will be doing this sort of thing again.
This is a beam compass I found in an art shop, it was expensive and I love it. It normally doesn't have the inelegant pen taped on one end but pencil lines will not show up in the photos.
This is another type of beam compass where they supply the points for you to slide onto a yard stick (though I haven't found a yard stick yet which it fits on comfortably)
I bought mine from Big Horn Quilts but they don't seem to stock them any more. I found this shop and this one in the States, and I think this one is in Spain (the clue is it's priced in Euros)
I wouldn't be without them as they enable me to draw circles up to about 72" square.

These are my two yard (metre) sticks. One is aluminum (a bit bent since DH sat on it) the other is plastic but it's too fat to slide the compass onto.
Here you can see them on the aluminum one, it works but only just.Another tool, a really good ruler. This is the back of mine it has a rubber insert to stop it slipping. What I would give to get a longer one like this in inches...