Draw or trace an appliqué shape

Beside the 25 starter shapes you can draw your own, or trace one from a photo of a drawing or a pattern. The shape editor turns what you draw into true lines and circles, so its templates cut exactly, and keeps it in My shapes to use in any quilt.

Draw a shape

1. Open Blocks, then Appliqué shapes, and choose Draw a shape. To start from a starter shape, choose its Edit a copy: the library’s stays as it is.

2. Choose a tool under Tools:

   • Draw (freehand, tidied): Draw a part in one stroke. When you lift, it’s tidied into true lines and circular curves, with your stroke faint behind it.
   • Point (move a point): Drag a point, or move it with the arrow keys by the grid.
   • Line (point to point): Tap point to point; tap the first point again to close the part.
   • Curve (bend an edge): Drag the diamond on an edge to bend it; double-tap it to straighten.
   • Circle (centre, then size): Press at the center and drag out to its size.

3. Didn’t like the tidy? Undo tidy puts your stroke back. For a shape the same on both sides, turn on Mirror left to right: draw the left half and the right follows.

4. Each part is listed under Parts, back to front, with its name and its fabric role. Rename a part, move it forward or back, or take it away.

5. Choose Done. The shape is saved in My shapes, and you can add it to a quilt from Add appliqué.

Trace a picture

1. In Appliqué shapes, choose Trace a picture, then Choose a photo: a photo of a drawing or a pattern.

2. Under Say how big it is, put the two blue rings on two marks you know, such as a ruler’s 1 and 4, and type the distance between them. Without this the picture is shown 10″ across, and you can resize the shape after.

3. Draw over it with Draw, one stroke a part. The photo stays faint underneath. Choose Done tracing when you’ve finished.

The photo stays on your device: it’s never printed, shared or saved.

The shape’s checks

Parts and checks says what can’t be cut and what’s only hard:

• Never saved: edges that cross, or an outline that doesn’t close. The point stays put, and the editor says why.
• Hard to turn under: a tip sharper than 30°, or a part under ½″ across, is hard to turn with a turn-under allowance. Fused, it’s fine. You can still use it.

A part too small to turn, such as a bird’s eye, can be embroidered instead: the quilt then takes it off the templates and the yardage, and the placement sheet marks where to stitch it.

Change a shape in a quilt

In the designer, choose a placed piece and Edit the shape. The editor opens on it, and Done changes that quilt’s pieces of it, never the library’s. Each time you finish, My shapes keeps a new version.

On an iPad or a phone

If it doesn’t look right

• The tidy straightened a curve. Choose Undo tidy, or use Curve to bend that edge back.
• Done is grayed out. An edge crosses another, or nothing’s drawn yet. The checks say which.
• The traced shape is the wrong size. Put the rings on two marks further apart, or resize the piece once it’s in the quilt.

Drafting appliqué by hand? See Appliqué for beginners.

Checked against the app on October 26, 2026