How to Draw a Hexie Flower in EQ7

Six hexagons around a center hexie look something like a flower, forming the first round in the classic Grandmother’s Flower Garden arrangement. But what if the outer edges of the petals were curved to look even more like a flower?

A former student emailed the question, wondering if such a flower could be drawn in EQ7. Here’s how.

Go to the Block worktable and click Block>New Block>PatchDraw Block. Click on the Applique tab. Click and hold the Polygon tool to open the flyout. Choose the hexagon shape.

Bring the cursor to the top left corner (0,0) and hold the control key while clicking and dragging to form a hexagon shape. The control key will ensure that the hexagon has six equal sides and the goal is to use the ruler to measure a 1” side.

With the hexagon still selected, click “Move selected segments to center of block”. You can tell an object is selected if there are bounding squares around the edges and a four-way arrow inside. If the object is not selected, use the Pick tool (black arrow) and click on one of the edges.

With the hexagon still selected, click “Clone selected segments”. Use the four-way arrow to move the new hexagon into place.

Choose the Shape tool and click on one of the outer corner nodes on the new hexagon. Click on the minus, delete nodes. Repeat for the second outside corner node.

You should now have a half hexagon. Still with the Shape tool, click on the straight line of the half hexagon to select it. Click “Convert line to curve”.

Use the handles to create a curved edge.

Once you have the shape you want, and with it still selected, click “Clone selected segments”. With the new petal selected, type 60 degrees in the rotation box and hit enter.