08 | Use printed fabric

TIP: We usually like to first use the solid fabric libraries to find color combinations for a quilt. Then, if we'd like to use printed fabric instead of solids, we replace the solid fabric with a printed fabric swatch in a similar color.

Exercise 08

08 | Upload 2+ digital fabric swatches and use one as a color tag.

Objective | To import digital fabric swatches and use them in our quilt blocks.

Did You Know | Using digital fabric swatches gives you a very realistic preview of what your quilt will look like using printed fabric.

01 | Find & Save Digital Fabric Swatches

The first step is to find good quality digital fabric swatches for your printed fabrics. We recommend visiting the fabric manufacturer's website - there are often downloadable swatches organized by fabric collection (a). But you can also download any image of your desired fabric to use as a digital fabric swatch (b).

a | Download a Collection of Fabric Swatches

In this example, we're going to download some Ruby Star fabrics from Moda Fabrics. The steps are similar for all downloads, so adapt these steps to your situation.

1. Go to the URL for the digital fabric swatch. In this example, I visited https://modafabrics.com/downloads and filtered fabric collections by Sarah Watts.

   

   Moda's fabric download page
2. Download JPG images onto your computer (click icon in the JPG Images column). In this example, I downloaded the Firefly collection.

   

   Each fabric manufacturer's website looks different
3. Move and organize the downloaded files on your computer.

   • Tip: If you're well organized, you can easily find and import your newly acquired digital fabric swatches.

b | Download Individual Fabric Images

Sometimes it's not possible to find fabric swatches on the manufacturer's website (this is especially true for older fabrics). The next best thing it so find an image of the fabric online.

1. Google the name of your desired fabric. It's helpful to search with as detailed of information as possible to find the correct fabric image. In this example, I searched for "Robert Kaufman Painterly Petals purple".

   

   Google search results
2. Click on the desired fabric image to go to the website. In this example, I need to also click on Visit to get to the online shop.

   
3. Right click on the desired fabric's image and select Open Image in New Tab.

   • Note: This will open only the fabric image in its own tab.

   

   Select Open Image in New Tab to isolate just the image
4. Right click on the image and select Save Image As.

   
5. Your computer's file system will pop-up. Save the image on your computer (where you'll be able to find it).

02 | Import Digital Fabric Swatches to PreQuilt

Now that you have the images saved on your computer, you can import and save them in PreQuilt.

1. Go to the main Dashboard by clicking on your Avatar and selecting Dashboard.

   • Alert: Don't forget to Save your quilt if you're working on one before exiting to the Dashboard.

   
2. On the main Dashboard, click on the FABRIC tab.

   
3. Click on Bulk Upload on the first tile.

   
4. Your computer's file system will pop-up. Select the image(s) you want to use and click on Open.

   

   The filing system of different computer systems and browsers look different. This is a Mac using Chrome.
5. Your selected fabric swatches are now loaded into PreQuilt.

   

03 | Editing Fabric Swatches

Fabric swatches are imported using the image's naming convention. You can organize your fabric swatches in PreQuilt, should you wish.

a | Renaming Fabric Swatches

1. Click on the Edit button on the fabric swatch's tile.

   
2. Rename the fabric swatch (optional).

   
3. Click Save to close.

   

b| Cropping Fabric Swatch Images

Sometimes fabric swatch images include a border or ruler that will be propogated in PreQuilt in your quilt design. To ensure it doesn't show up in your quilt, we can crop it out of the fabric swatch image.

1. Click on the Edit button on the fabric swatch's tile.

2. Click on the + and - Crop buttons until the black ruler is hidden.

   

   Fabric swatch with ruler

   

   Fabric swatch with ruler cropped out
3. Click Save to close.

   

c | Organizing into Folders

After awhile fabric swatches can get pretty unruly (just like real stashes!) and you can organize them into folders and subfolders. You can do this by project or collection or manufacturer - it's really up to you!

1. Click on the Add a Folder button on the Fabric Dashboard.

   
2. Name your new folder and click Save.

   
3. Drag the desired fabric swatch tiles into the folder.

   

   Empty Sarah Watts folder and all tiles on main dashboard

   

   Sarah Watts folder with 7 swatches and main dashboard has only 1
4. The selected fabric swatch tiles are now reorganized into the new folder.

   

   Inside Sarah Watt folder

04 | Use Fabric Swatches in Color Tags

Now that you've imported and edited your digital fabric swatches, let's link the digital fabric swatches to color tags.

1. Go to the main Dashboard by clicking on your Avatar and selecting Dashboard.

   
2. By default, the QUILTS tab will be selected and open.

3. Click on the Open Quilt button for the Autumn Tints quilt we've been working on.

   
4. Click on the COLOR TAGS tab on the left side control panel.

   

   

   Expanded Color Tag tab
5. Click on the Edit button next to the Color Tag you'd like to change. I'm going to start with Color Tag A.

   
6. The fabric library panel will slide out. Click on the PRINTS tab.

   

   Fabric library panel will slide out for editing
7. Click on the Select button under the printed fabric swatch you'd like to use for Color Tag A.

   • Note: If you organized your fabric into a folder, click on the folder first to see the fabric swatches.

   
8. When you've chosen your fabric swatch, click on the x button () to exit and save.
9. You can now see the new fabric is linked to Color Tag A.

   

10. You will now see that our blocks using Color Tag A now are linked to our printed Sarah Watts fabric. Since the print is very small, it might not be noticeable. So let's scale the fabric.

    • 

05 | Scaling Fabric Swatch

Sometimes, the scale of the fabric swatch will need to be adjusted to reflect the true scale of a printed fabric swatch in a block. Currently, this is done by eye as a rough guestimation of the fabric's scale.

1. Click on the Edit button for the Color Tag. In this example, I'm editing Color Tag A.

   
2. Click on the + and - scale buttons to increase or decrease the scale of the fabric swatch. As you change the scale, you will be able to preview the new scale in the blocks in the quilt.

   • Tip: Press the shift button to increase or decrease the scale in increments of 10.

   • Tip: You can also highlight the number and type in a new number.

   

   

   Preview the fabric scale in the blocks on the quilt grid
3. When you've chosen your fabric swatch, click on the x button () to exit and save.
4. Here's the new scale for our fabric swatch.

   

   Fabric scale before increase

   

   Fabric scaled (click on image to see zoomed in)