Organize Printed Fabric Swatches
On the Fabric Dashboard
Last updated
On the Fabric Dashboard
Last updated
A tag used on digital fabric swatches are different from what we formally called a Color Tag, which is now called a Fabric Link.
A Fabric Link is how we buddy up, bond, or link a specific quilt component with a fabric choice (formerally called a Color Tag).
There are two main ways to keep your fabric organized in PreQuilt - folders and tags.*
Folders are a great way to sort digital fabric swatches into groups. There is the potential for creating hierarchies and nesting folders inside one another. However, a digital fabric swatch can only belong to one folder.
Tags on the other hand are like labels or keywords and can be assigned to digital fabric swatches. You can add multiple tags to a single digital fabric swatch which can allow it to be recalled or offered as an option for being used in your quilt.
Once a digital fabric swatch has been imported into your fabric dashboard, you can create and move it into a folder.
Click on the folder with the + icon ().
Enter a name for your folder in the text box and click on the Save button.
Click and hold (continue pressing on the mouse button) onto the digital fabric swatch that you’d like to move. While still pressing on the digital fabric swatch, drag it into the folder.
Once the swatch has been moved, you’ll notice it is no longer visible on the dashboard and the number on the folder has changed from 0 to 1.
To edit or move the digital fabric swatch, click on the folder to open it up and see its contents.
If you'd like to move more than one digital fabric swatch at a time into a folder, it is much faster to move them in bulk.
Go to the the Fabric Dashboard.
Click on the dropdown menu called Move to Folder and select the folder to move the fabric swatches to. In this example, I'll select the folder called Ruby Star.
If you want to move to a subfolder, repeat steps 2-3 but select the subfolder instead.
The entire collection of digital fabric swatches have now been moved from the Home Folder to the Water folder (which is located inside the Ruby Star folder).
If you have a lot of digital fabric swatches loaded in your PreQuilt account, it can be useful to use folders when searching for the fabric you're looking for.
The example below shows how you can use folders to find a digital fabric swatch in the context of editing a Fabric Link. But you can use similar steps for other use cases, like editing a Fabric Link in edit block mode or using a digital fabric swatch as a static fabric.
Open the quilt you are working on.
Click on the Fabric Links tab on the left side control panel. The tab will expand and show you the fabric links that are being used in this quilt.
Click on the Edit button for the Fabric Link you’d like to link a digital fabric swatch to.
An edit panel will slide out from the left side with a Solids and Prints tab for the Fabric Link you’re editing. Click on the Prints tab.
Bug found - Rest of instructions coming soon
You can also label your fabric using our tagging system, which can help you organize certain fabrics into categories for easy access in PreQuilt. The benefit of tagging a fabric is that it can be informally grouped together and recalled along with other similar fabrics regardless of which folder it is saved in.
For example, imagine I’m working on a quilt and I would like to make blue and pink HST blocks. I can easily access all my blue fabrics by clicking on the blue tag in PreQuilt.
We have some default tags - such as red, orange, blue, low volume, widebacks, etc - that can get you started. But you can also create your own. There can be a total of 20 different tags used in your account and each fabric swatch can have up to 4 different tags.
Click on the FABRIC tab along the top of your PreQuilt dashboard.
Click on the toggle and choose List View.
Click on the Manage Tags button on the right hand side.
A pop-up will appear. In this pop-up window, you can create, delete and edit your digital fabric swatch tags.
Click on the Delete button next to a fabric tag.
An alert box will appear letting you know the quantity of fabrics that will be untagged once you delete the tag. To accept this, click Delete Tag. To not delete the tag, click Cancel.
The fabric swatch tag has been removed. To finalize, make sure to click the Save button at the bottom of the pop-up window.
Type the name of tag you’d like to create in the text box.
Then click on the Create Tag button.
It’s now added to the list of digital fabric swatch tags.
Click the Save button at the bottom of the pop-up window.
Click on the pencil icon next to the swatch tag you’d like to edit.
Change the text for your swatch tag and press the enter button on your keyboard.
Click the Save button at the bottom of the pop-up window.
It’s a good idea to have some kind of organization system in place for managing your digital fabric swatches, especially if you plan on uploading a lot of them. Here we'll detail how to filter tags in two situations:
From the Fabric Dashboard
When using digital fabric swatches in your quilts
If you use swatch tags to organize your fabric swatches, you can easily filter your fabric stash using swatch tags.
Click on the FABRIC tab along the top of your PreQuilt dashboard.
Click on the toggle and choose List View.
Click on the toggle and choose Deselect All.
Click on the swatch tag for the digital fabric swatches that you’d like to look at. In this example, I’ve clicked on blue so I can see all my fabric swatches that have been tagged as blue.
If you have a lot of digital fabric swatches loaded in your PreQuilt account, it can be useful to use tags to filter and search for the fabric you're looking for.
The example below shows how you can use tags to filter in the context of editing a Fabric Link. But you can use similar steps for other use cases, like editing a Fabric Link in edit block mode or using a digital fabric swatch as a static fabric.
Open the quilt you are working on.
Click on the Fabric Link tab on the left side control panel. The tab will expand and show you the fabric links that are being used in this quilt.
Click on the Edit button for the Fabric Link you’d like to link a digital fabric swatch to.
An edit panel will slide out from the left side with a Solids and Prints tab for the Fabric Link you’re editing. Click on the Prints tab.
At the top, you'll see all your fabric swatch tags. Click the toggle toward the Deselect All side. You will now see all the tag buttons have been deselected and are white.
Click on the tag button for the type of fabric you’re looking for. In this example, I’m looking for a blue fabric. You will see that tag button highlighted and changed to the pink and you’ll see only fabrics that have been tagged “blue”.
Click on the Select button under the digital fabric swatch you’d like to link to your Fabric Link.
Click on the checkmark on the tile for each of the digital fabric swatches that you'd like to move. Once selected, the checkmark will turn pink ().
Click on the checkbox next to Use tags to filter ().
Click on the checkbox next to Use tags to filter ().
Click on the x () on the Fabric Link panel to exit.
