Use Printed Fabric Swatches

In Block Editor or On Quilt Design Wall

Once you’ve uploaded your digital fabric swatch(es) into PreQuilt, you can use them in a variety of ways to visualize how they’d look in your quilt. In this section, we’ll go through how to use digital fabric swatches in:

1. Fabric Links (formerly called Color Tags)

2. Quilt Blocks (Fussy Cutting)

3. Quilt Borders

4. Quilt Binding

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01 | Use for a Fabric Link

One of the ways to use a digital fabric swatch globally in your quilt is to use it as a Fabric Link (formerly called Color Tag). Anytime a specific Fabric Link is used in that quilt, it will use the digital fabric swatch that is linked to that Fabric Link. If you change the digital fabric swatch associated to that Fabric Link, all quilt components/pieces using that Fabric Link will also be updated.

1. From the Quilt Dashboard, open the quilt you are working on.

   
2. 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.

   

   Fabric Links Tab (collapsed)

   

   Fabric Links Tab (expanded)
3. Click on the Edit button for the Fabric Link you’d like to link a digital fabric swatch to.

   
4. 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. This tab will show you all the digital fabric swatches you have uploaded to your PreQuilt account.

   
5. Click on the Select button under the digital fabric swatch you’d like to link to your Fabric Link.

   
6. Click on the X () on the Fabric Link panel to exit.

   
7. All quilt components and pieces that uses Fabric Link A are now updated and using the Gingham printed fabric.

   

   Before: Fabric Link A is a solid gray fabric

   

   Before: Fabric Link A is a gray gingham fabric

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02 | Use in a Quilt Block

ALERT: Digital fabric swatch position and rotation is universal to all blocks when used in a Fabric Link. You cannot fussy cut individual blocks using the same fabric link. Changes made to the Fabric Link will affect everything that uses it.

TIP: If you'd like to have different parts of a digital fabric swatch fussy cut, we'd recommend using your digital fabric swatch as a static fabric. Learn more here.

When creating or editing a quilt block, you can manipulate your digital fabric swatch in two different ways:

• Changing the position of your digital fabric swatch in your block piece

• Rotating the direction of your digital fabric swatch in your block piece

Please note that you can make these changes at either the Block Editor level (by editing a quilt block) or at the quilt level (by editing a Fabric Link).

• The pro of making these changes at the Block Editor level is you can really focus on the detail for a single block.

• The pro of making these changes at the Quilt Editor level is that you can see how these changes will look across the entire quilt.

a | Changing the Position of a Digital Fabric Swatch in a Quilt Block

In this example, the fabric being used has cute little bunnies that I’d like to visualize focusing on it in a Kaleidoscope quilt. However, in my PreQuilt preview, I may not be able to see the bunny. To reposition the fabric to highlight the bunny, we’ll change the properties for the Top and Left position of the digital fabric swatch.

1. Open the quilt you’d like to edit.

   
2. Click BLOCKS tab on the left side control panel.

   
3. Click on the Edit Block button for the block with the fabric you’d like to fussy cut.

   
4. The Block Editor panel will slide out with the block. Click on the block component (patch or piece) that you’d like to link a digital fabric swatch to. It will be outlined in a box.

   
5. On the left side control panel, click on the Edit button for the Fabric Link that you’d like to change.

   
6. An edit panel will slide out from the left side with with the printed fabric swatch being used highlighted.

   
7. Change the number for Move Top and Move Left until the bunny is visible in the quilt block piece.

   • TIP: If you hold the shift button and then press the up or down arrows on your keyboard, the numbers will increase or decrease in groups of ten. This will make the process a little faster.

   

   

   Before position changed

   

   After position changed to highlight bunny
8. Once you're happy with how your fabric has been repositioned, click on the X () on the Fabric Link panel to exit back to the Block Editor.

   
9. Click on the Save to Quilt button in the top right corner of the Block Editor to go back to the full quilt.

   
10. Here's a before and after of our quilt:

    

    Before fabric position changed

    

    After fabric position changed

b | Changing the Rotation of a Digital Fabric Swatch in a Quilt Block

Similar to repositioning a digital fabric swatch in a quilt block, we can also rotate a digital fabric swatch to change its appearance in a quilt block.

In this Help Guide, we’ll be editing a digital fabric swatches position at the Quilt Editor (digital design wall) level.

1. On the left side control panel, click on the Fabric Links tab.

   
2. It will expand down and show you the Fabric Links used in this quilt. Click on the Edit button next to the Fabric Link you’d like to change.

   
3. An edit panel will slide out from the left side with with the printed fabric swatch being used highlighted.

   
4. Change the number for Rotate until the fabric is rotated as desired.

   
5. Click on the x button ()to exit the Fabric Link edit panel.

   
6. Here's a before and after of our quilt:

   

   Closeup of before fabric rotation

   

   Closeup of after fabric rotation

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03 | Use in Quilt Borders

NOTE: Rotating of the fabric used in the border will only affect the border itself. It will not change the digital fabric swatch settings being used in the quilt blocks.

As the default, the borders are built with the digital fabric swatch all pointing up. But a really great new feature we have is being able to rotate the direction (by 90 degrees) of a digital fabric swatch when it's being used in a quilt border. This is especially useful for when you might have striped fabric.

1. On the left hand control panel, click on the Binding/Border tab.

   
2. Click on the Add Border button.

   
3. The default border is 2.0” wide and uses Fabric A. In this example, I’m going to edit the border to be 6.0” wide and use the dropdown to select Fabric Link C. You will see the quilt update to visualize the new border.

   • TIP: If the fabric you want to use in the border has not yet been linked to a Fabric Link, create a new Fabric Link for it under the Fabric Link tab.

   

   

   By default the direction for all border pieces is pointing up
4. If you'd like to rotate the border fabric, hover over a border piece and you will see a Rotate button () appear above the border piece. Click on the Rotate button until the fabric is pointed in the desired direction.

   

   Only right border piece has been rotated
5. Repeat this process for the other sides of the border that you'd like to rotate.

   

   Rotated border pieces

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04 | Use in Quilt Binding

A really great new feature is that the direction of the fabric used as the quilt binding automatically turns 90 degrees around each corner of the binding (just like when you will sew your binding fabric to your quilt). This is great for when you're using striped binding!

1. On the left hand control panel, click on the Binding/Border tab.

   
2. Set your desired width of your quilt binding and select which Fabric Link you want to use. In this example, I’m going to change the binding width to 0.5” and use Fabric Link A.

   
3. The binding automatically rotates 90 degrees around the perimeter of the quilt.

   

   Striped binding is automatically turned 90 degrees around the corners