Chapter 2
Fabrics and palette
The palette is the fabrics in your project. Each fabric has a number, and the blocks use the numbers, so the whole quilt follows when you swap a fabric.
Photograph your fabrics
A good photo gives the right colours in the palette. It takes a moment, and you only do it once per fabric.
Daylight, no direct sun
Take the photo by a window on a bright day. Flash and direct sunlight cause glare and shadows, and the colours come out wrong.
Flat and smooth
Smooth out the folds or iron the fabric. Fold it so the pattern covers at least the size of your palm.
Straight from above
Hold the phone level, straight above the fabric, so the pattern is not distorted, and fill the picture with fabric.
A ruler in the photo
Lay a ruler or tape measure on the fabric. Then you can measure the photo afterwards, and the pattern is shown at its real size.
Many fabrics at once
Lay the fabrics side by side in rows. With "All from one photo" every number gets its fabric from the same photo.
A number in the palette
Press "Add" under the palette for a new number, or the pencil by a number to change it. The dialog has the tabs "Fabrics" (those you saved in the fabric library), "Photo" (a piece of a fabric photo), "Colour" (a colour code or a colour from a colour card) and "Scrappy" (many fabrics on one number).
Drag a number onto another to swap them. The arrows and "Reverse order" under the palette move all the colours round the quilt at once, so you can quickly try other combinations.
A fabric from a photo
On the "Photo" tab you choose a photo, or drag a picture in, even straight from a fabric shop's page in another browser. Ctrl+V pastes a picture you have copied. Drag the cut-out over a spot that shows the pattern well: the colour is the median inside it, and the square is the piece of fabric that repeats in the drawing.
If there is a ruler in the photo, press "Measure on the photo", drag the line between two marks and type the distance. Then the pattern gets its real size in the block and the quilt. "Pattern covers" instead chooses how many cells one pattern covers. If the photo came out too dark, flat or yellow, press "Adjust colours": brightness, contrast and warmth apply to the photo everywhere, and the original is kept.
Many fabrics in one photo? "All from one photo" under the palette puts a numbered circle on each fabric and adds them all to the palette at once.
The fabric library
- Drag a picture inUpload a photo, and cut the fabric out
- It is saved as a fabric
- Use it in your quilt
The fabric library in the menu keeps your fabrics and photos across projects. Drop pictures on "Fabrics" to save them as fabrics at once, or on "Photos" to cut fabrics from them later with "Cut a fabric". Dropped elsewhere on the page they become fabrics, and on the Photos tab photos. Give the fabrics tags, and find them again by searching, sorting and grouping.
Collections gather fabrics and photos that belong together, such as a fabric pack or a purchase. Drag cards into a collection, or use "Select several". In a project a collection can go on the palette with "Use as palette", and it can be exported and shared as one file.
Colour cards
On the "Colour" tab you can choose from a colour card of common solid fabrics, and QuiltCrafter shows the five colours closest to the number's own. If you have a colour card from a shop, you can make your own under "Colour cards" in the fabric library: take a photo of the card, lay the grid over the colours, and give them numbers and names.
Colourways
A colourway is a whole palette for the same design. Choose "New colourway" at the top of the palette to try other fabrics without losing the ones you have; the new one starts as a copy. "Compare" shows the colourways side by side.
Scrappy
A scrappy number is many fabrics instead of one. On the "Scrappy" tab you choose 2–40 fabrics from the library (a whole collection at once) or colours from a colour card. "By piece" gives every piece its own fabric, "By block" every block, and never two alike side by side. "Shuffle again" spreads them anew.
The cutting chart says how many pieces each fabric has to give. Borders, sashing and binding in a scrappy number are pieced from many fabrics: each sashing strip and crossing gets a fabric of its own.