Check Out
1-800-356-4219
sales@electricquilt.com

You are here: Home > Community > Lessons > Lesson List > Importing Web Fabrics

EQ Lessons: Importing Fabrics from the Web

by Andrea Poulimenos and Angie Maidment

So everyone is always asking, "how in the world do you use fabric from the Internet in EQ?" It's actually very easy and you can build your own fabric libraries very quickly.

If you're ready, we are going to learn how to import fabrics from the web into EQ, save fabrics into the User Libraries, and how to rename Libraries and Styles in the User Library so you can have your very own Web Fabric Library!

Setup

Note to AOL Users: if you have trouble with this lesson and your only choices are .ART or .BMP, but they still don't work... you need to turn off graphic compression.

1. Point your mouse cursor over the fabric to the right and right-click.
2. Choose the "Save Picture As..." or "Save Image As" option. This will make a Windows "Save Picture" box appear.
3. Browse to the drive and folder you want to put the picture in. If you don't have a preference, you may want to put it in a new folder in the C:\My Documents\My EQ5 folder so you can find it again easily. You can create this new folder and call it whatever you want.
4. Next to the "File Name:" box, leave the name as is for this lesson. (In the real world, you can name it whatever you want.) Next to the "Save As Type:" box, click its down arrow, and choose Bitmap (*.bmp) if available. Otherwise, you may only have the option to save it as a JPEG (*.jpg).
5. Click Save.
6. Click the Windows START button, point to Programs, point to Accessories, and click on Paint.
7. On the FILE menu, click Open. Browse to the same drive and same folder you saved the picture in. If you don't see your fabric swatch click on the dropdown menu of "Files of type" and select "All Files."
8. Click on the picture to select it. (It should be called "Fabric1.") Click Open.
9. On the FILE menu, click Save As....
10. In the "File Name:" box, change the name to "Fabric1new." In the "Save As Type:" box, click its down arrow, and choose 256 Color Bitmap (*.bmp; *.dib). Click Save. A window will appear that says, "Saving into this file format may cause some loss of color information. Do you want to continue?" Click Yes and continue. If your fabric does not have the color quality that you would like, you can save it as a 24-bit Bitmap. This file has higher quality, but it is a bigger file size.

    If you've made it this far without any problems, skip to step 12.

11. If your only option when right-clicking on the image is to save as a JPEG, and your version of Paint will not open JPEGs, try using "Imaging" instead of Paint. Click the Windows START button, point to Programs, point to Accessories, and click on Imaging. Then do steps 8-10.

Importing Fabric to EQ5

11. In EQ5, on the LIBRARIES menu, click Fabric Library. The Fabric Libraries box will appear.
12. On the Fabric Libraries box, click Import. The Import Fabrics box will appear.
13. Next to "Look in:" click on the down arrow and navigate to the drive on which you saved your fabric swatch. Double click on the respective folders, until you are in the folder where you saved the fabric bitmap during steps 9-10. Double click on the file named "Fabric1new.bmp."
14. Click Copy. The fabric swatch will "disappear" which means it has been sent to the Sketchbook as well as the Fabrics palette and will be ready to use when you want to place it in your quilt. The new fabric will be the last swatch in both the Sketchbook and on the palette.
15. When you are done copying the fabric swatch, click the close button.
16. Because the fabric was copied to the Sketchbook it is now available to you to use in your quilt. By using the Plain Block tool you can set your new fabric into your quilt just like you would any other fabric. Or you can use any of the coloring tools to paint blocks with this new fabric.

Saving Fabrics in the User Library

If you have added fabrics to the Sketchbook, you may want to make them accessible from every project in EQ5. You can do this by adding them to the User Libraries.

17. On the LIBRARIES menu, click Add Fabrics. You will see a Fabric Libraries book with a User Libraries book under it. If you do not see the User Libraries book, double-click the Fabric Libraries book to open it.
18. Click the User Libraries, then click its + sign. Click the + sign next to one of the Library books that appear. You will now see Style pages. These pages are empty, waiting to be filled with fabrics.
19. Click any style page to select that style. The "Current Style" will say "No fabrics to display" unless you previously added fabrics to this style.
20. Under "Fabric Sketchbook," look for the swatch you want to add to the library. (If you do not see your fabric, click, hold, and drag the slider bar all the way to the end that is located under the Fabric Sketchbook to view all the swatches.) Click on the swatch you want to select it.
21. Click Copy. You will now see your fabric swatch under Current Style.
22. Click the Save Library button, to save your changes to that style. A message saying, "Your fabrics have been saved in the library!" will appear. Click OK.

Renaming Libraries and Styles in the User Library

Before you close the User Library, you may want to rename the style and/or the library so you can find them again easily. With 4 or more Libraries and 50 styles in each library... that's a lot to look through if you forget where you saved it.

For renaming a style:

23. Click the style name once.
24. Click it again. A "renaming" box will form around the style name.
25. Type your new name (up to 32 characters). The old style name will disappear as you type.
26. Click Save Library.
27. Click OK or Yes when the pop-up message appears.

For renaming a library:

28. Click the library name once.
29. Click it again. A "renaming" box will form around the library name.
30. Type your new name (up to 32 characters). The old library name will disappear as you type.
31. Click on a style within that library. (Your cursor cannot be on the library name, it must be on a style.)
32. Click Save Library.
33. Click OK or Yes when the pop-up message appears.
34. Click Close when you are finished. (If you did not save your library style, you will recieve the message "You have changed the current library style. Do you want to save the library and make your changes permanent?" Click the Yes button.)

That's it. You now know the steps to convert web fabrics into useable EQ fabrics that are available in every project you ever create.

So what do you want to do with this new knowledge? Increase your fabric library of course! Practice on the fabrics below. If that is not enough, more fabrics can be found through the Internet. Find the website of your favorite fabric manufacturer. Chances are they have free sample swatches on their sites. The following list of websites would be a good place to start searching for fabrics, but feel free to explore the many other websites.

www.unitednotions.com

www.quiltingtreasures.com

www.maywoodstudio.com

www.konabay.com

www.balifab.com

www.inthebeginningfabrics.com

Have fun and happy quilting!