All suggestions welcome

Perhaps you could have those you named as main sections; and then have sub-sections 'suitable for', within each of the main sections. I suggest you then also put some kind of marking on and files which contain a specially favourite pattern.

. In message , Boca Jan writes

I have them sorted by what they are too - PP, pieced etc except my mysteries are sorted separately and per designer

if you have a lot of one particular designer or website you could add a tab for them and then sub-sort to what kind of pattern it is.

also you could separate them into size and then by technique - so one note book with WH, one with kids stuff, one with lap quilts, one with twin, one with queen and one with king. and each one is sub-sorted by PP, pieced, appliqué and mixed

HTH

You could also separate quilt patterns and block patterns then separate each by sections.

If your patterns have a picture of the finished quilt on them, take a picture (digital would be best) and then create a table of contents by picture as well -- you can put like

20 or 25 pictures on a page -- print it out and put the page # next (section whatever works for you). Scanning by picture seems to me to be one of the easiest ways to find the precise pattern you are looking for.

Kate in MI

I have tons of foundation piecing patterns saved to my computer; one thing that seems to work well is to subdivide by what the pattern is. For example, I have subfolders for trees, dogs and cats, food stuff, winter theme, Carol Doak's yahoo group patterns, animals, geese (any layout of geese including those make-a-whole-bunch-at-once layouts)---anything that helps me know what patterns are in there, but yet doesn't leave me with a folder for every single pattern. Hence, some folder category names are very broad (winter theme) and some are very narrow (dogs and cats). I also have subfolders for specific quilts--this is really good for Block-of-the-month quilts because it isolates just the parts for that quilt and it is easy to tell where you are as you are collecting the parts.

Clear as mud? To further mess with your head, I also (since it is a computer and doesn't take up any more real estate) sometimes save things in more than one folder--FREX, a Christmas tree might be saved in both trees and winter themed or Christmas. For hard copies, I might save the thing one place, but leave a note in another folder reminding me to look in the other folder. Example, I might save the Christmas tree pattern under trees, but then put a note in my winter themed and/or Christmas folders that there is a Christmas tree pattern located in the trees folder.

Good luck with your project!

MAmadurk

I have no system myself, it's purely chronological as I keep adding to the folder. (And every few years, or whenever I look at it, I tend to toss out whatever looks idiotic to my more mature self.)

The size of the quilt isn't relevant really, so I'd probably sort according to cool block designs (traditional/ contemporary), techniques to be tried, interesting layouts, applique designs, quilting designs, inspiring photos and paper piecing. Maybe a special section for scrappy. Roberta in D, Queen of the Scrap Heap

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I have a data base in Access for my "library" of patterns, books, magazines, etc. As I have literally thousands of them, and everyone borrows I had to have a way to keep track. But I found a single sort key wasn't enough. I listed four. So one could be Christmas/Cats/FPP/(unused). So now I can number everything and just list the various sort keys.

Yeah I know - how anal!! But it works. And once I got drop down lists for everything it got easier. I just add all the new stuff every couple of weeks and tidy the shelves (from all the browsing) occasionally. Runs like a library for real. I can search on name, publisher, authou, four sort categories, date, whatever.

You could do something much simpler in Excel and just number the patterns.

Quilt books usually divide them by block pattern type as in 9 Patch and those based on 9 Patch, 25 Patch, Circles and Hexes, Applique etc.. For my own use I think it works out better to go by subject: Baby, Animals, Flowers, Transportation, Geometrics, etc., but I'm not sure that would work with anything other than applique blocks. Debra in VA See my quilts at

Jan: Add topics that seem to interest you the most. These can be totally separate files, or they can be sub topics of other files. More examples: stars, flowers, medallion, miniature, patriotic, Christmas, Halloween, colorwash.

PAT > I am filing in notebooks all my computer printed patterns and need some

My list of ideas is proceeding nicely. I like the computer file idea, however as of now I have pages and pages of printed patterns. It is too late to change since many of the ones I like are from web sites no longer available. Keep those ideas coming though!

OK I know this would be a lot of work, but if you wanted you could scan all the ones that you really want to keep and then put them in some sort of order and burn them to a CD/DVD, etc. This is what I am doing with mine. At present I keep a copy of them on my hard drive, my external HD and a memory key. When I get enough to burn, I will then delete them off my HD and my memory key but probably keep them on my external HD just in case.

I am also scanning any of those patterns that I get in little plastic bags because I could lose them and this way I have a backup copy if I do and if I find something in a magazine I scan it too, because who knows if I will find the right magazine the next time.

Jacquel>My list of ideas is proceeding nicely. I like the computer file idea,

Wonderful idea for the folks who are just starting out. Unfortunately, I already have a bunch of them packaged. When I make a quilt, I make 2 copies of the basic pattern; one to use and one to save. I put the good one into a plastic page saver - all the pages into one. I then make plastic templates of the cut up paper pattern and put the cut paper pieces into the sleeve on the back side of the sleeve. I then take the first page out of the sleeve and glue small pieces of the fabric that I am using to the margins on the first page. There has always been enough room. If needed, I number the pieces and then number the scraps so I know how I put it together with what. It doesn't take any time at all to do this. Oh, when cutting the scraps, I try to get them from the selvage and include the name of the fabric or the mill.

So, I now have one plastic sleeve with everything used to make the quilt inside. These are what I am filing into one notebook.

To each his own, aye???

Ha! LOL You are printing out patterns and putting them in notebooks! I am scanning patterns and filing them as jpegs in my computer! Every so often I burn the files to disks in case the computer crashes. I have 2 files of pieced quilts- recently scanned & older, all appliqué, some appliqué, foundation pieced, single blocks/borders, wallhangings, quilted clothing, home dec, how-to & tips, quilt history, quilt pictures(just to look at). I set my files at View Thumbnail and scroll through looking at the pictures until I find what I want. My pieced quilts files are so big I will have to put them in subcategories soon- I thought 4-patch, 9-patch, stars, circles & part circles, pictorial, strip quilts, medallion, misc. (biscuit quilts, folded stars, cathedral windows-etc.), tiling (yellow brick road, charm quilts). My quilt mags go into plastic bins in the basement. Last spring the basement flooded and I lost a lot of mags that were in cardboard boxes so now it is all plastic for me. Luckily I had already scanned a lot of them, but when I first started I had a smaller computer & slower scanner so I only saved what I thought I would use, so I didn't save everything I liked. Now I save a lot whenever I have time- scanning is very time consuming.

Jane in NE Ohio

I actually planned to have hyper links to images on my Access database of all my (thousands of) books/patterns/magazines/etc - but when I realised the sheer scale of work involved I decided I would continue to live in my muddled state lol

While it can be maddening to hunt for hours for something you KNOW is there somewhere, it can also be nice to browse casually for hours and rediscover a forgotten gem that gives a you spark of unexpected inspiration.

I know I should have them on my computer, but really, I like to flip through my pictures and look at my stash for fabric ideas. I have actually started with the notebooks and it is working out well.

I can look through online patterns for hours and not find what I am looking for.