How Do You Organize Your Pattern Collection?

IamJamie

Nice thread! I have just started downloading patterns. I have many hard copies. But I was just wondering what the is the best way to sort them. I think maybe by type...floral, animal, landscape. i only but only have a few so not yet a problem.

pio-pio12

I organize them into folders by home designers and designers.
The magazines published by the house.
Also organized for cross stitch, patchwork, crochet, etc.:D

CrisandCrafts

I try to organize mine by designer and magazines, but those that are various types I have them all in one folder and it's very complicated to find something. I haven't found the best way to deal with them

Ai

Well, for me, I organized them by these priority list.

1. Issued Publisher (I mean like HAED, BUCILLA, PINN, DIMENSIONS, DOME, etc).
2. Special for SODA and other Cute Korean Pattern, I stored them separately (I named the folder 'Korean', which consists of SODA, Good Day, Iomoo, Shiny Room)
3. Categorized them by Designer (Thomas Kinkade, Paula Vaughan, etc.)
4. For the other I categorized them with Global Key (Oriental, Religious, Landscape, Classics, etc.)

Rusalka

I have a disc that I put my patterns in. It was a little confusing at first, the headings I used where - HAED, Disney, Fantasy, Bears, Cats, Dogs, Alphabets and Sayings, Cartoon Characters, Animals, Halloween, Christmas, Easter, Nautical and Sealife and Transport and Toys amd Global oh and misc. Misc was for random stuff Toys I put random stuff in too like carousels and random objects (that wern't nesacerily toys). Sometimes I would end up getting a pattern that would fit two catagories but then I just copied into both folders. My system might not work for you depending on what patterns you have. Once I'd finished I burned it all to disc and kept a copy on the computer too just in a case. As for my patterns not on the computer. I've put all my cut outs from magazines in a folder (no paticular order for these although I do have a seperate folder for Christmas patterns). I also have a box of patterns I need to go through which are all pretty randoms. :)

* In global I put stuff like scenes and patterns of landmarks

Blackhat

Rusalka replied at 2012-4-10 20:44

                               
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I have a disc that I put my patterns in. It was a little confusing at first, the headings I used whe ...

How do you update that disc, though, when you get new patterns? I think that's my biggest problem so far. ^^;

quyd

Thank you for sharing :)

stitchintime

i have hundreds of patterns both paper and on the computer. Indexing them is an absolute nightmare. I have so far put them into topics such as christmas, floral, popcorn, country companions etc and split them into larger and smaller projects too.

TJ

I have the files named with designer (if there is any or I know it) and subject, and organized in folders according to designers. I find that the key is to give long names to the files which explain properly what is inside :)

xsmom214

I made folders named after the designers.  Each chart got its own folder inside the designer folder.  This was working okay until my collection got too big.  So then I added a few more folders, A-I, J-Q, and so on... Moving all the designers to the correct alphabet folder took a while but my computer is very organized now.  For the ones I use most often, they got separate names, for example, freebies, french designers, LHN/CCN... They always stay on the main page.  As soon as I dl something, I put it where it belongs.  If I get lazy it takes forever to clean it all up;P

For charts I've purchased, depending on the size, they go into page protectors and binders or a filing system.

I can find anything on my computer but I still wind up searching my craft room for hard copies;P