I really cheat and I've never seen it mentioned in the forum. I've been using borders and blocks made easy, They have the quilting pattern on paper, adhere to the fabric then you follow the lines and tear the paper away. It's a pain to get all of the paper out of the stitches but it is much better than I can do freehand at this point. I get my patterns on ebay simply called 'Boarders or Blocks Made Easy". Is it such a lousy method that no one has mentions it here? It works for me,although my stitches are pretty uneven with practice that should get better.