Occassionally I buy patterns, mostly magazines and on line tho and sometimes books, but never follow a pattern 100%. I often embroider and in the past have painted & cross-stitched quilts. I have learned loads from watching the quilting shows, looking at magazines and from my sewing group. Often I embroider (etc.) blocks & then figure out what I am going to do with the quilt. I guess I tend to do that more often than actually knowing what pattern or how I am going make the quilt from the beginning. It's called "I improvise a lot." Wonderful board of quilters-new and old.