It's all of the above. I never considered myself very artistic, but I'm finding with quilting - which I'm fairly new at, by the way - I'm learning to "step outside the box" and combine patterns in ways that I never would have thought about before. I was always afraid that I would come up with something that clashed, but I'm getting much more confident now! I'm not quite to the point where I'm ready to be more adventurous in the actual quilting - still sticking to mostly straight lines or stitch in the ditch - but that will come. The biggest barrier to branching out? I don't think I can fmq on my machine. Still breaking needles and can't quite get the tension right. But, I think I can do some patterns with my even feed foot, just not the elaborate ones that some of you do!