I always use a pattern at least to start with. I may stray away from it particularly if I make the same pattern a second time. I think that as time passes, I find I know and understand the mathematics of quilt patterns and have a better sense of what pleases me. I find myself with graph paper and pencil more and more often. The result is I stray from the pattern a little more easily than in the past. I have made just a couple of quilts without a full pattern but even those started with a single block pattern that I enlarged or adjusted to fit what I wanted in the end. For me, that is part of the fun and creativity of quilting. Some quilters show their creativity in other ways and excel in color choice, others in perfect points while others design their own patterns. Cheers to all of you!