Buy the Pattern!
 

I like to think that I am fairly good at figuring out how to assemble most blocks.

But - there are some designs - such as the ones that Judy Niemeyer (and other designers) creates - that it is just simpler to buy the pattern - even if paying for it causes me some pain.

How much time and effort will you put into avoiding actually buying the pattern?

I'm happy to cough up money for patterns, if it's a design I really like. Granted, most I could figure out if it's simple math, but it is so much easier to let someone else do all that for me! As for Judy Niemeyer's patterns, I would never try to figure those out! Her patterns are worth every penny! :D

I make mostly scrap quilts and most of the patterns are free on line, but, I don't mind buying a pattern if I like it and have a real intention to make it. I have made one small Judy Niemeyer wall hanging and one of her Quiltworx patterns. For the Quiltworx one, I found a pattern very similar made with strips, which I bought, because it was very laborious with paper piecing.

I worked in advertising and especially the creative department for a few years and I'm big on copyright protection. I'm also big on fair use which does allow you to make a direct lift of something for personal use. Even though I did draft up my version of Elizabeth Hartman's Hazel Hedgehog pattern that is exactly what it was which was someone else's distinctive work with no independent concept-- so I bought the pattern.

But I'm not going to buy a pattern on some variation of something traditional. All I need to do is see it and store it away in a corner of the quilt brain.

I am much more willing to buy books on techniques I want to learn than basically a single use pattern. Don't know why that is...

Most patterns are just a new twist on old ones. I can figure those out. On the up side of purchasing is that all the fabric requirements have been figured out for you.

I'm so with you on this topic, bear! And also with Iceblossom. I have only bought and used maybe 3 patterns in my 6 years of quilting because I can simply figure them out or find them free. But good grief--one pattern for a very easy looking baby quilt with various size bricks and pinwheels was my nemesis! After 3 hours of fiddling with the math, I convinced myself that the original pattern writer deserved my 8 bucks for having done the math already--and told me how much of each fabric to buy. I get satisfaction from rewarding other creatives for their time and effort.

I have a bucket list a mile long of free quilt patterns to make up, so I'm not likely to buy a pattern. I'm a great knock-offer, too. :o

If it is a simple pattern (by my standard of simple) based on squares, triangles, rectangles that is obvious how to piece it and the sizes that would be needed w/ straight forward math, there is not a chance I would "buy the pattern" If I look at it and either can't figure out how to make it or believe the pattern maker may have a better (easier) technique then what my mind comes up with, that is a pattern I would (and have) buy. If it is a fpp detailed picture I "could" make that pattern, but would not, I would buy that pattern. I hate making "test" blocks so the likelihood of me "blindly" following someone else's pattern is pretty slim, I would still draw out my own to test the size and make sure they are using the full 1/4 inch seam allowance. The exception to this is the detailed pictoral fpp those ones I do go on blind faith.

depends if its basic 1/2 square triangles, squares rectangles etc. I don't want to buy it. This is especially true, if your also asking me to buy templates for an elementary design.

What usually happens to me is that I see a quilt that I absolutely have to make, and after researching it, find that it is *An original design, that the designer has no intention of selling a pattern for.* Then I will, and currently am in the process of spending hours, figuring it out. If it's something that seems basic, I just go for it, and figure it out on my own. I have no problem though, buying patterns. In fact, I bought 3 patterns this weekend. No clue when they will get made, just wanted them!