I have signed up for many, many web sites and find that the patterns are not very nice or inventive and some of the fabric is so dark that you can't really see the pattern.

Maybe it is a matter of taste but I would say I don't like the majority of them.

Also how can they take an old pattern and call it theirs. Just because they use different fabric.

I have only made quilts the same as the pattern when it was a BOM. I look at the pattern and decide what fabric I want to make it out of. Or I buy fabric and then look for a pattern to make from it. But that has backfired a few times as I don't have enough fabric.

There are only so many ways to arrange cut pieces and shapes. The artistic part of it lies in the colorways and where you place the values. This is how the fabric companies come up with their "designs". So yes, not much new in the way of patterns, just the way you and I and others put it together. JMT:)

Ok, Not sure where you are going here. If you don't like the pattern or fabric, then don't make it. There are lots of sites out there with free blocks, such as
http://www.quilterscache.com/QuiltBlocksGalore.html
Pick a block you like and get some fabric you love!

It is not just you. Sadly enough.... :(

I have to say that I didn't renew my subscription to two magazines for just that reason. The patterns have no appeal to me, what would I ever do with them or give them to, and the fabric choices, though I can certainly pick my own, really wouldn't make much difference in desire to make!

That's why I don't buy magazines anymore. I can find any pattern I need in my head! thanks to lots of websites that offer free block designs.

I agree. As soon as I get a subscription, it seems like they don't have anything that I like.

ditto

I find all the ideas I need right here on this board :)

Agreed. Worse yet are some of the instructions. I have to understand it in my head prior to undertaking. There is one that I want to do, but just can't make it happen. Even cut out construction paper to see the block sequencing and it still is not happening for me. Filed at the bottom of the someday heap, LOL

I agree about the darkness of some patterns I see. I went to a quilt show about ayear ago and most of the quilts, fabrics and patterns were so dreary that I left without purchasing anything. I have also let my magazine subscriptions lapse as now with the help of this board and the internet I can be kept as busy as a bee for free.

I haven't bought magazines for a few years now because it seems all the patterns are just re-runs of old ones in new fabric.

It seems to me that the trends in fabrics are really changing quickly now. The big Amy Butler type prints were the big thing and now, they are passe. The 'newest' fabrics do seem to be going toward the dark and dreary. It's not something I'll go out of my way for.

I think many of the patterns are designed to specifically showcase a certain collection of fabric that the company is trying to sell. Often the pattern designers are not quilters so we may look at the pattern in a different way. I find sometimes the instructions have awkward or time consuming ways of putting the block together. Again I think that is the inexperience of the designer and most quilters can just go ahead and do it their way. The problem comes when a new quilter gets one of these patterns and quickly becomes frustrated.

I admit to flipping to the Table Of Content of the quilt magazines in Walmart. If there isn't something new I want to try, I don't buy. I find most of my inspiration right here. Keep up the beautiful quilt, runners and wallhanging examples QB members!

I am inspired by so many of the avatars I see on this board! This is my new resource for designs and ideas. I wish we would have each person tell about their quilt, including the pattern name and where they got the idea/directions. I love them!

I'm with you on that one. I do understand that different interpretations of color, value, fabric can make the same patterns look remarkably different ... but to call it a different pattern is beyond 'artistic liberty'.

Consider this ... If I translated Dickens "A Tale of Two Cities" into Swahili, it would look different on paper, it would sound different when read aloud, but it is STILL Dickens "A Tale of Two Cities" and should be acknowledged as such.

Just my opinion.

that the reason i have my old magazine from the 80 and up it seem as if you do a quilt you want to say it your but that not true

My main source for new inspiring fabric is equilter.com I haven't noticed that the new fabrics are dark and unattractive. What am I missing here? All I see are beautiful combinations that I can't afford and don't have the time to make up. When I see picture that are posted of quilt shows the quilts are beautiful, not dark, not drab. I'm not sure why the problem with whatever current line the magazines are promoting is a big problem unless you really depend upon your ideas on those magazines. The quilting world is so large while the magazines are few in number. And the dark fabrics don't seem to me to be the majority. Am I just not understanding the problem?

I am so not into those turquoise, brown, lime and orange fabrics from the 50s and 60s. The other quilters grab em and mix em up...I just don't see the attraction.

I agree! Or create your own design and make it. That is what some of us do.

You are talking about issues of taste...pattern, fabric, color, whatever. Just because you don't like something doesn't make it "terrible" and it certainly doesn't mean other people don't like it. Having an open mind never hurt anyone. I don't like men in Speedos, the taste of liver, or the smell of cigars...yet other people love all those things. :lol:

I am usually so tempted when I see them or stores or receive subscription offers in the mail. Then I stop and think about how many subscriptions I've cancelled due to this Board and so many free patterns online. When I want to look at magazines, I just get a few from my collection in my sewing room and look at them.

I am one also that doesn't bother with magazine subscriptions anymore ... I use to try and subscribe to whatever I could as I love to look through them but 98% of the time I would either find one or none that I wanted to do in each issue. Unless it is a Christmas edition. I find just surfing the net I can find more that I like or just by looking at a pattern I can try and design my own that way.

I have great success going into my local quilt shop and looking at the patterns in there and buying them with my fabric choices.

However, to each their own ... some people like things that others dont.

Ditto!

I was just talking to a quilter at Hobby Lobby and we both agree that the material they are using is too dark and dull there is no snap to them

I don't buy magazines anymore. Not my style patterns.

I am sorry if I offended some people with my question.... I was not meaning to offend anyone. As I understand our Board we all have the right to voice our questions and comments without being chastized.

I had just looked at some emails I had just got from various company web sites and said I didn't care for lots of the patterns and the drab fabric. Maybe it is just the web sites I have signed up to receive emails from. I feel that there are more patterns that don't appeal than do appeal to me.

I definitely am not talking about the lovely quilts we get to see on our Board.

My main question is how I still don't understand people/companies get away with using an old pattern and new fabric and call it their own?

I also have stopped lots of my magazines. In fact I just gave away a stack of magazine about 2 feet high. There was nothing in them that I would ever make.

The old patterns are in public domain and anyone can make a design with them. What is copyrighted is their directions for the quilt itself. Public domain means anyone can make a quilt with that pattern without giving credits.

I don't see a lot of the newer fabrics except by accident I am too busy trying to clean out my stash LOL
But I will say I have stopped buying magazines. The patterns mostly seem to be large prints and big squares or rectangles to show those off. While I think one or two is a good idea its pretty much mostly what I see now. Quilting Arts is about the only magazine I want to get a subscription to. It has more articles too.
I have been pretty much planning my own quilts. I have a bunch in my head to be done when I finish my UFO's.

Well over the years I have done the exact same thing as the designers are doing & taken an old design and brought it back to life by just changing colors & flipping the block around. Sometimes what you get is an outstanding an amazing result! Some of my best quilts turned out because of placing the blocks a different way then shown in a pattern. I wished that LQS & fabric stores instead of making & assembling the full quilt according to the pattern would just make the blocks so I can play with them! LOL

Interesting topic.

I'm unfamiliar with the word "avatar", but imagine those are the quilts and items on the left side of the screen which were displayed by the quilting artisans. I love these too and sometimes click on them thinking they must be even more spectacular in a larger size!

Maybe I'm old fashioned but I don't like many of them either. I'm learning to draft my own. I look at vintage quilts and look for things I like and don't like and try to make it what I want it to be.

Over the years I have made mental notes about the quilts I am seeing. Some of these "new ones" are just blocks cut into different shapes, rectangles mostly. The fabric moves along with this and is very contemparary. When I want to start a new quilt these and the fabric are not what calls to me. I am not moved by them, they don't call with a challenge. But I probably have more than enough fabric and patterns to sew every day of my life until Jesus comes back, so It is ok that this is happening and that it is not my taste. I honestly love the older quilts. There is so much creativity here on this board, I am so challenged to grow more. If these "new" ones are calling some one else, it might be a gateway to them being challenged to grow, make more intricate quilts and this wonderful love that we all have can be passed on, preserved. It is really great that we don't all have to be the same, do the same. Our diversity is what makes everyone of us creative. We challenge and encourage each other without even trying. Thank you for letting me share my thoughts.

That is also happening in other areas I collect patterns for 18 inch doll New patterns 2 just changed the pictures to new fabric and used the old patterns. guess they think
we won't notice.

This site won't let me save to favorites. ;-( :thumbdown:
what am I doing wrong???

I always pick my own fabric colors no matter what the pattern calls for. I just pick a pattern because I like it. AND I never end up with that pattern anyway. When I sew, the quilt always morphs into something else but I always like what I end up with!

I am a pattern designer. (I hope I'm not violating forum guidelines by stating this, but my following impressions come from my business view of the market.) Currently, our pattern line contains only machine quilting designs intended for the domestic sewing machine, but my plans for 2012 are to add applique and pieced patterns in time for the fall quilt show season.

What I see as I look at the patterns around me is a lot of really easy stuff...big squares and rectangles...fast, quick and easy seems to be the goal.

But me, I like quilts that take awhile to make...like the 'Oh My Gosh Quilt' in my avatar here. Or the Birthday Quilt...both have lots of little 1-1/2" finished 9 patch blocks. Honestly, they are simple to make, too, but the scale of the design makes them infinitely more interesting (in my humble opinion) there's just a lot of them.

What is comes down to is the marketplace. The quilt store where I teach carries a lot of patterns. There appears to be a couple of 'favorite' designers where they've got the majority of the designer's pattern line. But most of the patterns are the fast, quick and easy stuff. One of the owners and I have talked extensively about it...she'd like to carry more involved, detailed patterns, but the customers buy the fast, quick and easy. The more advanced patterns don't sell.

The reality is that quilt stores need to move fabric to stay in business. The kind of quilt that I like to make will keep me busy for quite awhile, I'm not in the store buying new fabric on a regular basis. So I'm not the kind of customer that will keep their business going.

So what happens is that you've got more customers than not telling both the designers and store owners that they want fast, quick and easy. This information is gathered solely through pattern sales. The economics tell them they have to cater to a beginning type of quilter to move fabric. It's a vicious circle if you ask me.

There are two ways to go, again IMHO, either tell your local store owner what you want and back it up with your dollars...if you find a pattern online that's more to your liking...see if your local quilt store will order it for you...if you just buy it online, the store doesn't get that piece of market information or the revenue. If you like a particular designer, email them directly and tell them...if there's no website on the pattern envelope, they usually have a website or facebook page. Google to find them. Tell them specifically what you like, or don't like. Designers need that information, too.

As I said, we design machine quilting patterns. Our customers asked for more 'beginning' type patterns and we obliged...we want to grow our business. And it's our beginning designs that overwhelmingly sell the most when we vend. My market information tells me I need to add more 'beginning' type patterns.

The other option you have is to simply do your own thing. I use Electric Quilt to design...have purchased or upgraded to EQ3, EQ4, EQ6 and QE7...clearly I like the program. It was easy to learn. The books published by EQ have been totally worth the money...though there aren't any new ones for EQ7 yet. And as I've upgraded, everything I'd already learned was still applicable in the new upgrade...I didn't have to relearn.

So, to the original poster, I agree with you on the pattern front. But the only thing that can possibly change it is when quilters vote with their pocketbook and take it to the next level by involving their LQS and the designers by telling them what you want.

I hope this hasn't sounded preachy or as a rant on quilt stores or designers. It wasn't intended as such. It was intended to add to this conversation.

Thank you.

I just use the internet.

I had a friend who told me, if a quilt magazine doesn't have at least 3 patterns that you truly like, don't buy it. I don't buy many quilt magazines

I go to a lot of quilt shows and I see many of the quilts are made from patterns I have seen on paper or online and didn't care for but seeing them in person they are really beautiful.