Most of the time when putting anything together I like words and pictures. Doesn't matter if it is a quilt or a tool.

I agree with that.

I have to look at what they are trying to create, like a quarter square triangle and do it my way. I love patterns that give an unfinished size of the components. Like make 244 3 1/2 inch quarter square triangles. It seems like few do that. Bonnie Hunter spoiled me for that in her Mystery quilts.

I will surely need to try out one of her patterns. My sewing buddy (she passed way in January) was my go to. I remember her watching some videos of her and other well known quilters. Thankfully, I still have this forum for guidance!

100% Agreed!

I've come to believe that good pattern writing is an art form of it's own.
A poorly written pattern has made me abandon projects at times.

Occasionally I will have problems even with well written ones and in that case I will email the designer for clarification. I haven't been disappointed yet.
I also love youtube videos. I think I'm more visual.

I need visual This is why I take classes or watch video tutorials. Written instructions are not my favorite, most are written to death or starving. Once I see it done then I'm all set. The pattern can't go into detail of the why it's cut or sewn the right way, that would be a how to quilt book, not a pattern. It's very hard to write clear instructions for everyone but demo it and everyone gets it.
My guild uses the 3 yard quilt Easy Beginner patterns for kids quilts. No one has had a problem with following those instructions.

I read a pattern until it makes complete sense to me, which can take several readings. I like to work with a visual reference, to check my placement and orientation. It's so easy to make a mistake, and I prefer taking my time the first time to having to re-do something.

I normally don't follow patterns. for a quilt per se. I will for the block that I make and then decide if they are what I want in the quilt and then lay it out. I am a traditionalist at heart so I have a large range of blocks to choose from. I have spread my wings a great deal over the last year because I bought the Accuquilt cutting system and am making block I never considered before. I find I must follow the piecing patterns very closely this way. I love sampler quilts so I can put a lot of different blocks I am trying out in a single quilt. I think I have just about every quilt magazine printed between 1983 and 2008. It seemed like the patterns in them were beginning to repeat themselves so I stopped subscribing. I love getting ideas from here too. If I see a quilt I like I will keep the link in my bookmarks so I can pull it anytime I want.

Let's face it. Some authors do a better job of explaining things than others. I've done some quilts where there's a picture of a block, the template sizes, but not a single explanation of how you're supposed to put it all together. I figure it out but I'm not fond of those kinds of patterns.