Very rarely do I even know where I saw the multitude of quilts that have inspired what I eventually come up with. Often there is very little actual similarity between my quilt and the ones I saw in various places. For example my around the world in muted greens was actually inspired by a magazine cover that was shaded bright rainbow colors lined in between with black. But that's where I got the idea of gradation from dark to light and back again. If I found that designers quilt and put it on as my inspiration I might really confuse a lot of people!

The shows I've gone to had the maker/quilter's names...and a little other info...but seldom the pattern name. I wish they'd list that as well as other info such as batting/thread, etc. used. It would make me enjoy the quilt more, I think.

I can't tell you how many times, I have seen a quilt that I would love to recreate but don't know the pattern name. Even the info that it was an original design would be helpful...maybe I could buy the pattern from that person.

The quilts I've put in shows have all been original designs. I have made a few quilts from or based on a pattern. When using a pattern, I tend to enlarge the pattern. One pattern I found in quiltmaker magazine was a large wreath-like design taking up most of a lap-size quilt. I enlarged it to queen-size, used no border, but then after a flood in our basement where one corner of the top was damaged, I ended up adding corner blocks to the quilt from the written pattern.

How would you label a sampler quilt that had some old (out of copyright) blocks, some paper pieced blocks from a book, and some original blocks?

If you chose the blocks used and their arrangement within the quilt, I would call it an original design, no question. However, I would make mention of the title/author of the paper piecing book as contributory.

Wow, thanks for the info. Sometimes it sounds confussing to me on labeling and presenting quilts correctly.