from the quilting mags are so confusing to me! am i the only one who has problems w/ this?
my bff came over yesterday,& made me feel a little better,she said the way they are written even confuses her[she has won awards for her quilts,so knows what she's doing,which is more than i can say for myself!]
hope i'm not the only one that finds the inst,confusing!
dar

me too. I have to read patterns several times before I even will think about starting. I have also learned that in order to make the cutting instructions easier they have you cut more fabric than whats neccesary.

you are not alone...i just purchased some books and find them confusing at times...i usually supplement my research with youtube videos b/c i'm a visual learner...

I learned long ago to rewrite them into a spread sheet for the cutting and a "document" for numbered steps in "English"!

It's really the 1st part of any of my projects and saves so much time not having to find the small print on the page where I left off!

Forgot to add that all the cut pieces go into frozen meal containers with a little pc of a return address label. They even stick well to the pcs.

I do like Kitsie, PLUS write my material color change I first write their's then do ---- and place my color... INCLUDING in directions for cutting. I USE a pencil... I get more confused re: what color is what color and they say cut 30 squares of purple and I have yellow. Just throws me in the dumpster lol....

Glad you were able to figure your pattern out OK? :)

i really never figured it out,my bff wrote it out in ENGLISH for me.thank heavens i'm not the only one,i was beginning to think i was the only one !surely there is an easier,clearier way to write these inst.!
the one GOOD thing i did was to use scraps& only [try]make one sq.!
thanx to all for making me feel [less]dumb!i can always count on my friends to make me feel better!
dar

Life is so much easier with a bff! Mine is a lifesaver in so many ways.

You are not alone. I bought the 4 stack posie pattern a few years ago and could not figure it out....nor could any of my quilting friends. Our LQS had a class and we took it..........turned out to be one of the easiest patterns to do.

This board is my BFF!

I feel the same way. Sometimes I wonder if the person writing the pattern is even a quilter. However, to be fair, I have written a few patterns and that is NOT an easy job.

I often rewrite them too, as I hardly every make one exactly as it's written, usually overall size and color differences. And, there are sometimes mistakes in them - it pays to make ONE block up first. :)

Sometimes the patterns seem so much more complicated then they need to be...I usually re-read them, and re-write them to make them more understandable. Some designers are better than others at writing instructions that are more readable....like Atkinson designs.

Boy, do I ever agree. It seems they make more than a couple of mistakes, and they have you do things in a way that is ten times harder than the way you normally do them. I used to try and do them their way, because I felt they were "published" and I was just an ordinary quilter. Not any more. I do it my way and the overall look doesn't change at all.

I have a problem also, I have to read, reread and read again. Sometimes I have to take a pencil and draw out the pattern, just so it finally makes sense to me.

thanx for all your comments!sometimes it helps justknowing someone else is out there,you're not alone!
dar

Credit goes to the designers who write their patterns on a beginner level, step by step and in true step sequence. They are out there and as I learn who they are I will buy only their patterns.

I believe the reason some patterns are so hard to comprehend is because the designer is at such an excelled level of thought and knowledge. They no longer remember to 'think about' what others need to know. They have done it so long at such a high level of thought they leave out things that would lead us from one step to the next. They, sometimes, also do not seem to go in step sequence.
I keep my less desirable fabrics to user test new patterns. As I am making a new pattern I write it so I will understand what 'I' did the next time I make it.
This is a good post and one all designers should take to heart. Thank you for posting it.

And a lot of the time a designer will build something and have someone else write the pattern. I just finished a quilt like that. It was obvious the writer had not made the quilt.

Ohmigosh. I was absolutely certain that I was the only one who had to read then read again, then re-write the entire pattern into "English" and draw pics.

Well, I feel lots better just knowing I'm not alone! You have no idea how many times I have beat myself up over this. And sometimes, I just give it up and look at the picture and make my own pattern directions. I don't make any more mistakes doing that than when I try to follow "their" pattern. At least I know where I'm going. :-D

Me too!