The picture of your design is awesome. I think intermediate
quilters might stay away because it looks complicated to
make.
I do look for something different than another square block.

I like easy quilts...nine patch, ohio star, pinwheels and combinations of easy blocks. I don't quilt for shows. I just quilt for family, friends and charity, so the quicker and easier is best for me. I really admire some of the beautiful and complicated quilts some of the ladies do and so enjoy looking at them, but I just don't have the patience to work one that takes so much time. Just my own personal preference.

Some of us quilters are just not patient enough to make beautifully designed quilts. I prefer those that go together (mainly rectangles and squares) rather easily and quickly but must admit that I'm a new quilter. I think stars will be my next attempts but I already have magazines and books with many intermediate and advanced patterns. I am amazed at quilts that are truly works of great art.

The magazines I have read seem to offer patterns or information for the beginner through to the advanced quilter. Every year seems to be the same or similar pattern but in a different colour way although I do see something new every now and then. I think the magazines are more geared though towards simple/quick to make for the less experienced so as to sell.

I have also found that when I have liked something in a magazine enough to make it up not all the instructions are written in there or clear so I need to tweak it a bit to finish the quilt or what ever I am making. Their editors and proof readers need educating.
Mind you I have paid for patterns that are just as bad so who knows?

As the the question - I like to make mainly traditional style, quilts though on occassion will jump out of my comfort zone and try something new.

Maybe1day

While I agree that you see simpler quilts in a lot of the magazines, but the ones that I subscribe to also have quilts that are a little bit more challenging. When teaching new quilters to quilt, you need to have blocks that are easily made, easy to put together, and most of all something that can be done in a short amount of time. I've been quilting for over 25 years and while there are times I like to be challenged in making a quilt, other times I want something that can be done quickly and easily. I recently made the Sister's Choice block for our family reunion quilt in memory of my sister. This block appeared many years ago in an older quilt magazine that I had kept. That particular magazine also had a "what if" segment about how you could make that block uniquely your own. Although Sister's Choice was a traditional quilt block, it kept appearing in newer and newer magazines, and always with a new twist. When I began to see that block over and over - I knew it was the block to use. The quilt turned out even better than I hoped and my family loved it, as well as my niece who won the quilt. I believe there are new quilt magazines out there with more advanced projects so keep an open mind and you will be inspired to make that unique quilt.

Thanks needles3threads! My design is actually pretty easy if you know how to paper piece. It took almost as long to choose the fabric as it did to piece it!

I like the simple designs and let the gorgeous fabrics do the 'talking'...

May be that we aren't all as talented as you.

Its not a question of talent, its a question of desire. Do you prefer things are easy or do you like a challenge once in awhile? As a designer, I feel it is my job to create designs that are accessible to almost anyone. None of my designs are difficult or require a lot of skill. If you can count, in most cases no higher than 7, and sew on a drawn line on a paper pattern you could make my quilt.

This topic has been on other website. I don't understand how people can take an old pattern and make it from different material and then call it new and make money off it.

Many time I have looked at patterns and said "Self why would I buy that?" I have the same pattern in several books but not in that fabric.

I want to see new patterns that are a new challenge other landscapes and such. Not that there is anything wrong with Landscapes I love them but I have not taken the time to try one yet.

Quilterfay

Quilting magazines used to be for learning new patterns or techniques, now they are just to sell fabric, notions, , and designers. *sigh* I no longer buy any, I don't need to, with all the lovely people here who post on this site. Thank you all again. :thumbup:

I personally like applique quilts. Pieced with applique is great and scrappy quilts, too. Good luck.

I have learned a lot from this conversation and I appreciate everyone who took the time to give me their thoughts. Obviously, there are some quilters out there who are perfectly content to do traditional patterns again and again without ever trying something new and that's fine. To quote Seinfeld, "Not that there's anything wrong with that".

I guess I will continue to design for the "adventurous" quilter!

Whatever you do, do it well!

Wow, love this pattern. Is it for sale?

If you investigate old quilting patterns from the 1920s and 30s you will find hundreds and hundreds of quilt block patterns. Although some could be called mundane, most of them are quite interesting.
I would like to challenge all of you readers here on the board, instead of making another d9p or log cabin, go and google search or find a book full of quilt block patterns and pick one you have not seen "made up" before, and try it! Make just one for a mug rug, or a few for a table runner, or a whole quiltfull!
....and then show it to the rest of us!
Jeannie

Sometimes simple is good. I like to look at the vintage patterns in old books and figure it out. Very seldom do I think there is anything I want to do in a quilt mag, so I am not renewing my subscriptions.

Thanks Joy! I'm still working on this one and hope to have a pattern ready soon. The picture is actually of a miniature that measures 18" x 24" (about the size of a placemat). It was a personal challenge to me since I had never completed one before. The pattern will also have the same block in a 14" size so a bed size quilt will be the exact same layout.

i know its probably crazy but i like to work on complicated designs, jinny beyers summer lily, red and white vortex, dear jane. as you said, the mags are the same things over and over again.

I'm a designer also and it's my strong point..I teach classes for a LQS..for our winter visitors (Arizona)..you can't teach creativity..some people are more comfortable with basics and kits..that's ok..they still do great work and are proud of it..we all have our areas of expertise..in my Wednesday quilt group we trade off our knowledge and help each other..I'll design one and piece it in exchange for someone to quilt mine..Quilting is food for the soul to all types!!

I have been subscribing to Better Homes & Gardens American Quilting for 20 years and have kept every issue. I look at them over and over and although I do not make the exact quilts (I always pick my own fabrics and there is usually a place where I didn't follow directions) they are great inspiration for me. Just like looking at all the beautiful things you make.

I end up doing different things in my quilts, as I don't want to do the same block, over & over, for the whole quilt. If I do, then each one is all different fabrics. I am more like to finish a top if the overall design keeps me interested. I like a challenge too, & not one that looks exactly like everyone else's...

I like to make scrappies and whatever the mood strikes me!

As a designer I am at a loss right now. I go out of my way to design things that no one has ever seen before and I am always amazed when I open a brand new magazine and see square in a square quilts again and again! New fabric lines or different sizes don't make it a new design.

HELLO, every time I open a quilt magazine I am thinking these same thoughts. I understand newer quilters may need more simple designs but can we also have something to challenge older quilters?
Robin in TX

I agree with clsurz
There is no right or wrong in anyway you do it as long as you are happy with the results.

Once I finally realized this I have enjoyed quilting a lot more. I like designs that look complicated but are not. I love your NOVA pattern.

This is a good idea but I think it would be more about techniques and ideas - I think advanced design quilters want to create their own rather than follow a pattern. I've stopped getting the magazines for exactly the reason you state - yet another square in a square block pattern, usually made with a particular range of fabric. Just seems like an ad for that manufacturer sometimes...

But then, like others have said, newbies need to be given the confidence of every detail, that's how we learn. And to see colours and fabrics that work together, already picked for you, hopefully you can begin to get the confidence to design your own quilts. But I do think there is a gap in the market between these quilting magazines and the fibre arts magazines which go much more into mixed media. (I love that too but sometimes it strays a little too far away from 'quilting'!)

Sorry to waffle on, I think the point I am trying to make is that patterns in magazines are largely for newbies or not very confident quilters so by their very nature will be simple. Advanced quilters want to design their own quilts or are more into techniques they can make their own than step by step patterns. :-D