Pattern rebel?
#32
Super Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Nawth o' Boston
Posts: 1,879
I've done patterns as is, also changed up the innards some, changed borders, and made up a couple simple 9-patch type right out of my head. But I don't think I am cut out to be a pattern designer - I need a clever motif or something similar to get me going.
Tartan, you've got fabric choices influencing your design now also - and I bet it will be adorable, please post!
Tartan, you've got fabric choices influencing your design now also - and I bet it will be adorable, please post!
#33
Super Member
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Sonoma County, CA
Posts: 4,299
I followed a pattern once and I hated every minute of it! I was foolish and cut everything before I started, then once I got going I realized that the way the pattern called to make the blocks was not very good; it added extra seams that were not really necessary and made the block very bulky and fussy and much harder to line up points than it needed to be. I would have put the block together completely differently if I'd thought ahead but the fabric was already all chopped up. I didn't even actually follow the full pattern, just the pattern for the individual blocks and then I put the overall quilt together totally differently. I hated that quilt by the time I was done!
Learned my lesson though! I look at patterns for inspiration and then between EQ7 and good old fashioned graph paper I figure out MY pattern. I still buy a ton of quilt books, but now I treat them as sources of ideas and inspiration rather than sets of instructions. I'm often inspired by things other than quilts though - patterns on carpeting or wallpaper catch my eye, tile mosaics, even patterns of shadows from a fence on a sidewalk will make me stop and snap a picture. People think I'm crazy ("Why are you taking a closeup picture of the ground?") but that's not really something new, LOL.
Learned my lesson though! I look at patterns for inspiration and then between EQ7 and good old fashioned graph paper I figure out MY pattern. I still buy a ton of quilt books, but now I treat them as sources of ideas and inspiration rather than sets of instructions. I'm often inspired by things other than quilts though - patterns on carpeting or wallpaper catch my eye, tile mosaics, even patterns of shadows from a fence on a sidewalk will make me stop and snap a picture. People think I'm crazy ("Why are you taking a closeup picture of the ground?") but that's not really something new, LOL.
#34
I tend to make it my own. If it's not big enough then I add a row or a column to make it larger. Our donation quilts have to measure a minimum of 120" (adding length to width) to get 8 pts. and 90" to get 4 pts. At the end of the year if you have donated 48 pts. you get a free class. I want the class so I try to make big quilts to get my 48 out of the way early in the year. Then I don't mind the rest of the year.
#36
Power Poster
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Ontario, Canada
Posts: 41,461
AZJane, that is adorable! For those that wanted a picture of my crayon from the Color me Happy pattern, here it is. Of course I changed the width and the crayon was supposed to have 20 pieces but I wanted a smaller quilt so I duid 14 sections instead. Of course I started with the red one because I had all those fabrics. I am still looking for some of the other colours so that will take some time but I am not in any hurry. It is just laying on my black fabric and with about 2 inch sashing it will be about 38 inches wide before final border.[ATTACH=CONFIG]507293[/ATTACH]
#37
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: South of Chicago, IL
Posts: 322
On my last my last quilt I increased the size of the blocks. It took four small blocks to make one big pattern block and I wanted it to finish out at 12", so using 5" charms were not going to work. It took a little adjusting the 4 pattern pieces sizes since they were snowballed rectangles. I also used the snowball cut offs for a border which was not called for. It worked out so that I could adjust the pattern to make it my own; after all, I was the quilt maker.
#39
Power Poster
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: new york state
Posts: 10,196
I use a pattern for a general idea the do my own take on it. My quilt teacher gets mad because I dont follow the directions. Oh well i have to live with it not her. She likes everything exact i like it a fun time.
#40
Tartan, what was the original size of the quilt on that pattern? I see it was offered as a bonus in American Patchwork. The one I'm considering is 74"x 89" and a lot busier looking. Maybe I should rethink my choice. Here's a link to the one I'm waffling about. http://www.quiltmaker.com/patterns/d...html?idx=15330
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