I tend to see things others have made that make me want to do a similar thing. I love to try a pattern I see somewhere. I'm often inspired by fabric I find. I love magazines. I also make my own patterns, especially applique. I get a bit arty now and then and am currently into ethnic designs (like my totem pole). I use EQ6 but tend to go to graph paper and pencil as I'm faster that way.

I often have a pattern and can't decide on fabric or have a pile of fabric and can't decide on a pattern. I use a design wall and have several bits up there at all times. I tend to make wallhangings as they are small and fast and I can try a pattern out that way. I am even down to table runner size now.

I don't often finish up to FMQ. I am satisfied just making a top and have quite a pile of tops. Then, I'll get a FMQ urge and drag something out to "practice on". I have an antique glass-front china cabinet they go in to when quilted. You can see them at a glance and I have more there than I'd have thought if asked. I do like Xmas quilts and other seasonal sorts of things I drag out. I have lots hanging around the house that I swap out as mood strikes. I have a huge stash and dump stuff now and then to our guild fundraisings.

Imrainey ~ I am happy to see you back posting again. I have admired your work (love your gorgeous applique). I have only been quilting for 1 1/2 years, so I am not settled into any routine that works. I am a very good seamstress, and I have worked in fabrics and textiles & color and design most of my life, for work and pleasure.

All that said, I also have Mac computers, and even though we should be able to use the graphics capabilities to help us design quilts, I don't have the techie gene. I pretty much do what you do~LOL~ so I am interested in what others do. I am an avid reader, and I fill my head with How-to's and look at a zillion pictures. I do not have the ability to follow a pattern w/out making major changes. I have started reading about "designing concepts". I am a very visual person; I dream in color and scale, and my ideas exceed what I could ever accomplish.

I see nothing wrong with the way you are designing the log cabin lambs quilt, other then you could get frustrated with the obsession to get just the right shade of a fabric. If you were a painter, you would be creating using the same method.

Sorry, I am no helpâº

toolgranny- I'm far more interested in piecing than actual quilting too. Even the ones I've actually quilted (by hand) usually could use a lot more quilting on the outer borders than I ever manage to do.

magothyrivergirl- I'm not looking for THE answer. I just want to hear what everyone's process is. So you've been plenty "helpful". ;>

Do you ever get frustrated that the designers of sewing software just ignore the Mac platform? When I bought my last sewing machine I didn't go for the embroidery model because I would have had to buy a separate PC computer to run it. I have to suppose that costs Bernina money for the more expensive machine I didn't buy and the patterns I won't buy on a continuing basis. ...especially now that there's a grandson on the way. Plus I can't tell you the frustrations I've had over Bernina's LOUSY operating manual that I'm dependent on since I can't play the PC-formatted CD they supplied with the machine. Do any of them know that the market for Mac has been a steadily growing thing?! grrrrrrrrrr

Anyway, nice to see you again too. ;>

I have EQ software (I think they have a version for Mac), but most of my quilts are either from patterns or modifications of patterns. I have designed a few from the outset. When I want to design, I put it in the ol' "Magic 8 Ball" and let it percolate, then usually a design pops into my head. If I can, I draw it into EQ so I can play with fabrics & colors.

What I love about EQ is it is so easy to change colorings, fabrics, blocks, etc. You can scan fabric you want to use and use it in the design. You can also print cutting instructions, templates and PP foundations.

I have a sort of design wall - a big piece of flannel that I can stretch over my closet doors when needed - but I use it for block layouts rather than actual designing.
Donna

One comment about the software - I can't load my EQ on laptop because I use Linux and not Windows. So, same complaint as Mac users have. Someday.

Alas, no, EQ doesn't have a Mac version. I'd have to buy PC-emulating software to run EQ on my Mac.

Also, when I speak of "designing" a quilt I'm not even talking from scratch. I generally begin with something I've seen or a purchased pattern. Even so, unless you attempt to replicate things exactly, there's still a lot of design that comes into play choosing colors, scale and texture. I can't tell you how many times I thought I was making minimal changes to a design I was inspired by but ended up with something very different. Sometimes it works; sometimes not so much. =o

I recently took a pattern for a baby quilt into the quilt store to pick out fabrics. The designer made the quilt up inn colors for a girl, a boy and then made gender neutral selections. The sales lady in the store, who must see a lot of quilts had to be shown that they were variations of the same quilt because the effect was so dramatic she wasn't convinced until we looked very carefully.

We're all designing with each choice even when someone else has chosen the blocks and done the math.

I tend to design my quilts as I go. I may have an idea as to what I want to see based on the fabrics I have on hand or a pattern I saw but generally speaking till the last stitch is in it's subject to change as I go.

Currently I have one quilt which I want to do that I saw in a magazine. I like the pattern, like the colors. I started gathering the fabric and realized I didn't like the color of the one print and could very easily change it to something I had on hand with out destroying the over all look of the pattern. So I changed it. Next I realized the finished quilt in the magazine was much smaller than what I normally like so by adding a bit here and a bit there.I will get the size I want. It's basically the same design but with my added ideas.
Quilts are works of art they are meant to be altered and changed to fit the artist that is making them. Don't get so hung up on matching everything to perfection. Quilts were meant to be done with what the quilter had on hand. Sometimes the best way to get over having to control every color choice is to do a scrappy quilt. Take the scrap bag, pick a simple design and just repeat it thru out the whole quilt. Only rule I have when doing that is if I pull it out of the scrap bag it's got to be used in the quilt.
After doing a string quilt or two you learn to value that even random choices can have a beauty all their own.

It's nice to see that most everyone kind of does their own thing creatively at least to some degree. If I see a pattern I like I might follow the block design and size but choose entirely different fabrics, or add a border(s) or frames, or take them away, etc. Or I might change the size, number of blocks. I have designed my own applique designs (especially on childrens' quilts). Sometimes I see certain fabrics and plan a quilt around them. Right now I am doing a completely spontaneous applique project, deciding and designing as I go. I really can't remember ever seeing a quilt design and copying it exactly, I always change something.

Wise words, Carol. I agree with you and rita completely about making whatever you start from your own. That's why the creative process is so interesting to me and why I'm interested in what other people's process is.

I just went on about designing because I don't think we necessarily take ourselves seriously as designers when we begin with someone else's inspiration. Like everything else in the arts and in craft there are degrees on a continuum but even when we start with a specific plan in mind we're still in the driver's seat making a ton of decisions that are very much a design process.

Alternatively, as you note, when we begin from someone else's work we're not bound to them to attempt to replicate either! ;>

Like others, I see designs, patterns, or traditional blocks arranged in a certain way or certain colors used and go from there. I use a design wall (flannel backed vinyl tablecloth) to put the blocks on so I can move them around. My round robin group really enjoys doing this when we go to the mountains for a long quilting weekend - 4 or 6 heads are sooooo much better than just one!

The quilts that I have made from my own designs sometimes come from ideas of ready-made quilts that I have seen, or a combining of designs from various sources, i.e. greeting cards, children's books, photos from trips, etc.

You will get better at selecting fabrics over time! You need to remember to choose fabrics of varying textures, movement, scale, hue, and colors. Ask for help when choosing until you achieve your own confidence. The more quilts you make, the better you get at choosing fabrics. Study quilts that impress you to see what fabrics are included. It's amazing what can show up in a group of fabrics to add just the right spark.

Right now, I'd rather be sewing and quilting than doing designs on a computer. And I learned way back not to ever select the border until the quilt top is finished. I take the top to the fabric store and audition borders along side the top design - works a treat every time: stack up some bolts of fabric one on top of the other, unfurl the top bolt so it hangs down 2 or 3 feet to the floor, then lay your folded top on the top bolt the width of your purposed border and you can see one large portion of your top with the border fabric right beside it.

Hope this helps!
Teresa

I generally follow some sort of a pattern when I make a quilt but make it my own when it comes to fabric selection and color. I pull from my stash and audition different combinations and often change as I go. Each one is different and sometimes I like the basic concept that the pattern offers but I never repeat a pattern the same way. I agree that scrap quilts offer much more freedom and perhaps that is why I love them so much. The rare times that I have been original I have drafted a general pattern on paper.
I have a design wall of sorts made from a large piece of fleece that I drape over a lg. cloths dryer and my selves. I do like to see the progression of my efforts.
The "putting together" is much more fun that any other part for me but you can have only so many UFO's before you start feeling quilty.
Jayne

I like to look at magazines, pics of others' work, and patterns that I see on the internet. When I see something I like I bookmark it. I'll never try all the patterns/designs that I like but I do have at least one one quilt on the go that I've seen somewhere. That was the case with the "Frosty Blues' quilt. Now I'm working on a quilt that is a design from magazine...I think it's a Fons and Porter magazine.

Other than that, I am just doing patterns to use up my scraps..9 or 16-patch, or just joining strips,...also a Pineapple Blossom pattern using scraps, or easy and scrappy baby quilts. I have cut WAY back on buying fabric.

This is an interesting thread. I enjoy reading the comments.

~Geraldine

I'm a mac user also. I use InDesign which is a page layout software with some drawing tools. I use that as a teaching tool--I can make illustrated instructions for my students. Like others in this thread, I seem to get into a bottleneck with my pieced quilt tops--I too have a stack to be quilted. I'm finding that it helps to make a drawing of a quilt top in InDesign using grays. Then, I go in with red to show where I may want to quilt the straight lines. Once that's done, I print it out and draw by hand where free motion quilting may look nice. I usually make myself a couple of print outs so I can experiment. That seems to help.
But I agree--there should be more quilting software for macs users.

The one I'm piecing now is an exact copy off the cover of Quiltmaker, made with 30's repro fabrics. My other two I cut all out and arranged on a queen flannel sheet tacked up to my living room wall. I rejected some colors and recut more pieces, and arranged and re-arranged.

They billed and shipped EQ7 for me today! Maybe this time next year I'll be all high tech.

I always have a bunch of design ideas rattling around in my ADD brain waiting to try. As I play with my fabrics, I usually get inspired to try a bunch of them with one of those patterns. Sometimes I will buy a neutral to accompany some of the fabrics from my stash, but I try to get along without buying if at all possible. Sometimes I get obsessed with a pattern and will make it several times in different color combinations. These tend to be easy patterns without lots of half square triangles. I had EQ 5 on my old computer and enjoyed testing varied color combinations but I got bored with it and am not sorry I don't have it for my new MAC. I have used purchased patterns but usually make up my own designs. I aalso get a ot of inspiration from quilt shows, magazines and samples hanging in my local quilt shop. I often photograph them and figure out how they are made.

I have an old school note book that I use a pencil and draw in the rough size of the block and I want and then figure out if I have 12 inch blocks and I want a quilt that is 60 by 72 how many blocks I will need and say-------yeeks- I don't want to do that many so then I draw sashing in between blocks and rows and then add borders to see how close I get to my desired size. I think every quilt I see in a book is either too big or something so I just kind of steal ideas from books, web sites, etc. Good luck. I am not good at picking out colors---so I use a lot of scraps and use a lot of sashing in between.

Loving hearing all your stories and processes! Keep 'em coming! Creativity feeds creativity.

I forgot to mention, I have used EQ6 lately to do a final draft of a project. It lets you see the overall look, such as how does it look with different borders, sizes, layouts, does the color combination work overall? I haven't gotten into actually drawing a block on it yet, but it is so much easier than drawing and coloring your own plan on a sheet of paper over and over. Also eliminates having to do MATH! UGH! If a pieced block isn't in the library I use one that is close. My biggest problem right now is that my printer is broken and I haven't even begun to choose a new one.

My quilts are designed when the binding gets on. I have never finished one up looking like the one I had envisioned when I started working on the first block. The exception was a puff quilt, my first full-sized quilt and a tumbling blocks my second. The rest have been modified as I worked.

To get an overall view from a distance, you can use a door peeper (like you install in a door to see who's there), look through binoculars backwards, or take a digital photo and reduce it on your computer screen.
I design applique blocks by cutting up scraps of fabric in approximate shapes and gluestick them to a paper pattern or drawing. Once I think I'm finished, I set it aside for a day or two, then take a fresh look for color, balance, contrast, etc. It's a lot of fun, like coloring when you were a kid (I still am), and it takes some time, but not as much time as ripping out!
To arrange blocks into a top, I photograph them, print them out (black/white or color), cut them up and rearrange them. Once decided on an arrangement, tape it together and take another digital pic. Digital photography is a great design tool! Cheap, and no ripping!
BlueBars