Question about quilt patterns

Thanks to all of you for the great input. I know I can't satisfy everyone, but do want to produce something that will be of use to others.

Now to recover from the Sewing/Craft show I worked this past few days and get to it all. I am energized by your comments. thanks so much.

Pati, in Phx.

I personally don't like the "whys" in with the instructions. I just want something that says "do this". However, I do like to know why, I look up techniques for that. Maybe have these as little blurbs on the side?

I am quite happy with a chart showing 2-3 sizes of quilts. For me this is very clear. Now that I am confident to not follow a pattern completely, I also already know how to figure yardage and borders, if I want to make major changes.

I like the idea of including the information, but again, not as part of the instructions. If I was writing this I'd split the actual instructions from all the other (great sounding, BTW) information you want to give.

I don't care about the name at all. I just look at the picture :-) Unfortunately, I am sure I miss lots of great patterns just because the colour scheme on the pictured quilt doesn't appeal to me :-(

But, ok, if the name is totally obscure, people might not talk about so much?

Just my 2p.

Hanne in London

I've had a couple of patterns that confused me with the way the copies were printed. They seemed to be inexpensively printed by a home machine in shades of gray only. They would show how to put piece A over piece B to stitch, but the A was almost the same shade of gray as the B and I, for the life of me, couldn't figure out what color of gray represented what color of material.

My girlfriend finally figured out that one shade of gray represented the right side of a fabric, and the slightly darker shade of gray represented the back of the fabric. No where in the instructions were we told how to interpret the various shades of gray, It was really weird.

I was at my favorite LQS, Bunkhouse Quilts, in Lyndeborough, NH. and fell in love with a 50% off applique Nativity scene. The packaging seemed thin, so I opened it up to find most of the patterns missing from the kit. I asked the clerk, who then opened every similar package, and the same pieces were missing from everyone of them.

Saturday I bought a kit for the Chicken pin cushion, which was discussed here lately, and when I started to read the instructions, found that one paragraph was printed upside-down. That paragraph referred to an item "below", well, below was the top of the page because I had to read the page upside down. The "below" to which it referred was actually above the paragraph, because the paragraph was upside down. Confused yet??

Who the heck proof reads these things. These mistakes would be noticeable to a first grader who never quilted in his life.

Denise

A day late and a dollar short, but here is one more suggestion. I like quilts that have the chart on the back, similar to what one sees on Simplicity patterns for clothing. That is a quick reference for variety of sizes, garment (top vs. skirt, etc), and sometimes different accessories. I'd like to see more of that type thing on quilting patterns. One simple nine patch pattern at $7 is not my cup of tea. I like a bit more value for my money.

PAT