How hard can it be to write a quilt pattern?
by Richard Cook, February 2023
We have all probably experienced the frustration of trying to fathom out what a pattern writer meant when they wrote the pattern we desperately want to make. Those who tackled bag making on the ‘Bags of Possibilities’ course last year certainly experienced this. We all cursed the author of this or that pattern as we struggled to interpret their written, and illustrated instructions. Unfortunately, even some of the illustrations didn’t always help. Thank goodness we were able to consult one another, scratch our collective heads and of course ask Joy (who had also struggled to interpret some parts of the instructions).
Last autumn Joy tasked me with writing some patterns for the new Quilting Bee blocks. ‘How hard can it be?’ came my now familiar reply. How hard? Very hard! To say I struggled with this deceptively ‘simple’ task is a massive understatement.
The first task was to research and make some sample blocks, a little time consuming but ultimately successful and satisfying. Then to work out how to change a physical block into a written pattern.
Oh! I could demonstrate the blocks and explain verbally how I made the blocks easily enough but turning those verbal and visual prompts into words proved extremely difficult. Writing instructions for someone who had never seen what they were to make in a way that they could easily and correctly interpret my intentions - that’s another story. Compounding the difficulty of the task is my natural writing style and the proof-reading process.
