bearisgray

I like calling them "tester blocks" much better than calling them "sample blocks"

Some things I have learned by making these test blocks - sometimes the cutting directions are wrong -

Another thing to be said for "eperience" - to know /realize the directions are wrong!

It really is a challenge to write good instructions and create decent illustrations. Much easier to complain about how someone else did it.

cashs_mom

I have 3 small scrap boxes and then some boxes with scraps cut into squares and rectangles. They are all stacked together in the corner of my sewing room. That area is definitely going to become the "orphanage"!

QuiltE

...... and I know you will provide your orphans the much needed support until they are ready to leave the orphanage!!!

Dedemac

As a person that test quilt patterns, you are correct it is a challenge to get all the errors correced. Sometimes I can read a section 4 or 5 times an not see something. Then I look at the pattern on a different platform and it stands out. There is a lot of stuff your brain fills in because of ones knowledge that isn't printed on the page.
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bearisgray

As a pattern writer - how much detail to put in?

Something similar with recipes - some of my Mom's "notes to herself" recipes incclude an iingredient list - maybe the temperature to bake the product at - and that's it!

I would think trying to write a pattern for "all levels" of sewing would be harder than writing for a specific level.

I think "expereinced" people tend to skim over all the directions - and may miss an important detail - more than "newbies".

At least. that's something I tend to do - I consider myself an "advanced beginner" - I am beginning to have an idea of how much I still can learn - if I choose to.

Dedemac

It's also easy to miss spelling errors on any pass correced???? should have been corrected.

grannie cheechee

When I'm making a new quilt I like to make one block first. Usually a 12" block, and even if I don't make a mistake I will make a placemat out of it. It works for me.

dunster

I only remember making sample blocks twice. The first one was my very first quilt block. It was too wonky to actually use it in a quilt, but I learned a lot from making it. The second one was recently, when a pattern called for almost 200 3" drunkard's path blocks. I made one using scraps just to see how difficult it would be. The block came out just fine, but it was a bit fiddly and time consuming. I had already decided that I didn't really like the look of the circles that the drunkard's path blocks created in the pattern, so I decided to change the design rather than spend hours and hours making blocks that I didn't like anyway.