My Bursting with Ideas Brain

I've addressed this before, but the question has come up again, in a different way so I thought it would make a great Blog post ....
How do I get my design ideas?

I always have ideas in my head. Sometimes, depending on the season or the weather, there are TONS of ideas in my head and it's frustrating because I just can't draw them out fast enough. Sometimes though, my ideas are limited so I go for my pizza box.....
This is a Walmart Pizza box that I keep shoved under my couch in the living room. You can see, it has a crazy mix of paper shapes with even crazier drawings on them. My ideas that are bursting from my head get drawn and then placed into this box so that I can work and improve on them later.
This is how my designs get started. Some designs work and look good on paper. Those drawn designs are what turn into my pincushions, penny rugs, mug rugs, candle mats, and pillows.
The drawings that don't work? I still keep them because they're ideas that maybe I can take and use later. When I need inspirations, I look at these deadbeat drawings and sometimes I can turn them into something wonderful two years later!
So all my initial drawings go into this box .. well, not all because they all don't fit. The rest get shoved into another box.
You can tell from how crudely this is drawn, that it didn't trace it from anywhere. It's in my head and I'm drawing what I see behind my eyes. These Christmas drawings were done last year. Never found the time to do anything further with them but the gingerbread man will eventually become something. And that snowman? Anyone that is familiar with my designs will recognize that as mine because holy cow, I just can't stop myself from drawing in all those little details .. making the pattern so much more time consuming to create. Isn't it cute how the snowflake is dangling down from his tree limb arm?

I did this one a while ago. Cute design, eh? It started out as a little lily of the valley flower but then the 2 year old grandson decided that he wanted to improve the design in his own way with his pencil. So this is actually his design, which was inspired by my design. We both get the intellectual design ownership of this one.

Gosh, look what I found ... this lacey edged background took me a TON of time to measure and draw out. Imagine how much time it took to cut all those little scallops too! Someday I might use this lacey background to make something else. I made a cute little pansy mat with this design.

All my pansies designs are created from a real life pansy. I picked a pansy from my garden, pulled off the petals and traced them. Voila`! A pansy .... only it's not really that simple. Pansy petals still have to be made into something that actually looks like a pansy when put together. A lot of time went into perfecting my pansy pincushions that I've made.

Lots and lots of my drawings pretty much prove that I don't copy from anyone else.

I've a respect for pattern designers because I know how much time it takes to draw, measure, and select the right colors and fabrics to come up with the final finished product. We deserve to be respected and by honoring our copyrighted designs, you are showing your respect to us, as designers.

More quick sketches. I wish that I could draw better so that everything would come out perfectly the first time my pencil hits the paper. But I don't draw well, so it takes quite a bit of time to get the picture how I want it to look even before I can consider tracing it onto some freezer paper to create the pattern for it. LOTS OF TIME! Thanks to erasers, I do draw well enough though that I am able to get it how I want it, eventually.

I get my inspiration for design ideas a lot of ways. Everyone should know from my blog how much I love making flowers in my designs. Real flowers from my garden have given me the inspiration to create the lily of the valley, the geraniums, the dandylions, the coneflowers, the sunflowers , the violets, etc, etc, etc. So many flowers for me to make yet .... so many design plans are going through my head right now just thinking about flowers. Someone asked me last month about making a poppy candle mat ... that will be next ....

Ok, so I could go on and on and on rambling and telling how I do what I do, but my main point is ...

Pattern designers won't make it in the business if they take other designers patterns, add some slight changes to that pattern and then proceed to call it their own. Not only is it morally wrong .... There are clear copyright violations.

I show pictures of my designs here on my blog .... lots of pictures and lots of instructions along with helpful hints and suggestions can be found on my site. Do I want my words and pictures to be copied and pasted onto someone else's blog who then claims it to be their own? No, I do not. I wrote these words. They are mine.

The exact same thing applies to whatever pictures I show on my blog.

Showing you my pictures of my designs is NOT giving anyone permission to take my designs and then claiming the design as their own.

The drawings are mine, the instructions are mine, the pictures are mine, and these words are mine. Please don't steal them to make something and then claim that item as your own. At the very least, give me credit and the very best ... purchase my pattern and make my design legally with my permission.

I'm terribly sorry to have to do this but from now on, all my copyrighted patterns that I sell will specifically state that they may be used for personal use only. One bad person has ruined this for everyone, unfortunately.

It's a sad day today.