I wanted to dive right back into designing and writing another quilt pattern. So I toyed around with a few things and came up with this block below.
However, when laid out in repeat, it makes the exact same pattern as Gene Pool designed by the very talented Jen Kingwell. I have never seen her pattern before and stumbled upon it while reading a fellow ’16 New Quilt Bloggers blog. Thank goodness for that!
Has this ever happened to you? Back to the drawing board I go.
Cheers,
Amanda
thismomquilts.wordpress.com 
Since I work with basic shapes like squares, rectangles and triangles, I will often stumble across quilts that use a similar concept. Good luck with tweaking this pattern. This experience may push you into creating something even more amazing.
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Thank you Marla for your comment. I am glad I’m not the only one in this boat. It is hard to come up with completely original ideas now a days, especially with all of the inspiration at our finger tips. I’ve got something in the works with the block I have created and I think its a much stronger pattern now. I am going to host a quilt along on my blog soon and then I think I will release the pattern for purchase after the QAL is finished. Have you got anything new and exciting in the works design-wise?
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Oh, man. Because I rarely use or even look at patterns, I really don’t know what’s out there. Every time I think I’ve come up with something new, it’s already been done. And that’s why I’m not a pattern designer! Haha. 😉
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Yes, it’s a tricky situation. I just saw another iteration of the quilt someone else has done. I’m onto something else now.
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Good luck!
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This has happened to me too! I’m going to try the search as Yvonne mentioned.
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Thank you Paige. I tried a google image search yesterday. It was really neat. You browse for your file on the Internet or your computer and you can type in some key words after the image and voila, images pop up that are similar to yours. A wonderful tool it is.
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I had a really great design idea and told the instructor of a class I was taking about it and she tells me someone had a quilt at Quiltcon using the same idea. 😕
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Thank you for your comment!!! Is there any way you can re-color or set your idea to make it stand apart from what your instructor saw at QuiltCon? Those are some of the ideas other commenters have passed along to me. It’s funny how the same idea can crop up in two or more different minds. I’m interested in knowing what you do with your idea! Cheers!!!
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I am piecing Gene Pool by Jen Kingwell right now. I’m curious about your post. It doesn’t look to me like your block pieces will be cut the same as hers…I think you might be able to make the block your own if you rethink the orientation of the block. If you want to see a pic of the quilt on my design wall pop over to my site.
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Thank you Velda for your comment! I did in fact see the quilt you are working on and that is how I discovered that the resulting layout of my block had already been done as a quilt. You are right though, her quilt looks as though each row is pieced whereas I arrived at the same motif via a block. I would not be able to achieve the same effect she has in her quilt using the block I created but they are just too similar for my comfort. So, I have another plan for this block which I am equally excited about!!! Thanks for posting about your quilt and I think I might just by Jen’s pattern as well!
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Oooo, I just read your about page! I am located in Edmonton. Too bad I have missed you already.
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Yeah. We actually lived in Sherwood Park. I really miss the great fabric shops but not the traffic.
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Yes, the shops are lovely. I hear the one in Sherwood Park is awesome. I haven’t made it there yet as I am pretty close to the one in St. Albert.
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So glad you shared this! I am a newbie at designing quilts/blocks and wondered about how to avoid this. Great minds think alike. 😉
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Thank you Pamela for your comment. Did you see the comment Yvonne left? I am going to add checking Google Images into my design workflow. Have you got anything new and exciting in the works right now?
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No problem Amanda. 😉 I did see Yvonne’s comment and I had no clue you could search by image. How cool is that! I would love to say I have some wonderful and exciting projects in the works right now, truth is, renovations at home are consuming our time at the moment. I cherish every moment I have to create. Can’t wait to see what you come up with. 😉 Pam
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This happens to me all the time. To make sure I’m not duplicating anyone, I use my design image in a Google image search to look for similar patterns. Doing that check has saved me from an embarrassing mistake more than once!
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Thanks Yvonne! That is a really wonderful hint; I had no idea you could search like that. I think I will re-color and arrange the block differently to come up with a different pattern.
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I suspect this happens a lot. I know I have seen many quilt patterns that use the same block (or very similar blocks) and just use them in a slightly different way by changing color way or focus.
The good news is that you are very creative and will certainly come up with other ideas for patterns. And perhaps with the permission of Jen Kingwell you could develop a spin-off of Gene Pool! Good luck!
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Thank you Sylvia! If I color this block a little bit different and rotate them, it creates a chunky plus with a chain-link boarder around each plus. Also little squares show up in the design. Maybe I will go with that one as I do not just want to scrap this block.
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