My name is Tomasz Boczkowski. I would like to apply for GSOC 2014 and spend this summer coding Inkscape.

I have an idea to revamp the pattern UI, currently being part of the Fill and Stroke dialog. It would consist of a new "patterns" dialog and a new on-canvas tool to edit patterns. The file new_patterns_ui.svg [2] contains my first draft, how the improved UI could look like.

The new dialog would provide a way to browse, manage and apply patterns. Some basic support for grouping patterns into collections would be provided. By dragging a pattern and dropping it on an svg object or on Fill and Stroke dialog, a user could apply it. After dropping a pattern on empty canvas, a new object could be created. It would look like a mini-page and have the size of pattern. Any objects inside this object would be treated as pattern child elements. That would allow live modifications to existing patterns. 

An alternative to "patterns" dialog would be to implement a general "print servers" dialog, enabling to manage, besides patterns, named colors, gradients and hatches. The alternative is also enclosed in mockup drawing. I suppose I would be able to implement support for selected print servers only (eg. named colors + patterns) in GSOC timeframe.