2023 Planning Party

I cannot believe it's already been another year! Wow, this year went so fast. I didn't actually remember what I'd put on my 2022 list so I had to go back and look for it. First up, I said I wanted to finish an average of one quilt per month. I exceeded that. Since I finished so many scrappy quilts, my count exceeded more than one quilt a month.

Dunrobin quilt for my mother-in-law

Judy Martin's Snake River log cabin quilt, finally finished

Bonus Unbeweavable lap quilt.

Judy Martin's Paducah's log cabin quilt flimsy.

A bonus Rhododentrail Trail lap quilt, mostly following the original pattern.

My version of the first Sewcialites quilt. I created my own layout.

Aged Elegance quilt

My version of the Rhododendron Trail. I changed the sashing.

I also said it would be nice to learn how to applique and foundation piece. Yeah, I forgot about that one, though I did make a quilt with foundation-pieced blocks. I still have a lot to learn and need more practice, but I think I did decent for my first attempt.

Pieces of My Heart flimsy

I said I'd like to quilt the dozen or so flimsies I had accumulated. I was successful on that one. I do still have a couple of my most advanced projects still waiting for quilting mainly because I don't think I've learned how to use my Prostitcher software well enough to do a good job quilting them. In total, I finished quilting 19 of my own flimsies this past year, including scrappy lap quilts.

One of my goals was to be more disciplined about making pillowcases as soon as I finish the bed-size flimsies.  Yeah, I didn't do so good on that one. Though, in fairness, I really just finished quilting the Snake River this month so it's not too late to get pillowcases done before I start using it on a bed. And I didn't make pillowcases to coordinate with the Rhododendron Trail because I just use yellow pillowcases, which I already had. The other two bed-size quilts were made as gifts and we're gifted accordingly. Yes, it would have been nice if I had included matching pillowcases....

Finally, I said I'd like to engage more with my two local quilt guilds. That was mostly a failure, primarily because of the lingering pandemic. I did go to the last meeting of the Northwest Quilters Guild and I do plan to start regularly attending the general meeting. I also will attend any virtual retreats (those held online) but I'm still not ready to attend in-person quilting retreats.

Now for the part where I start looking ahead to 2023. 

I would like to finish twelve donation quilts, an average of one every month, to donate to Comforting Quilts. Most of the patterns only take me a day to piece the small sizes and then they only take an hour or two to quilt them up. I'm sure I can spare that much time from my own projects. LOL

I would like to spend more time learning to use my ProStitcher computer. I know there is a lot I don't understand so I need to spend several hours every month finding and watching whatever educational videos I can find. I would take an in-person class if I could find one that isn't crazy far. Or I may pay for online classes. I still need to look around to figure out what's available. 

I would like to figure out how to quilt my Deco Elegance quilt for my Aunt. I came up with a quilting plan I really like, but the individual blocks exceed my machine's quilting space. So, I either need to figure out how to put the quilt on my frame on a diagonal, or I need to figure out if I can break the quilting design into more than one piece. Most likely, I will put big triangle muslin pieces on the edges and install the quilt on the diagonal so I can quilt the center portions and then take them off to finish the border. 

I would like to make the Jade Garden quilt and the Diamond Lane quilt (in Farmhouse Chic fabrics) before I lose track of why I bought the fabrics.

Jade Garden quilt

Diamond Lane quilt in Farmhouse chic fabrics

I plan to participate in Bonnie Hunter's Chilhowie Mystery Quilt again and Cheryl's Melodic Mystery quilt. (I've been downloading the clues but I haven't started either.) In January, I'm hoping to start pulling my fabrics for both of them and get caught up!

That is it for my official goals. I have other projects I would like to make, but I think they'll have to be in the extra column. I'd like to make gifts for family members, but I still need to decide on patterns. Perhaps I'll get a couple of those done too.

Thanks to Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl for helping to keep us all on track with her annual planning party linkup.