Making Quilting Plans

As we head into the new year,  it is always nice to start making goals and plans for our quilting projects. 

I am all about having fun in the quilting part of my life, but I still would like to feel organized and productive. 

Hence, a good plan and some goals would be necessary. 

Reflect on the past

Before planning for what is to come, it is good to reflect on the past. This is to make sure we’re not repeating what’s not working and to do more of what’s working. 

As I reflected in 2022 back in this post HERE, I realized that I did not get any quilts done for gifting. I had wanted to make some but really didn’t put any into a good plan. 

So this year, I am making intention AND a plan to go with it.

I guess 2022 was the year to gain back some momentum from the pandemic and I didn’t want to stress myself up too much with detail planning. 

Planning for gifts early in the year

I think some loose plans are great, and if we start planning early in the year – those goals might just be achievable by the end of the year.

Since I have the intention of gifting out quilts and quilty items this year, I am going to plan it out so I will get to do that.

Decide who will get a handmade-by-you-quilty-gift this year

First I am listing out the special people that I want to gift my handmade quilty gifts this year. This can be for their birthday present, or just for any special occasion like a birth of a new baby or a wedding. I have one baby in mind for 2023, our future niece/nephew. And I have a long list of family members whom I want to make quilts for. I hope this is the year I get to do that!

Decide what you are going to make

Of course making quilts for everyone isn’t the best plan because quilts really takes a lot of time and labour to make. Maybe quilts are for close family members while others can still get pillow cases, table runners or even pouches!

You can also make pouches from an orphan blocks. Check that post HERE>

Or make table runners for those who deserves a quilt, but maybe you don’t have the time to make one just yet. I made a few that I can’t part with with in the past years, maybe I’ll try and make some that I will surely gift away this year. But my biggest goal this year is for the closest family members who haven’t receive quilts from me. I think many of my family have received pouches or small items from me. It is time for their quilts. 

So this year, my biggest goal is to make their quilts. I have set at least 3 quilts that are surely to be done by this year to gift away. That seems like a reasonable number looking back at the number of quilt I can get done in a year for the past years. Besides, I already have some of these in the work in progress pile. Which come to my next tip, before you plan new projects for the new year, 

go through the work in progress pile first!

If you are an avid quilter like me, you probably have a pile of work in progress here and there. Maybe lots of quilt top done and just waiting to be quilted. That will make the perfect gift for this year! It is already close to the finish line and the earlier you get them done, the better!

It will be such a good feeling to finish off some of those. That will surely kicks in the momentum for the whole year. So that is what I’ll be working on the first quarter of the year.

Quilting quilt tops into quilts

Here are the quilt tops that I have in my w.i.ps stash ready to quilted for this year. And I have decided to put a future owner for these as I’ll be gifting them all away. I am planning for simple all-over design quilting for all of them to speed up the process and to just keep it simple! If you want some ideas on what design to quilt with that are easy and fast, you can check out this post HERE where I listed 20+ free motion quilting designs.Together quilt

Simply Stars Quilt

Layer Cake Spool Quilt

Home sweet home Quilt

The Sweet Life Quilt

Kit new projects with the stash you already have

I am also kitting up some new projects with the stash I already have. You need to plan to use your stash too this year! So why not make a plan early so that you don’t end up not using them all year again. I’m sure many of use falls into the trap of buying new fabrics, which sounds like a fun plan for sure. But if we plan well, I’m sure we already have what we need in our stash.

So, that’s what I did. With the person to receive the quilt in mind, I went through my stash and picked up the fabrics and patterns I need to kit it all up ready for when I feel like starting a new project. 

As I went and did this, I found some fun fabrics to use from the past Sew Sampler Box that I haven’t used yet. While they may not be the fabrics that I would buy myself, they make perfect match with the person I had in mind. So, it’s great to get surprise boxes like the Sew Sampler Box to kind of add in things that you may not buy for yourself. Which makes it easier to make and gift away too. You can read more about my review of Sew Sampler Box HERE>

Allow some room for new things 

Finally, just allow some room for new things and new projects. I am bound to be distracted I’m sure. But with some loose plans like this, I hope to get more productive this year and gift away many more quilts!

In brief, here’s the outline on How to plan for your quilting projects

1. Reflect on the past years, to see what is working and what is not
2. Make a list of the people you want to gift your handmade items this year
3. Make a reasonable gift ideas in mind for each one of them. It is also nice to have the top 3 priorities this year. 
4. Go through you work in progress pile to find any projects that will suits and almost at the end
5. Plan to work on those projects first so that you’ll gain momentum
6. Kit up new upcoming projects with the stash you already have.
7. Allow some room for new projects that may come in the year. 

So, are you ready to plan for 2023? Tell me in the comment below, what are the top three projects you want to work in 2023?

Till then, have fun planning and quilting!