Last week I went through the pictures on my phone and wrote down the significant events for each month, both personal and quilty. I was surprised by what I had accomplished and how much things changed from season to season. Interested? Let me walk you through my 2023 Quilting Year.

January

I’m not going to lie, this was a rough month. A bipolar 2 slump combined with seasonal depression was bad! I felt like I was walking through molasses up to my waist and absolutely everything was soooo hard. I was also planning to release my Seasonally Scrappy pattern but then my computer crashed and I lost two months’ worth of work. (This is your friendly reminder to backup your computer today!)

In better news, I also made a cute quilted name tag using this tutorial.

February

I made a One Yard Wonder baby quilt for my nephew using fabric I had been saving for years. You can download the free pattern here. I was still feeling crappy and working on rewriting Seasonally Scrappy.

But the month ended on a high note when I was able to go to QuiltCon and hang out with fun quilty friends. You can see some of my favorite quilts from QuiltCon 2023 here.

March

I finally released Seasonally Scrappy and the add-on seasonal foundation paper-pieced blocks! And I started to come out of my slump.

April

Things were looking up and I hired my neighbor to help me with quilt photography. I also started a quilt along for the Scrappy Mt Range quilt. I even made and edited some videos to go along with it. They were a bit rough, quality wise, but I kept telling myself that ‘you have to be bad at something before you can be good at it.’

I took a Modern Triangles class with Rebecca Ryan with my quilt guild. It was a lot of fun.

May

I gave a lecture at my guild (St Louis Modern Quilt Guild) about tips for choosing fabric for scrap quilts. It was a lot of fun! I also did a book signing at my local quilt shop - a bit weird but fun.

I had been working on my Quilty Chicks pattern off and on since fall 2022 but really started to buckle down and write now.

June

I wrote a free table runner tutorial to go with the Seasonally Scrappy quilt blocks. I also started working on what I am calling my Scrappy Granny quilt. I am hoping for an early summer release for that pattern. (If it doesn’t take you a year to develop and write a pattern, are you even doing it right?!? lol )

I also worked with a committee in our guild to design a pattern for the MQG Community Challenge Quilt.

July

I did a lecture and taught a Scrappy Mt Range class at a retreat in Illinois. It was a lot of fun, but I realized that the Scrappy Mt Range pattern is not super user friendly. The quilters were all so nice, but there were some painful moments and it was WAY too big of a project for a day class. I have plans to rewrite and release a simplified version of the Mt Range pattern. Maybe in July? (Again, if it doesn’t take a year…) Teaching that class really changed how I designed and wrote the Scrappy Triangle pattern that I will be releasing in February. It is more streamlined and there is a mini quilt option that will be perfect for classes! (This has been in the works for 2 years.)

I also like to dabble in historical costuming and finished my 18th century stays (like a corset). These had been in the works for 4 years, mostly because I was scared of messing them up. And because hand sewing eyelets isn’t fun. I thought about metal ones, but didn’t like how they looked.

August

By this point in the summer, I was super stressed out. All the kids home, all the time, all doing all the different things was overwhelming.

I had the basic cutting instructions for the Quilty Chicks blocks completed and started sewing the blocks together. Overthinking my fabric combos inspired me to write this blog post about value, scale, and placement.

I also did another book signing at a local quilt shops Extravaganza conference and gave a lecture at another local quilt guild.

At this point I started to panic. I wanted to finish my Scrappy Triangle quilt so I could submit it to QuiltCon at the end of October. I also had to finish an 18th century ball gown and costume for my husband by mid-October (I bought the tickets a year and a half earlier, but still hadn’t made the dress.) And I wanted to release Quilty Chicks at the beginning of October so quilt shops would have time to order patterns and prep for 2024 Block of the Months.

I was trying all of the time management things I could think of and I just wasn’t making progress.

September

So I decided to think outside of the box and asked my quilt guild friends to help me make the foundation paper-pieced triangles at our annual sewing retreat in September. They were soooo kind and generous with their time and helped me get it done. It was so heartwarming and I was able to meet the deadline to submit it to QuiltCon! Then in December, I learned the quilt was not selected. :( But I am working on the pattern! I am shooting for mid-February.

The kids were back in school and things still felt really hard, but I had a great time at my guild’s 3 day local retreat and was able to make some progress sewing my chicken quilt blocks together.

At the retreat I also decided that it would be fun to have a vendor’s booth at our guild quilt show in March! And signed up to do another guild lecture on Modern Traditionalism.

October

I was still working on the Scrappy Chicks quilt. Making all of the diagrams and fixing all the edits took sooooo long. I realized I would not finish in October and that it would be done when it was done. My mantra became “face the direction you want to go, so you are ready to move forward when you can.”

I submitted the Scrappy Triangle quilt to QuiltCon.

I spent two weeks sewing my 18th century ball dress and finished hours before the dance. It took sooo much longer than I thought it would! But I am so proud of it!

I started meeting with a couple of other creatives via zoom once a week. Each week we work on that one thing we’ve been putting off but really need to do for two hours. No distractions! It has been amazing and so fun to check in with them each week! A real highlight of the year!

I also updated the colors and main page of my website. I love it!

November

We had a guild sewing day at a local quilt shop where I talked to their class coordinator about teaching some classes for them in 2024. I finished my 1st Scrappy Granny quilt and started a second Scrappy Granny quilt (pattern coming this summer!).

I had finally pulled out of the summer slump and October overwhelm.

I sent Quilty Chicks to the printer!

December

Released Quilty Chicks and realized I hadn’t ordered enough patterns. Ordered more patterns and shipping supplies for wholesale orders. (A great problem to have!)

Made and delivered class samples to the quilt shop. I’m going to be teaching a beginning foundation paper piecing class with the Scrappy Star pattern in January and an Improv Tree class in March.

2023 Takeways

Last week I was filling out a year in review worksheet and it ended by asking, “If you could sum up this year using 1 sentence, what would it be?” My immediate answer was, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” :) There were a lot of things I wanted to do but didn’t. And a lot of things that I had to modify or put off but, all things considered, it was a pretty good year. I got to do a lot of fun things and hang out with other amazing quilters! And I kept going!

Looking Forward

There are 4 areas I want to continue to grow and focus on in 2024.

Build Skills
- Learn Adobe Illlustrator
- Improve video recording and editing skills
- Teaching

Build Relationships
- Collaborate with other creatives
- Teach and lecture more
- Find ways to engage with quilters
- Work with fabric companies
- Support quilt shops

Release Patterns
- Triangle Explosion
- Chick and Flower (quilt and individual blocks)
- Scrappy Granny
- More Scrappy Stars in different sizes
- Diamond quilt

Continue to Market Patterns
- Send out regular emails with quality content and resources and grow email list
- Make sure quilters can find my pattens on Pinterest
- Reach out to shops and increase wholesale offerings
- Vend at Quilt Market

We’ll see how 2024 goes, but I feel optimistic and excited to see what this year brings! And I am glad you are here to share it with me!