For Christmas this year my husband gifted me with The 2020 Quilter's Planner in my Christmas stocking.
This blog has always been my way of journaling my quilts but then last year I spotted the Quilter's Planner on Instagram and thought I'd give it a try and so I put it on my Christmas list. I really thought I was just getting a planner to journal in, but boy was I wrong! The Quilter's Planner is so much more than just a planner. It comes with its very own community, fun challenges sponsored by people in the quilting industry, a magazine filled to the brim with quilt patterns and a block of the month Sampler Quilt by Karen Lewis of Karen Lewis Textiles.
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| Some of my Instagram posts for the Quilter's Planner Photo Challenges |
You can join the Quilter's Planner online community of quilters either on Instagram or Facebook. Any time you become part of a community you grow as an individual and you improve in your craft. Everyone in this community graciously shares their tips, tricks and techniques along with their successes and failures. Trust me, you can learn a lot more from your failures then you can from your successes! These online platforms weren't an option years ago and I think we grow exponentially because of them. You also meet some of the nicest people who will bend over backwards to help you.
I participated in the photo challenges on Instagram. They were fun and easy to do. But I have so many quilts on my "to do" list for the year that I wasn't going to participate in the Block of the Month quilt challenge. Then I changed my mind and thought I'd just make a few blocks and turn them into a quilted drawstring bag instead of a quilt. But once I got going I was absolutely hooked.
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| Planning out my quilt in the Quilter's Planner |
I had just finished making a quilt using fabric from Giucy Giuce and I had a bunch of that amazing fabric left over so that's where I pulled my fabrics from. I also had scrap batting and backing and so I did not have to get anything for this quilt. I did not follow the quilt layout exactly as it was shown. I just have this thing where I like to put my own spin on things. I made nine blocks instead of twelve and picked the nine I liked best.
The pattern by Karen Lewis is easy to follow and the blocks are easy to make. Once I was done with January's I immediately made February's and then March's. What can I say? I'm just not the sort of person who has UFO's laying around. (That's quilt speak for unfinished objects.) My personality is such that I have to see a thing through or it weighs on my mind. I just don't deal well with mind clutter, so, instead of doing this quilt one block each month I sat down and finished it in one go.
Once the quilt was assembled I put it on my longarm. Quilting on my longarm is my favOrite part of quilting. A pieced quilt top is colorful but it's also flat. Once you quilt it you add a completely different layer to it and it changes into something else entirely. I love rolling a quilt off of my longarm and seeing it for the first time. There is always this amazing transformation. For this quilt I used stitch in the ditch quilting, straight line quilting and some white Glide thread. I also used two battings ... one Quilter's Dream wool and one Quilter's Dream Poly/Cotton.
I had fun making this quilt and I've had so much fun being a part of the Quilter's Planner community! AND I totally love to journal about my quilts as I make them. I use washi tape and stickers and fine tipped markers and colored pencils and decorate my pages as I journal my plans for each quilt, keep track of my progress as I go along and watch as I reach my goals! If you're a quilter I highly recommend purchasing the Quilter's Planner. Just visit their website ... quiltersplanner.com
And remember to pick up a needle and thread and stitch some love into your world❣️
