It’s a new year… with new projects, plans and a word for 2022!

Hi friends!

Happy New Year! It is always such an exciting time of year; I don’t know about you, but I always feel a sense of expectation, that we are starting fresh, a reset of the things. New plans… new projects…

I like the idea of a reset. So many times we get stuck in our ruts, doing what we have always done because that is how we have always done it. This time of year is exciting because we look at the new year with fresh eyes- what can we do differently? How can we reset?

Do you do New Years goals? Plans? Choose a word for your year? Being a small business, these are things I am supposed to do and that’s OK because I like the idea of looking at not only my personal life, but my business with fresh eyes. What new thing can I do in 2022??

Let’s start with some plans for 2022. 

New Projects: Quilt Alongs and Block Challenges

This year I am planning 2 quilt alongs! 

Quilt Along #1

This one will start April 11th. The quilt is called Sisterhood and I designed the quilt along with my good quilt buddy Tammy Silvers of Tamarinis.

I can’t wait to show it to you!

Quilt Along #2

This one will be a mystery and will start sometime in August or September. Details to follow in the coming months.

I may also have another free mini quilt along later in the year, like my November mini mystery quilt along that I provided to those who signed up as a Thank You for being readers of my newsletter! I haven’t decided on what that one will be yet so maybe a mystery, maybe not… 

IG Block Challenges

Last year, Tammy and I hosted a block challenge on Instagram. Each month we challenged other designers to recreate a basic quilt block; the log cabin, the rail fence, the pinwheel block…

It was so fun to see how everyone reinterpreted the blocks! I turned one of the blocks into a quilt pattern, Pinwheel Palooza with 3 different quilt sizes in the pattern.

This year, we are continuing with the block challenge and, like last year, I will share the block at the end of each month here on the blog. If you missed any, click here for the the Rail Fence block’s post!

BUT, I also plan to release each block as a PDF pattern! Each pattern will be one size project- maybe a quilt, maybe a runner or a mini quilt… time will tell. The first week the pattern will be on sale for $6 and then they will be available for $8. A great deal!

Other new projects: Fabric!

As many of you know, I have been working with the fabric company Island Batik. I have had Signature fabric lines with them which means their talented in house designer, Kathy Brett Engle designs the lines for me and I get to play with it first! That has been so fun.

Want to see the lines I have worked with so far? Click here to go to my fabric page!

The latest line will be coming out in stores next month so I will have a new pattern to show you and a remake of the cover quilt for another pattern. I can’t wait for you to see them!

But the really exciting thing happening this year isotherm new projects that I will being sharing including ones that use fabric lines that I designed! I can now call myself a fabric designer! Woo hoo! I have wanted to do this for a long time. Next week I will tell you more about that but for now, just know that I will have some new fabrics and quilts to show using my fabric lines!

Paper Quilt Patterns 

I am making some changes to my quilt patterns. They are all slowly, very slowly, getting updated to a booklet style. I have always printed on half pages but now they pages will be formatted as a booklet and stapled. This allows me to send patterns to customers not in a plastic bag.

Why is that a thing? Well, as you know, plastic is part of our trash pollution issues in the world. Did you know plastic can take 400 years or more to decompose?

I have been trying to reduce plastic use in my regular household routine; we don’t buy a lot of plastic food storage bags and we try to reuse the ones we do use. For my quilt business, I plan to ship retail pattern orders without plastic bags unless a customer requests one. So, if it is important to you to have your quilt pattern in a plastic bag, then I will ship it that way.  No worries.

Wholesale orders will of course go out in plastic bags because otherwise shops would have a problem keeping patterns clean and together! 

PDF Quilt Patterns

Another way to reduce packaging and shipping is to offer more PDF quilt patterns. They take a while to create as I have to reformat all the information but I am committed this year to converting more of my patterns to PDF. One big benefit to you is you save on shipping costs!

I have my PDF quilt patterns in my shop and on ETSY for international customers. 

Blog Posts

I plan to continue to post here on the blog weekly on Wednesdays. Some posts will be tutorials, some will be about new projects or quilts.

 I have a favor to ask though; what would you like to hear about? I have a plan for some posts but if there is a tutorial or a subject you would like me to cover, please let me know!

You can put a comment below this post or email me.

That’s the start of the 2022 plan for me! 

My Word for 2022

I have thought about this for a while- did I want to pick a word for 2022? What would my word be? What do I want it to convey about me, my business or my goals?

I chose the word Bloom. I feel like my business is blooming- branching out into new ventures and now is the ideal moment for growth. Growth related to learning new skills, in my belief in myself and in ways to reach out and help quilters. I also want to continue to keep flow, ease and joy in my mind as I work and give myself grace, time off to recharge and time to spend with family and friends!

I am wishing for a peaceful, productive, joyful and healthy new year for all of us!

happy quilting!

Kate

Quote for the day: Just living is not enough,” said the butterfly, “one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower.”                        -Hans Christian Andersen