Quilter’s Planner aka Life Planner!
Posted by Lauren Herberg on Sep 18th 2020
I hope you have enjoyed following along with the Quilter’s Project Planner social media tour. I am so excited about this new product and I’d love to share my experience with the planner with you.
I am definitely one of those quilters that has many projects going on all at the same time. If that’s not you, this planner will still be very useful and everything still totally applies to you, but if you’re like me, this planner is a game changer. I never realized how much I needed the Quilter’s Project Planner until it was in my hands. While having so many balls (quilts) in the air, it’s easy to forget what you have, what you need and where you are in a project, or even completely overlook a quilt project all together. The Quilter’s Project Planner keeps all that info conveniently accessible in one book that you can take anywhere.
I want to jump into Step 1 of organizing my quilty life as soon as I’ve received my copy. But right off the bat I notice something not quite right… I’m scanning the cover and I read, “... and organize 12 projects”.
“Oh no, TWELVE projects?!” I think to myself, “I can’t fit all my concurrent ongoing projects in here!”
So Step 1 turns out to be: narrow my list of works in progress (WIPs) to fit into this planner. I start by brainstorming the projects that I have going and I come up with a list that looks like this:
I participated in a “top of the month” program last year that really added to my WIPs list as I just made the quilt top and never finished the actual quilts.
Okay, so this list is really not that bad. I just have to shrink the list by a couple projects to fit my new project planner…
Whoa, whoa! Don’t zoom out from that picture! Aack! Okay, you caught me, I have a few more WIPs. I admit that I might have a problem. Luckily, the Quilter’s Project Planner will help sort me out.
It turns out that it’s really good to focus my attention on fewer projects. That way I can actually finish up some quilts by getting that needed push to cross them over the finish line or at least fish them out of a storage box somewhere. I decided to focus on some projects that have been languishing on the edge of completion, but just need a little nudge. I also picked out some projects that I loved, but somehow forgot about in all the craziness that is life now. And finally I picked some projects that I’ve been meaning to send off to a few special people.
I wrote these projects down on the handy 12-Project Log page and colored in the completed steps for each project on this fun and super-satisfying 12-Project Wheel. By the way, I love the layflat spiral binding! It’s perfect for working in the planner.
It’s gonna take me a minute to figure out the start dates for these quilt projects; some of them are pretty old!
I’m already starting to get excited about finishing these projects just so I can continue coloring in the wheel!
There’s a really great section at the front of the planner where you can lay out all the important dates for the year and see all in one spot what needs to be done and when. But I want to jump right into the meat of the planner which is the Project Planning section. For each of the 12 projects, Quilter’s Project Planner provides you with 4 pages of helpful prompts and great space to write all your notes and progress for that project.
The first 2 pages have space to write all the specs of your quilt. You can note where you bought your fabric and what step you are on in the process. I’m always forgetting the finished quilt dimensions right when I need it, like when buying backing fabric. It’ll be easy to find with it all filled in on my Quilter’s Project Planner!
I’m very close to finishing this Vintage TV quilt; it just needs to be trimmed and bound.
The next 2 pages in the Project Planning section are your inspiration and ideas pages. I love that there is space in the planner for sorting out your ideas and compiling the sources that go into your projects. I started a sew along of a sampler quilt a couple years ago, but only got about a third of the way through the blocks. I’d forgotten how much I loved these blocks and how much fun I had making them, until I printed out pictures of the blocks and played with arranging them on the “Graph It Out” page. The planner morphed into a mini design wall!
I’m waiting until I’ve finished the blocks and have a layout finalized before I glue the pictures down in my planner, so in the meantime, I’m storing the quilt block pictures in this envelope (that I made from kraft-tex) clipped to the page.
As you work through a quilt and add scraps of fabric, sketches of the layout and pictures of your progress, the Quilter’s Project Planner now morphs into a working scrapbook with all the stats, feelings and memories of your art. Once that quilt has been given to its intended recipient, you’ll still always have the record of your creation. I’ve never had a planner that once it was filled I would want to hold onto as a keepsake until now.
My pages for that Vintage TV quilt turned out just like a spread from a scrapbook. I added background fabric scraps and filled the pages with pictures of every step of the way. I even included a picture from a quilt guild retreat where I spent my time working on the TV blocks. These things are all memories from making this quilt.
I filled the pages for another quilt that I dubbed “Alison Glass Top of the Month” because the prints on the top are all by designer Alison Glass and the pattern is from a Top of the Month program.
I showed in the sketch that the block layout was originally 6 x 8, but I added a column on either side of the quilt to make it 8 x 8. This quilt was promised to a friend of mine, but I will still be able to treasure it by preserving it in my planner.
This quilt has only needed its binding and label for over a year, so adding it to the planner has given me the reminder and the motivation to finish it and send it off. Last weekend, I had a binding session and finished this quilt. I even remembered to get a final photo of it to share on social media so that I could also add the picture to my Quilter’s Project Planner! More importantly, this means that I get to fill in the final segments on the Project Wheel!
If only the planner had a place to write when my blog entries were due!
Now it’s your turn. I hope my pages give you inspiration in many ways that you can use and eventually cherish your unique Quilter’s Project Planner. Get your Quilter’s Project Planner today and get your quilt projects (and your life) organized!
See what all of our Quilter's Planner Tour Participants Had to Share!
- Terifications - Quiltville 
- QuiltFabrication - Zippy Quilts
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