2024 Recap AND 2025 Goals
Cheers to another year! I can't believe it's over! Let's take a look at my year in crafts:
Quilts Started in 2024: 23Quilts Finished in 2024: 22
WIP List on January 1: 12
WIP List on December 31: 13
Number of current, active QAL projects: 2
Oldest WIP Finished: Mother (Started February 2021)
Fastest Quilt Finish: Waiting for Saturday Morning Cartoons (2 days!)
Number of WIPs without any progress: 4
Number of Other Craft Finishes: 10
- My favorite accomplishment this year was launching a stand-alone website, BluePipDesigns.com. I still get most of my sales through Etsy, but having a stand-alone website makes me so happy and I love tinkering with it (my college degree is in computer science and designing websites was my favorite part of my job).
- My favorite finish for the year is a tie between two quilts: Chattermax, because of how ridiculously cute he is, and Halloween Pebbled Prairie because my scrappy quilts don't always work the way I want them to and this one actually does!
- My most viewed blog post was about a quilt I finished last year, my Postage Stamp Quilt. This quilt is still extremely popular on my couch because it is so big with a soft flannel back.
- My most popular tutorial this year explains how to create random 9-patches using Sodoku. You could even expand this from a single 9-patch block to a full-size baby quilt, just make the squares bigger!
- My most popular finished quilt post on Instagram this year was the Inside Out Stars. I made this quilt in a week for one of the Project Quilting challenges.
My BluePip Designs business was small but mighty this year; I launched a website and introduced print patterns, as well as releasing two new patterns. I also started offering tech editing as a service - if you are writing a pattern and would like some proofreading help make sure you are on my mailing list because I'm going to be offering a tech editing special in January!
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 Windsuit |
 Pebbled Prairie |
I had four goals in Q4 to finish off the year:
Q4 Goal 1: Finish one more Pebbled Prairie Quilt as part of the Pebbled
Prairie QAL.
Done. The quilt-along blog posts were published and the Ruby Star Pebbled
Prairie was finished on schedule.
Q4 Goal 2: Finish Space Parade test version and complete rough draft.
Half Done. The baby version is completely finished and
photographed and the large throw version is basted and ready for
quilting. My draft is farther along than an outline but not a full
rough draft yet; I am targeting a late February release date for this
pattern.
Q4 Goal 3: Finish the Fado Road Top.
This quilt is made in two
vertical sections and I had never laid both sides out together until two
weeks ago. As soon as I laid them out on the floor I thought,
I could probably piece these along with my
Pooh Corner quilt
and work on both at the same time. This turned out not to be true - once I started sewing together the
honeybees for Pooh's quilt I didn't want to do anything else and I stayed
inside the 100 Acre Wood until both Pooh and Piglet (and the sixteen bees!)
were complete.
The good news is, Pooh and Piglet look great and I'm only one block behind now (until Owl is released tomorrow!). And, once I finished these two blocks, I did start piecing together the missing section of Fado; it had four rows and and I've made three of them.
Once I finish this section, it will be time for the trickiest part - joining the left and right side together. I'm a little worried about lining everything up properly but I'll make it work. After that, there is a postage stamp border on the top and bottom that should go together very easily and it will be off to the quilter's for the finishing touches. This will be staying out until I finish the top so it should be one of my first finishes of 2025.
Q4 Goal 4: Finish last year's Advent Calendar Project.
Done. I was roadblocked on the applique part of this, but when I pulled
it out again, of course that part was almost done and I was able to finish
the project quickly after that.
I'm also up-to-date on my Marble Mystery Quilt and I made blocks for my memory scrap quilt and leaders and enders quilt. I'm almost out of cream squares for the leaders and enders quilt, so that should be a finished project next year as well!
Finally, let's look ahead to 2025:
2025 Q1 Goal 1: Switch over to quarterly goal recap posts instead of
monthly recap posts
Last year, I was too overwhelmed in December to make yearly goals, so
I made smaller quarterly goals. This year, I've decided that I like
the quarterly goals, so I am going to continue with that trend. I also
feel like my monthly recap posts are getting a little stale, so I'm going to
drop those in favor of just the quarterly goal update posts. Of
course, I'll still be on Instagram often and blogging quilt finishes,
pattern releases, and anything else that comes up in real time!
2025 Q1 Goal 2: Project Quilting
I really enjoyed these challenges last year and I have a plan for them this
year! Looking forward to thinking creatively to solve these
challenges.
2025 Q1 Goal 3: The "Almost Dones"
I'm hesitate to even throw
these in, but sometimes it's nice to have a softball goal just so you can
say you accomplished something:
- Space Parade sample - basted and ready for quilting.
- The Rest of the Quilt Back - top finished and ready for basting.
- Fado Road - finish top and then finish quilt!
2025 Q1 Goal 4: Space Parade Pattern Release
My main goal for Q1. I am hoping to release this pattern by the end of
February.
2025 Q1 Longshot Goal: Summer Sampler 2019
It's become a yearly tradition for me to pick an old WIP project to finish
at the beginning of the year and finish it up. This sampler quilt was
started in May 2019 and only needs two more blocks plus the setting blocks
to turn into a finished quilt top. I would like to finish the top in
Q1 and the whole quilt by the end of Q2.
And that's enough writing for me today. I'm linking up my goals with Yvonne at Quilting JetGirl and I'm off to ring in 2025 with family and board games. Thanks for reading and I'll be back soon with more quilty content!
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