I am joining in on Yvonne@Quilting Jetgirl’s #2022PlanningParty and also Cheryl@Meadow Mist Design’s Best of 2021 Linky Party. Let’s start with looking back at 2021 and sharing my five favorite quilt projects beginning with my Ombré Lotus Quilt which is definitely my 2021 finish. I’ve made several ombré quilts this past year, and I have loved making every single one of them. In case anyone wants to know, my second favorite project in 2021 is my Northern Lights Wonky Stars quilt 🙂

Over the past three years I have made at least one quilt for donation to a worthy project. My favorite donation quilt of 2022 is my Positivity Quilt.

I continue to enjoy making animal quilts, I’m a big fan of Elizabeth Hartman’s patterns, and I love making Christmas projects, so the Christmas North Stars quilt below easily qualifies as one of my 2021 favorites:

I absolutely love the rainbow and color gradient patterns designed by Kristy@ Quiet Play. So far I’ve only made one of her patterns but have been a part of her pattern club for the past two years and have many of Kristy’s patterns saved for future quilt projects. I decided to make her Geometric Cat the center block for the Cat & Birds quilt I made for my good friend, Kristen, when she was pregnant with her baby Lucy. Below is an adorable photo of Lucy enjoying her quilt which is certainly a 2021 favorite:

I have made several mini quilts in 2021, and I used to struggle cutting small diameter dowels with a folding pruning saw in order to insert the trimmed dowel into hanging corners on the back of my mini quilts. There would be sawdust everywhere and the jagged ends would have to be sanded down. But when I was getting ready to hang Cleo the Llama mini quilt (click here to see her husband Jack–scroll to the end of the post), my best friend Mary suggested I try cutting the dowel with the large pruning shears used to cut branches and shrubs. It worked like a charm! Cleo is a 2021 favorite because I absolutely love llamas and also because I named her after my mom! (And Jack after my dad!)

2022 Plans

Now onto what I hope to accomplish in 2022. I have four projects that I guarantee won’t be completed in 2022, but I plan to make significant headway on all of them.

Temperature Quilts

I’ve wanted to make a temperature quilt for the past couple years but then the pandemic hit, and I didn’t particularly want to commemorate 2020 or 2021, but hopefully we’ll move into endemic status in the coming year, and I’ve decided to start making THREE temperature quilts. One is for me in northern New Mexico, one for my stepdaughter who lives in California, and one for my stepson who lives in Washington. I will use the same Kona solids to depict each temperature range, and it will be so much fun to see the quilts next to each other and compare the different temperatures for each state. I’m going to use 2″x4″ finished flying geese in all three quilts.

Quilt Your Life

I’ve recently joined Kitty@NightQuilter’s Quilt Your Life Crew. I’m going to document distance on my relatively new Peloton bike. I’ve been riding it at least 10 minutes a day (which for me has been a little over 3K) for the past eight weeks but hope to increase both my daily distance and time on my Peloton in 2022. I have an idea for my Quilt Your Life quilt, but I am still refining my design.

Quilts for Special Occasions

• a high school graduation quilt for my great-nephew, Colby
• an I Spy quilt to celebrate Lucy’s first birthday in April
• a Pineapple mini quilt for my sister-in-law, Sharon’s 70th birthday also in April
• a Butterfly Effect English Paper Piecing quilt for my best friend, Mary’s birthday in October using a quilt kit I bought in April from Pink Door Fabrics.

Donation Quilt

I’m going to turn an old Work-in-Progress from 2019 into a donation quilt in 2022. It is the Treasure Hunt quilt, and I had Bee Hive members make scrappy blocks that I will use in this quilt (read the details about these blocks here). I’ve recently made 16 more blocks so that the quilt can be finished at 60″x60″.

To Be Determined

I’m going to leave the rest of 2022 open. It’s likely there will be more ombré projects, more mini quilts, animal projects and of course Christmas projects.

Happy New Year!!!