What A Summer! Now It's time for Year-end Planning!

 Yikes, I haven't posted since June!  Well it's been busy since then for sure.  And while I am hoping to catch up on all the doings over the next few days, today is a day for reflection and year-end planning!  At some point, I found out that Leanne of the Devoted Quilter blog is going to be hosting a year-end "tackle your WIPS" challenge called "WIPS-B-GONE 2021 - A 100 Day Challenge" on Instagram.  

Yes that's right, as fast as the summer has gone, as of today, it is only 100 days until the end of this year!  Yikes again!  The great news is that Leanne's challenge also comes with the possibility of winning prizes.  If you're interested in taking the challenge, check out her blog post with the challenge details here or the Instagram feed here and think about what YOU would like to get done over the next 100 days a.k.a. the end of 2021!

I had sooo many plans for this year and while I got a lot of things done in the beginning, I'm now feeling the weight of so many new things started or projects still in progress that I really want to try to either move forward or finish before the close of 2021.  So I'm once again going to climb on board a year-end finishing challenge in the hopes of bringing 2021 to as good a close as it began!

In addition to list making today, I will also actually tackle the finish work on a project!  Early last year, I decided to  make a blue and white Christmas tree skirt.   I had finished the top back in December while away visiting my MIL but since we didn't get a tree for our house last Christmas, there was no incentive to quilt it.  

This year, I have two reasons for getting this done today one of which I'll report more on in a future post.  The second reason I'm working on this is that it will kick off a big category of year-end projects I want to tackle:  finishing up projects for my Blue and White Christmas decorating plans.  I had already finished two quilts at the start of the year to go towards this:

Indigo Weave and Snow Day

I also have another big wall hanging project I would really like to get done for the season.  Getting this one started will also kill two birds with one stone:  we will be traveling south again to visit my MIL at the end of October and since this project is a hand work one, it will also serve as entertainment for the drive down and back.  

The Hexies and paper templates will be cut with an Accuquilt die.

It's also another entry in my continuing obsession with Edyta Sitar's Laundry Basket Quilts designs.  So that will definitely be the second project on the WIPS-B-Gone list!  I have three more to start off the list but again, will report on those when I can post the summer re-cap.

Speaking of planning, I've also splurged on something for 2022.  Ever since I started to try to seriously get a handle on all the things I want to do in any given year, I've looked for ways to help me monitor my plans.  I found I liked the Bullet Journal approach and up to now have had my own "make do" system.  However over the past few years, I also seen some lovely planner systems.  Well, this year I caved and got one for next year!

Behold on the left the Bullet Journal I've been filling for the last three years and the Quilters Planner system I'll be working with next year.  What sold me was that this system can be customized with your choice of cover and with the calendar pages set up to record information the way you want to.  Up to now, I've found it helpful to work with calendars that allow me to record yearly and monthly planning goals and then record what I actually accomplish on a weekly basis with Sunday being the starting day of the week.  For my system, I printed out my calendars from the Calendarpeida website.  The Quilters Planner let me customize the pages in my new planner formatted exactly the same way I've been printing my own for the last few years.

Yearly

Monthly

Weekly

There is also a place in the planner to keep track of all the projects you are working on and their completion status.

A "Clip-in Bookmarks Bundle" was included free when you ordered early.  I also ordered some extra "Add-A-Page Clip-Ins" so I can add custom lists or special recordkeeping pages of my own.  It came last week and I was excited to open it and thumb through it.  The planner also has patterns for quilts and guess who's got one it it?

Why, it's Leanne of Devoted Quilter so this clearly was meant to be!  I can't wait to get started using it in January!

So that's it for now.  As I said, I'm hoping to post about the summer doings over the coming days,  Wish me luck on getting some stuff done for WIPS-B-Gone 2021!