Do you use a Quilt Planner/Calendar/Organizer?
 

https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images...s/confused.png Please share your experience if you have made or purchased a Quilt Planner/calendar/organizer ?


I would like to be more organized with my ufo's and future projects on my bucket list. I listen to a Quilting podcast called The Quilting Life found at this link: www.aquiltinglife.com.


On a recent episode there was a discussion on getting and staying organized in your sewing room and with your quilting projects. I like the planner that they discuss but I wonder if I would actually use it. I look forward to hearing about those of you who use a planner or those of you who have one but don't use it.

I guess I'm really an unplanned sort of quilter. I got one, thinking I'd organize myself, but I soon went far off the rails. I had been using a little spiral bound notebook and wrote down details about every quilt I was working on - when I started/finished, what fabrics & techniques I used, sizes along the way, etc. My log was more free-form than the planner. I found the planner too structured for my needs and went back to the little notebook. Works for me and less expensive. I kept the planner because there are some nice scrap quilt patterns at the back which I look at occasionally. Have yet to make one of the patterns, though.

I do use notebooks for my planners. The small ones are just too small for how I work on projects and keep notes. I don't write down UFO projects. They are already in my head and packed in the bin. Easy to track since there are only 2 UFO projects.

There is one notebook with all the machine embroidery quilts. I make note of thread colors used and ideas for the label. Another notebook has the Accuquilt projects with patterns and fabric swatches on a swatch sheet.

My current project is in a separate notebook that I can take with me. It has the pattern, special rulers, and the fabric swatch sheet. The pattern picture slides in the front cover with the pattern in sheet protectors. It's 16 pages long with 14 different fabrics so it has to stay organized. I work right from the notebook and note when a section is done.

Hope that helps!

I formally started to use a "method" In January. I use a small spiral notebook, 5X7 that I was given at a conference several years ago as an attendance gift. The first day of the month, I create a "To Do List". Then as I plan quilts or other sewing projects, I add notes for each one. For instance, I will put snippets of fabric choices, measurements, pressing directions so I am consistent, sub block sizes and finished size. If a pattern is one I like, I will return to it, so all of these little odds and ends make the second quilt quicker to finish. This helps particularly if I transfer a pattern from a 2" cut to a 2.5" cut for instance. I will also keep my calculations of total blocks or sub-blocks. (How many half-square triangles do I need to finish the quilt?)

Some months I will accomplish 3 quilts, other months more, but I have a record of them. It also keeps me working forward on UFO's, quilts for gifts that have a deadline, donation quilts and the like.

Will I do it again for 2021? Absolutely! I enjoy the creating a little history of my work and the helpful details that make the process easier for future efforts. In the end some quilts get one page while others may get three. It all depends on how many times I have to recalculate.https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images/smilies/boy.gif

Try a method of recording that fits you. Mine developed over time and started when I was looking for coordinating fabrics for a quilt last fall and I taped little wedges of fabric to a page then went to Shipshewana on a fabric hunt. Twelve months later, I have a little record of my quilting. I feel organized in my work and not so over whelmed that I just stand in the middle of the room and fidget. https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images/smilies/shock.png

I keep a notebook that has lines on the front of the pages and quarter inch grid on the back of the pages for all my quilty ideas. I used to carry it to meetings of course but now it just stays in the sewing room. I also keep it beside me and when I am cleaning or straightening my room I run a tally of ufos. One of my Guilds has a Get R Done challenge where you can list 20 projects you have started and would like to get finished the next year. The Christmas party is a huge giveaway for those that have completed a few of them and their name gets put into a pot for drawings. The past few years, there has been a sewing machine as top prize. The best idea I have heard is a friend that puts photos and dates of all her finished quilts in a photo album. Love the idea, just haven't done that.

Not consistently but when I do I don’t get overwhelmed. Actually my plan for today is to restart my planner!

I have several quilt organizers laying around...I guess I am just not that organized.....I periodically make a list of quilt projects I want to finish....and post it on my refrigerator with a magnet. I cross off projects as I finish them. Of course other unlisted projects sometimes get done. when I finish a quilt and take it off the quilting frame....I do enter it in another spiral notebook. I usually state what it is, the size it was before quiltin...the size it was after quilting. and maybe the size it was after it's first washing which I usually do right away. I will also list the thread I used in the top and bobbin, and the batting I used.

I've ordered Sherri McConnell's planner partly because it's cute but mostly because it looks like something reasonable that I could get some good use from. Supposedly it's shipping and coming next week but since Amazon shipments have been ridiculously slow to me lately, who knows. I can let you know after I see it.

I have a really nice one but it's collecting dust. https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images...es/biggrin.png

I use one religiously since I got back into it. I've got five quilts in my head that will eventually see the light of day and when I design a quilt, the organizer lets me keep all my receipts, notes, etc. together for quick reference. I don't know how I did a thing without one when I first started, but I swear by it now.