Monday, January 2, 2023

Best of 2022

I'm writing up a quick post highlighting my top five posts of 2022, and linking it up with Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs.

It's fun to look back on yet another year and say, 'oh yeah,' about several things that happened here on the blog.

1. To start, I looked at what posts written in 2022 had received the most views. It was the opening post for Pop Star, the QAL I hosted. This was my fifth annual QAL, and I did something a little different: I released a pattern first instead of at the end of the QAL. This was for those quilters who like doing a QAL, but prefer to quilt along at their own pace, which is often in 'get 'er done' mode, and not over the course of a couple of months! This pattern ended up selling the most copies of all my patterns released this year!
Here is the quilt I made, Crystal Constellations, during the QAL.

You can pick up a copy of the pattern in my shop, SandraJaneQuilts. Nineteen people finished a quilt, either the baby or throw size. I was thrilled, and I believe that number might be slightly higher, as a couple of people sent me photos a while after the QAL had finished, but wanted to show me their quilts.

2. My Hands2Help quilts post, Whirling Petals and English Garden, which is a tutorial for making both of these quilts, got the second highest views. Giving back by making comfort quilts is very important to me, so I'm glad that so many people read the post. The post has instructions for making both of these floral quilts. My intent was to try to use up a bunch of floral fabric leftovers.

3. Soar was next. I loved making this quilt, which, part way through making a block each month as my Rainbow Scrap Challenge block, let me know it needed to go to my great-nephew in Alberta.

4. Millie was the next most-viewed post. This was a quilt Dayna requested I make for her BFF's little one. Who doesn't love a heart quilt? Who doesn't love a pixellated heart quilt? Lots of special squares were included in this very special Minky-backed quilt.

5. Coming close on the heels of Millie was Rainbow Neighbourhood, which makes me happy as I am so proud of this pattern I released at the beginning of December. I designed and made these blocks as my RSC 2017 project. The pattern has instructions for two completely different layouts of quilts, one a throw, one a twin, and two accessories: a bench pillow and a cushion.

I couldn't have done it without the help of my trusty pattern testers, especially Michelle in Scotland, who made the twin quilt. The pattern is available here.
What a thrill to see something I designed in a digital version come to life in fabric, a lot of which is Michelle's own hand-dyed!

I'm thinking that this may become the QAL for 2023, which would be something quite different, in that I've always offered them free on the blog, with a pattern released at the end, except for Pop Star which was at the beginning. This one would mean you'd need to buy the pattern. I guess after five years of free QALs, it isn't unreasonable, but I haven't committed yet. I do have a few (cough) from IB and Benartex that need to be released, so could easily turn into a QAL!

This was definitely the year of pattern releases, and I think it's due to not having any published. That left me time to focus on releasing patterns for which I've had the rights back for some time, as well as patterns I've designed for either Island Batik or Benartex Designer Fabrics for various hops or fabric releases, and just hadn't gotten around to getting them typed up, tech-edited and tested. Here are all five with links.😉

 


Thanks so much for reading this post and for being with me last year!










5 comments:

  1. I love that your Rainbow Neighbourhood post came in at number 5. I always worry that the end of the year posts have a disadvantage, so I think that shows just how very much it was / in enjoyed!

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  2. Rainbow Neighborhood is on my list....may be a RSC challenge or maybe I will wait and see what your QAL plans are as my January is already pretty heavy. It was a great year for you. I love my pop star and think I may revisit that one, too, as a charity quilt.

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  3. Hey I've just realised I made something from all your pattern releases this year! Wow what a groupie :-) Pop star is now quilted so when I get some sun (maybe around March :-) ) I'll take a photo. I'm hesitating to start quilting Rainbow Neighbourhood because my sewing machine seems to be playing up but it only got serviced in June and is only four years old. (Couldn't possibly be me could it :-) )

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  4. What a fun review, Sandra!!! I enjoyed seeing these quilts again, especially the RSC quilts! And yes, who doesn't love a pixelated heart!!!

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  5. Great to see which posts ticked everyone's fancies! You are very prolific and generous in your quiltmaking and QALs and I'm sure people won't mind the pattern charge to take part. It might make people commit more (after all they've paid for the pattern) rather than sit on the fence and HOPE to get to it, like I do!!! Happy 2023!

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