Happy new year, quilters! If you get excited about brand new calendars like I do, you’re well into figuring out your 2023 goals. I’ve been elbow deep in planning for 2023 both for my personal quilty development and for my business. I’ll start with the personal, but I also want to give you a peek behind the curtain of what you can expect for Team Thread in 2023.

Personal Quilty Goals

Animal Crossing Quilt

My personal goal is to make an Animal Crossing quilt. For those who don’t know, Animal Crossing is a Nintendo Switch game where you move to a deserted island and work with your villagers to create an island paradise. There’s fishing and bug catching, a museum, shopping, star gazing, DIY crafting, and so much more. The Little Llama introduced me to it just over a year ago, and I’ve been addicted ever since.

This is the fabric that inspired the idea for my project. The little animals look a lot like villagers, and I can definitely do something with the boats and lighthouses.

These are some of my favorite villagers and NPCs, and I’ll be making blocks for some of them. While I still need to figure out what technique will get the best results, I’m pretty excited about honoring some of my besties in this quilt. A big shout out to Animal Crossing World for posting characters on their birthdays so I could get these pics!

Your island also has some iconic buildings such as the museum, a general store, a tailor’s shop, resident services, a campsite for visitors, and your home. I’ll definitely have blocks for my home, the museum, and resident services; still unsure about the shops and campsite. I’m not quite sure how big I want this project to get, so I’ll figure some of those things out along the way.

Why Only One Goal?

I’m making this my only personal goal for 2023 for a couple reasons. First, this is going to be a pretty big project that’s completely original and made up as I go. I think that’s enough to add to the 2023 goals plate without overwhelming myself.

Also, I think a lot of goals I made in the past weren’t effective for the type of quilter I am. Finish my WIPs? Never gonna happen. I am definitely not a one-project-at-a-time persona, so I’m going to fully embrace the list and not beat myself up about its size at the end of the year relative to today. I also usually put some education in my yearly goals. This year I’m going to embrace that I learn something new with every quilt I make. From honing in on my personal style to mastering techniques, it’s practice that makes progress.

Team Thread 2023 Goals

Patterns!

I’m going to release four new patterns this year. The first one, Sawtooth Splendor, comes out February 1. It’s with the pattern testers now, and they are doing an amazing job with it. Here’s my original mockup design for a sneak peek.

Ultimate Guides

The more I work with pattern design, the more I realize there aren’t a lot of directions on some parts. I know we all get frustrated with, “quilt as desired,” but there’s also not a lot on how to piece backings or the best way to make binding. I’m working on two ultimate guides this year that can be a companion to all of your quilt patterns. If you have parts of the quilting process you’d like to see a guide for, please get in touch and let me know!

Courses

I’m planning to work on two courses this year. One will be for one of the four pattern releases, and the other will be for an ambitious 2024 BOM program. I’m also working on finding ways to build community around these courses so we can connect with each other and cheer ourselves on along the way. I’ve had some ideas floating around in my head, and I’m pretty excited to get them down on paper to see how they could work.

I’m also joining in the #2023PlanningParty with Yvonne from Quilting JetGirl, so if you’re looking for an accountability partner, I’d love to have your back! Just send me a message, and we’ll get to work on 2023 together.

I hope you’re just as excited for 2023 as I am. I can’t wait to see what we’ll do together.