You’ve gotten your planner, now what?!
Here at the Quilter’s Planner, we want to help set you up for success in 2022. Our Planner Setup series will help you get familiar with your planner, walk you through starting to fill it out, and teach you how to make the most of your year.
Part One: Getting started
For many people, starting to work in a pristine new planner can feel a bit intimidating. Don’t let the worry of ‘messing up’ the pages stop you! Planners are a functional item, and are meant to get used! Follow these steps to ease yourself into making those first marks.
Register Your Planner:
First things first- if you haven’t registered your planner, now is the time! Visit our registration page, and let us know you have the 2022 Quilter’s Planner! This adds you to our email list of 2022 users where we will send monthly goal-setting help, Quilter’s Planner news, sew along information, and any pattern errata.
Take a quick look through:
If you haven’t already, find a comfy chair, grab your favorite hot drink and take 5-10 minutes to flip through your planner. Envision your year and think about what you may want to accomplish in 2022. Look at the pattern section and decide which patterns you want to try. Consider sewing along with us to make the Checkerboard Sampler (find more info on that here). Look through the Reference section so you know what’s in there that you can refer back to as you sew during the year. Last but not least, flip to the back page and learn more about the Quilter’s Planner team!
Make a cover:
Decide if you want to make a cover for your 2022 Quilter’s Planner. There are two free Planner cover patterns on our Downloadables page.
Let’s dive in:
Time to start marking up your planner!
For a lot of people, putting the first marks in your planner can be scary. Remember that a perfect-looking planner is not the goal! ‘Pretty and functional’ beats ‘perfect’ any day! Before you put pen to paper, you may want to do a little decorating with stickers or washi tape. This adds some color, takes the pressure off a bit, and gets you excited to use your planner. Washi tape is great because it’s easily removable if you don’t like where you’ve placed it.
Choose your pens. We have a great article testing all sorts of pens in The Quilter’s Planner. The great news- most writing utensils work great with the carefully-selected paper in your planner. If you are unsure, you can use the graph pages in the back to test your chosen utensil to make sure there is no bleed-through or ghosting!
It’s finally time to write in your Quilter’s Planner! Go to the Personal Information page and add your name and phone number or email in case your planner gets lost, important birthdays to remember, your favorite quilt shops, and- if you are a garment sewist- sizes for your family members.
Filling out the Sewing Machine and Tools pages: These pages are a customer request come to life! Use this space to manage information on two of your sewing machines and keep track of machine feet, rulers, and other sewing tools.
We are done marking up for now. Next time, we will get into our calendars and start making plans for 2022!
