With the end of the year always comes the urge to look back and evaluate the year that has slipped past. 2021 was a great year for Dizzy Quilter. I wasn’t quite as active on my blog as I would like to be, but I had some wonderful opportunities come about, and I explored new things. Before I get into my plans for 2022, I’m going to do a quick victory lap for 2021. Here we go: 2021 in review.
New Job
I accepted the position of class scheduler at Gotham Quilts. I am responsible for the teaching schedule. Thanks to COVID, it has been a frustrating job. In-person classes are available, but we can only have 6 students in the classroom at a time, so I can’t afford to get the big-name teachers to come. I doubt they would travel to NYC right now, anyway. Booking virtual classes has been a mixed bag. People tell me they want a certain class, I book it, then no one signs up. Or, they try to wait until the last minute to sign up, which is too late, because without enough students, I have to cancel the class. Ah, well. I’ve been doing what I can, and I do enjoy the people I work with. I love working with Gotham Quilts, obviously.
Print Publications
Three print publications for the year isn’t bad. I think my goal was to have one project quarterly, but sometimes the process is a strain, and difficult to plan out. Even when I have something I love, there is no guarantee that it will find.a home in print, and their schedules don’t always mesh well with mine. I have one more project that will go into print in the summer of 2022, but I don’t have any submissions outstanding at this point. That means that with timelines as they are, I may not have anything else going to print in 2022, and that is okay.
Accuquilt Blog
- Scrappy Oven Mitts (Plus livestream appearance!)
- Scrappy Schoolhouse
- Cleopatra’s Fan dance
- Quilted Journal Covers
- Moravian Star EPP
- Storm at Sea
- Dinosaur Play Mat
Accuquilt is one of my most lucrative business partners. They are also one of the easiest companies to work with, so there will be plenty more Accuquilt projects from me in 2022. I actually have 4 I’m working on right now. I will be on their livestream again, which is so exciting.
Blog Hops/Tours
Blog hops are interesting. I enjoy them, but they don’t generate the traffic they did when I first started blogging. I’m sure part of the slowing popularity is that I haven’t been doing giveaways. The cost to ship things has become prohibitive, but I might revisit that. I have a few hops coming up – one in February and another in March.
New Things
- Watercolor Painting
- Art Quilts
- Quilted Post Cards
- Kawandi Quilting
- Bojagi Patchwork
- Stickers!
- My studio!
- Bernina Q24
I loved learning about watercolor painting this year, and I think I’m hooked for life. My biggest problem is that I’m an immersive artist. I like to be doing one thing 100% of the time, which means intensive painting weeks where I do nothing else, or intensive quilting weeks where I do nothing else. None of this bodes well for housework, self care, or business management. The other new things were fun to try, too, and I think all of them will be cropping up here and there in the future. I’ll work on a studio tour, and an intro to my new longarm machine soon.
Pattern Releases
Pattern releases haven’t been as successful this year. Writing patterns is a struggle for me. My perfectionism battles with my shaky skills to grind me to a halt. I have two patterns that are nearly done – Rotation and Cleopatra’s Fan Dance. I just do not want to work on them. I’m not sure how I will handle pattern releases in 2022. I might take a year off of releasing new ones. My current patterns that are available for pdf download don’t sell well. I don’t mind, but it doesn’t inspire me to spend a lot of time on that work. And when I say they don’t sell well, I’m not whining. It’s a fact – usually my pattern releases generate fewer than 10 sales. I have some ideas on how to make effective changes, but I’m not sure that this will happen in 2022.
Social Media
I spend a lot of time looking at statistics. Mostly these are follower numbers and such. 2021 has been interesting. My Instagram following has increased quite a bit, but not astronomically. I’m above 2,300 followers, which feels like a lot to me. I vacillate on wanting to have really high numbers, like the magical 10,000, where I can add links to posts. Why? I don’t know. Will more followers make it more likely that my patterns will sell when I release them? Maybe? Then I get disgusted with how much time I spend scrolling Instagram, and I leave for a week. That doesn’t do much for my numbers. So, I may set myself a goal of 5,000 followers by 2023, or I may burn it all down. We shall see.
Blog
My blog numbers have increased, too. I no longer pay attention to how many people subscribe, as that number isn’t a great reflection on how many people visit my blog each day. Traffic numbers have increased steadily, with subscribers not increasing significantly. I’m not going to pretend to understand – I don’t, and I’m not going to put my time into statistical analysis. My time is better spent in front of my sewing machine. I can tell you that my blog is definitely paying for itself for the first time since I started it. This is mostly due to my partnership with Accuquilt and their affiliate program.
In the past, the blog has paid for itself by referring clients to me. Either a t-shirt quilt client who found me online, or someone with a vintage top looking for a quilter who could finish their project. Both times those projects paid enough to cover the blog hosting fees for the year. Now, affiliate links do that for me. And for that, I thank everyone who clicks my links and makes purchases. I don’t link to products I don’t use and enjoy myself, and I really appreciate your support.
When I started my blog, one of my goals was for it be a fun job that created a passive income stream. It has taken 6 years for that to start building up. Don’t get excited – I’m not making big money here, but the $50-100 per month I make is a very welcome boost to my income. Another goal was to get my hands on the “free stuff” I saw other bloggers getting. Well, I manage to get that stuff now, although sometimes I feel like I’m part of the problem with this industry. There are so many people who just have their hands out for freebies, and I don’t want to be one of them. So, most of the money I make goes back into purchasing goods from my favorite brands.
Happy New Year!
I hope I haven’t turned you off with all of this. I’ll be back soon with more actual quilting projects and fun. I hope everyone has a very acceptable 2022, with absolutely no drama. NO DRAMA!!!!!
How does your 2021 in review read?
Happy New Year! I look forward to seeing what you create in 2022. 🙂
Your reflection on what is working and not is interesting. I have seen a drop in everyone’s enthusiasm this year, #2 of pandemic is just not making any of us happy. Gotham Quilts is a great place to be and the late sign ups sounds so typical and was the case in a local quilt shop that I worked in – some things stay the same. Wishing you a Happy New Year!
I look forward to seeing all of your work! Here’s to a great 2022.