Month: January 2025

five-ish things bringing me joy right now

January 31, 2025

by annwood

3 fabric collages, scraps and sewing notions on my work table

stitch book 2025 – pages 1-3

percolating ideas – it’s all about the space between

The sensation of an idea percolating in the background is my most favorite thing in all the world. The 100 day stitch book project has the percolation phase built in. The formula is: work on a problem and then give your subconscious a crack at it.

After I add my stitches each day my brain keeps working on it – feeling for the next move. Sometimes this is entirely passive – all the magic work your subconscious does while you’re otherwise engaged. And less passively, but still without conscious effort, there’s a perspective shift – you notice things, colors, shapes, ideas that might inform your page.

Repeat this enough and new connections form. You get better at listening to yourself. Better at pulling out the deeper ideas.

This is the fourth stitch book and my pattern has been pretty consistent – days 1- 3 are more feeling around, less intensely thoughtful. I’m having a beginning and usually creating a problem. On days 4 and 5 I solve the problem. Or try to anyway. I do love having a problem to solve. Even when I fail I get tons of new insight, information and ideas.

And what exactly is a success? It’s a feeling… Something that surprises me. Something that feels balanced, energetic and compelling. The sensation of getting out of my own way. Getting someplace new.

purging

Pretty New Yearsy. I dive into this every year and then fizzle before I get to the level of possession management and relative minimalism I aspire to. This year I’m going to chunk it, make it a recurring time commitment that I can definitely follow through on.

It will be like the refrigerator situation – I review, toss, clean and make my list every Saturday. It’s a habit. The sorting and purging is getting a time slot too. A modest time slot. Let’s say Tuesday morning – 30 minutes.

So doable. I’ll chip away at this forever as opposed to making ambitious plans that run out of steam.

the glorious emptiness of my worktable

This was a happy accident new years accident. I had to totally pack up this room for some unplanned maintenance work… That resulted in removing a ton of delightful clutter. I ended up leaving most of it packed up and I’m considering carefully and slowly what I really need and want as I add stuff. Can I maintain this level of austerity? Absolutely not. But I’m inspired by it and taking a lesson from how good the emptiness felt.

The calendar is definitely a keeper and bringing lots of joy. It’s by my remarkable friend Sid.

magnetic bookmarks and a tiny mechanical pencil

This post contains affiliate links – meaning I get a small commission you purchase through the link – they are marked with an *asterisk

So much joy. I went back to an old school paper day planner last year and it agrees with me. It’s where I track the aforementioned habits. I’m the sort of person that gets a huge amount of satisfaction checking off a list item. I linked to *this planner last year and took a bunch of heat for it. As planners go it’s small and pricey. But I love everything about it and shelled out for it again this year. I’m particular about the stuff I use everyday and this one was a big win. The paper is deluxe (and very erasable). And it has an awkwardly translated quote for each day.

It’s also a place for recording ideas as soon as possible, in writing. That’s a big part of my process. This little book is always with me. And so is this *tiny mechanical pencil.

“The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.”
Linus Pauling

And for finding those ideas later – *mini magnetic book marks. They are magic. And like the little pencil and book they are aesthetically delightful. Which can’t hurt.

What’s bringing you joy right now? Are you trying the stitch book challenge? Do you have a new yearsey project? Did you know magnetic bookmarks are a thing?! Let us know in the comments.

stitch book challenge – day 1 – curiosity

January 17, 2025

by annwood

Let’s baby step our way to 100 days of creative stitching. Let’s not worry about the outcome. Let’s find out what happens when you show up in a small way consistently. Let’s watch ourselves work. Learning more about how you work is one of the benefits of working- notice where you get stuck, notice what lights you up, feel for your curiosity…

The 100 day stitch book challenge starts today! Please be sure to read these two pages completely before you start:

1 – Before you do anything else please read this page carefully.

2 – Find the tutorial for how to cut your pages and make the book here. We don’t assemble the book until the pages are done but it’s good to know where we are headed. Take special note of how the pages will be stitched together and where you might want to leave a margin.

The books above are the result of the previous stitch book challenges. The book on the right has raw edges and the book on the left has finished edges- you’ll have the option to choose when we assemble at the end of the 100 days.

a couple things to consider

15 minutes is a suggestion – a good minimum- overachievers are welcome to do more.

The process lends itself to improvisational stitching – starting without knowing – working without a plan. It’s not the only way to approach this challenge but it’s my focus and when I offer suggestions and inspiration sources it will be in that context.

Community is key. We are each other’s accountability partners. Showing work in progress can feel weird but it helps you stay on track. It’s not mandatory to post every single day but I think it’s helpful to you to take a photo of each day’s progress for yourself.

Speaking of sharing – you can share on insta etc with

#stitchbookchallenge2025

FYI Hashtags can take a while to show up on social media. You can also – totally optional – join the stitch club community – it’s the private sharing space for ann wood handmade.

Daily practice- even a small one – is hard. Give yourself credit for showing up for it and take it one day at a time.

helpful blog posts:

the shimmering space between

7 ideas for your 100 day stitchbook

day 1

day 1- 2025

One thing leads to another if you let it. You just have to start. To set myself up for success I cut some pages and gathered some scraps to work with. It was all waiting for me this morning. My to go kit is ready and I have a plan for bad days. The rest is so easy- just stitch for 15 minutes. Begin without a plan. You get somewhere new by starting without knowing, make a mark (in this case a stitch, a patch etc.) and respond to it.

day 99 2023

curiosity

Let curiosity drive you in this process. What’s around the next corner? The books, the pages, and the whole process have surprised me each year. The daily thing is really a slog sometimes. I have not loved every image, I cringe when sharing my missteps. And, it’s all totally worth it. I get to places in my imagination I never otherwise would. That is everything. It’s the “youness” thing.

“No one is youer than you.” – Dr. Seuss

The world only has one chance at what’s in there – one chance at you. I think it’s worth time, energy, embarrassment, failure and disappointment to work your way through to the deepest, most truly creative work you can do – the youest – the work of your utterly unique imagination. Listen carefully for the magic – it is there- waiting to be noticed… Listening is part of the work. That kind of listening takes practice and patience and the afore mentioned showing up.

be curious
be open
show up

the 100 day stitch book starts soon! and community sign ups are open

January 11, 2025

by annwood

The 2025 100 day stitch book challenge begins on 1/17 and ends on 4/26

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CHALLENGE HERE

All the info you need to participate is available at the link above – please read it carefully – don’t skim! You’ll miss stuff

The 4th annual! 100 day Stitch Book Challenge begins next Friday January 17!

I have spent a lot of time and energy in life learning how to trick myself into doing stuff, getting my ideas out of my head or working past stuckness. One of the most effective ways is daily practice. Small daily practice. It’s where my ideas show up and percolate – in my daily paintings (this is year 7!) and the stitch book project.

In the case of the stitch book project, that’s 15 minutes per day for 100 days.

learn about the 100 day stitch book challenge here

The do-able chunk of time eliminates paralysis and overthinking and invites happenstance. And I love the idea of each day building on the previous.

Committing to a do-able assignment and applying small consistent effort is as close to a magic formula as there is for growing creatively and getting unstuck.

will you join us for the 2025 challenge?

To set yourself up for success on day one- Jan 17th – take some easy actions now. Grab the checklist. Then begin with the overview here.

And totally optional- join stitch club! You don’t need to join to participate but it is a great place to find support and share your progress.

stitch club membership is open now

What happens in stitch club? It’s the private ann wood handmade community, a great place to get inspired, share what you’re working on and make sewy friends.

We just completed a fall stitch journal in the community. It was an excellent warm up for the big event beginning next Friday. It was a weekly commitment (one stitched panel per week) as opposed to the daily 15 minute commitment of the 100 day book. I struggled to keep up. It’s a super busy time of year work wise and I had the faceplant situation that messed up a couple weeks of my life but I think the lesson is the small daily thing really works best for me.

You can see my finished book below. I approached the stitching the same way I approach the 100 day book – improvisational, yes and, see what turns up.

Don’t see the video above? Click here to view on youtube.

The binding is “modified coptic” . There are so many cool ways to bind books- I think we’ll try another method in the next mini book.

stitch book challenge 2025

Just like the three previous years I’m excited and also nervous to start. Daily practice is hard. But I can’t resist. Can you? I’ve got some ideas and lessons learned from the previous years to help you get ready.

thinking of the pages in pairs

Totally optional but I have loved having a second chance at compositions by treating 2 pages as one image/idea in previous book. I mostly did not work on the two pages consecutively. When I wasn’t happy with what I’d done, putting the idea aside and letting it percolate helped a lot.

I’m also leaning towards leaving my edges raw again.

Support the 100 day stitch book project and the always growing free pattern library.

Click here to add your support.

make it easy

Make it easy to show up. Have your materials accessible and transportable. 15 minutes is even more doable if everything is already set up.

plan for the bad days

This is so important. There will be some bad days. Some too busy or sick or too something days. The secret to those days is a predetermined, minimally acceptable effort.

Protect the habit, protect the momentum and do something.

and if you do miss a day?

Keep going. Maybe do an extra 15 minutes when you can.

warm up

Putting things in a box is a great way to begin.

I’m putting things in a box now and I’ll be back on the 17th with some ideas and encouragement.

Month: January 2025

five-ish things bringing me joy right now