Challenging yourself and pushing your thinking expands your thinking. That’s what we’re here for. The goal of the 100 day stitch book : think more, think better, let your voice emerge.
At first glance the challenge is about commitment, making the time. But time and commitment are just a container. Now we bring energy and intention to that space.
Creativity is associated with being free and uninhibited but it’s constraints that most efficiently power the engine (this is especially true if you’re feeling stuck). Your imagination is a muscle and working with limitations is calisthenics. The secret ingredient – limits – energize and focus your process. And limits don’t eliminate playfulness. For me they expand it.
learn about the stitch book challenge here
To that end, we’re working with page prompts in stitch club this year – one for each page. The prompt is a boundary and an invitation. Our page 4 prompt was circles:
circles – page 4
Limit yourself to circles. They can overlap or not. They can be partial or full. You can play with scale and the negative space they create.
Simple right? Spend a little time with that idea and you’ll find out how challenging and motivating it is.
page 4 – day 5
I found it incredibly difficult. I worked harder and it was the best kind of work – focused entirely on the feeling, the composition. Composition is a big subject and we’ll talk more about it in another post.
Also yellow is a surprise this year. It’s never been a prominent color for me and all of a sudden this year its a real player.
make a valentine swan box
I made this free swan box DIY for you ages ago. You can find it here. Thanks to Naomi from Material Studies for noticing it would be a super sweet valentine to make for your people – red ribbon and maybe little heart chocolates – so dear. This is also a remarkable instance of creative blogs linking to each other like they did in the good old days of the internet.
I am really enjoying the book-stitching, using a cooky-cutter as a template on each page and stitching with silk thrums. I look forward to the 15 minutes each day!
Bonjour,
Intéressant ce thème, je vais m’y pencher. Et pour les pages précédentes pouvez-vous nous révéler leur thème, merci. Pour le moment je me tiens tous les jours à ce défi, et je prends plaisir à composer et à broder.
I am enjoying the process of designing and stitching the pages. I got derailed for Page 4 ‘circles’ but will re-visit and do that later. This book will be a nice art piece (with many, mini art pieces) at the end of the 110 days.
Love that you are pushing the boundaries and offering the prompts! Love seeing the yellow coming to your palette as well. So bright and cheery and blends nicely with your other colors. Bummed to not be doing this one this year, although I will finish a couple more of my pages from prior years (I had a design, and still working toward it!)
Overtaken by the Fleur Woods online class and trying to dedicated my non-work free time to getting through that while it’s “live”. I even decided to join her France class in Pau, and after reading about trips you’ve taken before, I was able to book a Textile and Flea Market tour in Paris while there. Hoping I can find a few treasures like the ones you’ve shared here previously! Thank you for sparking dreams within me!! Love your site, and your newsletter, and everything really that you do!
I’m enjoying the challenge and it is helping me get back into the practice of making. Finding it very therapeutic. Funnily enough circles seem to be featuring heavily in the work.
I am only on page 2 as I was derailed a bit by a hand injury, but I didn’t realize there were prompts. Are they shared in posts or just in your private community?
Congratulations, Ann, on 20 years of blogging! (I happened to see that your first archived posted is dated February 2006.) What a commitment, what a resource. Thank you.
Just wanted to share that I loved it so much last year that I did the whole year! I made a video of it (of course citing you as the inspiration.
2025 Hand Sewn Stitching Journal 2025 Flip Through | Slow Stitching, Textile Art
https://youtu.be/PWbN5KVMrcc