The 4th! annual challenge is coming to a close.
Bask in the glory for a moment. And marvel at the magic power of a small daily practice. Congratulate yourself for showing up. And then consider, what do you do with your new insight and the strength of your habit? How can you carry it forward and continue to grow?
don’t lose the connection
I so get being ready for a break after this 100 day experiment. I always feel a mix of happiness and sadness when it’s over. I also see an opportunity to harness the momentum.
The bridge to your imagination, your most creative self, is built with intention and habits. A creative habit, even a very small one, makes space for connections. It creates favorable conditions for ideas-to show up. Ideas are funny like that, so particular.
100 days is a solid chunk of time and definitely enough to truly integrate something into your life, to create a habit. I think there are a lot of ways to carry that forward and continue to strengthen the creative muscle and connection to your imagination, to keep crossing that bridge.
“Creativity is not a talent. It is not a talent, it is a way of operating” John Cleese
Maybe commit to 10 or 15 minutes of writing, or doodling or collage or daydreaming. What’s key is that you continue to have a regular (daily) appointment with your imagination. It’s also a good time to try expanding your practice – if the short practice produced benefits start to play with bigger chunks of time.
stephanie – stitch book
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- rhonda – stitchbook page
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- mary – stitchbook pages
barbara- stitch book pages
Pam -stitch book page
The pages above are work by stitch club members and you can also find lots of pages on instagram – #stitchbookchallenge2025
what happens next
Assemble your book! Find the tutorial here.
I’ll show you the beginning of the process here – none of what follows will make any sense to you unless you’ve reviewed the assembly pages linked above. I started putting my book together yesterday and I’m assembling a little differently from the tutorial- leaving the edges raw.
It’s easy to do but hand stitching all those pages takes forever. If you’d like raw edges just follow the book assembly instructions and at step 11 in the slot section you place the wrong sides of the pages together. And again for the tab section in step 9 you place the wrong sides together. All other instructions are the same.
First you need to number the pages in the order you want them to appear in the book (pro tip- if you use tape don’t iron over it…). 1 is the front cover and 20 is the back cover.
Then arrange the numbered pages according to the chart.
What did I learn? That I totally over-think the process! The end result? I don’t like what I’ve done as compared to your pages that are GORGEOUS! I need different fabric scraps and learn to loosen up.
I love the ” 100 Days of Stitching ” challenge it seems by the time it ends I’m really ready to begin! There were so many pages I completed without really loving them. It didn’t matter each page pushed me forward! I made the book pages in advance so I would be ready to assemble!
Gosh, it’s so cool to see all the different art expressions in the pages you shared from the group.
I love your stitch books! They are so creativeI have read the instructions several times and they just don’t connect to my brain! And I love reading the comments also! Thank you all for your creativity!
Je suis loin d’avoir terminé : c’est un projet commun avec mes deux soeurs et nous ne nous verrons qu’à Noël prochain … nous prenons donc un peu plus que 100 jours (mais les autres jours sont aussi destinés à de la créativité).
J’avais coupé toutes mes pages dès le début et puis je me suis rendu compte que les choses évoluaient différemment et que c’était très agréable de se laisser porter.
Grand merci pour ce projet… j’ai hâte de recommencer.
Your pages get more vibrant and eye catching with each book. The high contrast solids really made it pop. I found the pages I did sticking with solids versus prints were more satisfying. I need to work more with basic shapes. Having said that, your fish and two still life designs were very interesting.
I learn to work quickly and not be a perfectionist with the 100 Day Stitchbook Challenge.
I really like this and the work seems to flow
more easily.
I try to move quickly and do more random designs with the Stitchbook Challenge.
Ann, I loved this years book by you,
I found great Joy this year sewing my 20 pages and feel excitement I carried on,
even when I had difficult days, emotions going on trying to concentrate.
I hope to join next year!
Thanks ANN.
JOY
I learned so much from my first experience making a book. I had so much trouble letting go, despite leaning on the lovely inspiring examples posted by you and others. I could tell I needed to loosen up but I kept getting trapped in representation instead of abstraction, falling into overthinking, and creating overly complex designs, rather than finding the elegance in simplicity. Although I loved playing with fabric, color, texture, shape, and mark making, upon looking back at my scattershot pages I thought they were forced and overworked. And when I realized that these pages didn’t represent the self I had hoped to see, I learned that I didn’t know who I really was nor even who I wanted to be. I look forward to continuing this process of finding my creative self and sharpening my focus.
I Really enjoyed this.
Yes i got to play in a different way.
Creating something different.
I have not stitched for over 30 years, and forming this book brought such peace into my life.
My focusing on the stitching, i found myself in a state of mindfulness.
All the worries and troubles just disappeared during the time I stitched.
Sometime, I got lost in my stitching and stiched for a good 5 hours.
All In all I had super fun. Have to assemble the book together.
It looks beautiful
Ann love your 2025 Stitch Book.
I learned it didnt have to be perfect and just enjoy those 15 minutes each day to create something Fun. Will be ready in 2026 to create.
Thanks so much Ann
I learned that I could actually stick with a project for 100 days! I love my li’l pile of “pages”! I discovered the joy of “drawing” with black linen thread. Ideas came and went; this was a long enough project to explore multiple trains of thought, and patiently wait for the next idea when there was a lull. I will continue! …trying to decide between working on more thread drawings, or learning watercolor painting. Thanks (as ever!) for the inspiration.
I love reading the comments. Every one I am sure made progress, even you, Nancy Freier
It take practice to let yourself go. having ample scraps to work with helps.
check around with any quilters or sewists that have tons of scrap fabrics. I just donated two full bags to the local high school. I told the art department what I had hoped they could try,
anything! stitch books is one, but there are also, very big now, collage sewing.
find and learn new stitches.
I am a quilt maker, not too modern and awkward, but I like playing with low volume fabrics as back grounds, I made two quilts #kingfisherquilt and both are treasures, both in different colorways too. I made hexies with those, and those are the easiest part of paper piecing.
Now, I am getting ready to move and downsizing. (It is very difficult as I have many of my mom and dad’s treasures as they both lived into their late 90’s, daddy 100)
So it is rough. I decided to make a lot of “thinking piles” of works in progress, and do something completely different. English Paper Piecing, I made Jodi’s (Tales of Cloth) willowby quilt.
I only made 10 blocks… all hand sewn!!! not my favorite thing. I just completed it today 3 blocks x3 blocks it measures about 21 inches unfinished edges. It will be a table topper haha
You do not need to buy a kit, everything is accessible on line. Anyway, I am done with EPP and ready to start packing up my sewing room and moving that myself!!! Well maybe just the ingredients and leave the furniture for movers. I have mountains of fabric!! Quilters have a lot of fabric. Go find one and help them use up their scraps
As always, Ann, you are so very inspiring
First: Thank you, Ann Wood for putting this together. The thought of hundreds (thousands?) of women stitching independently but connected through this work is both inspiring and comforting. I am amazed and fascinated looking at the instagram posts to see how different each person’s interpretation is for this project.
Last year was my first attempt. It was a bit more of a challenge, as I used colors/fabrics/yarn from my stash that I like, but don’t ordinarily use. This year I was lazy and used leftover bits and pieces from current projects that were already sitting out and some sashiko thread that I wanted to use up, so not far out of my comfort zone. I’m excited to put the book together and get the edges finished off. What did I learn this time? 1) I need to learn to use a ruler, as somehow all of my pages ended up different sizes. 2) Choose background fabric more carefully. Last year, too thick. This year, too shreddy (or maybe just find that bottle of fray check that’s around here somwhere). 3) I learned that even 15 short minutes of focusing on stitching can break the cycle of worrying about the state of the world. Thank you, again!