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.
I’m excited to start this year’s 100 day book. I was a horrible overachiever with the past years. Nothing was wasted though. A lot was learned and dozens of people now own an individual page lovingly mounted in a shadow box. I did complete a miniature version and the Autumn journal. That gives me hope and encouragement that this year my book will actually become a book.
I’m in! Lat year was the first time I did it, and I loved every minute. I, too, am getting excited. It sure seems like a year flew by!
Thank you for doing this!