20 Jan A challenge for the new year

I learned about the 100DayProject last summer from a podcast and it appealed to me right away. The idea is to do something creative every day for 100 days. I like a good challenge and I’ve set myself a pretty big one for the 100 days – to make a 10″ mini quilt every day.

I’ve spent a lot of time this past year thinking about what is important to me and why I make quilts. It comes down to wanting to share the joy of beauty and creativity. With that in mind, one of my goals this year is to make some of my work available for purchase. One hundred days of mini quilts will be a fun way to begin!

The 100DayProject starts Saturday, January 21 and finishes on May 1.  It feels a bit crazy to say I’m going to make a complete 10″ mini every day for 100 days, but I’m diving in anyway!  While this project is about being creative every day, for me, it is also about the discipline and practice of getting myself to make every day.  I have a tendency to over think things and spend too much time thinking and not enough doing!

That said, if I walked it to my sewing room every day without a plan or idea, the endless choices would paralyze me.  So I came up with 10 “design” categories and put them each on a slip of paper 10 times for 100 design prompts.  Each day, as I finish working on that day’s project, I will choose a slip, at random, for the next day’s project.  That gives me time to mull it over and come up with some direction for the next mini.

I’ll be posting these minis on Instagram and Facebook every day and they will be available for purchase in my shop.  They will all be priced at $60 plus shipping.

A few other guidelines will help things along the way:
1.  I’ll be out of town at least 14 days during this time.  For those days, I’ll do a digital sketch.  Ideally, when I get home, I’ll make them into real minis.  And while I understand that the point of this project is to create every day, if I need to work ahead to accommodate my travel schedule, I will, but I don’t plan to do that while I’m at home.
2.  If this project makes me crazy, I will stop.  I expect that this project will take 2-3 hours each day to complete by the time I make the project, photograph it, post it on IG and FB and add it to my shop.  I think I can do it, but if the stress becomes too much, I’ll stop.

I can’t wait to get started tomorrow!