My 100 Day Stitch Book: Conversations with projects past

We’re 31 days into the 100 Day Stitch Book project with @annwood and I’m enjoying the intuitive stitching of creating small textile compositions with fabric and yarn scraps. Six of twenty pages are complete and page seven begins today, Day 31. 

Pages 1 and 2 of the 100 Day Stitch Book 2026.

A slow-built rhythm 

Each page is built slowly and intuitively—in 15 minute increments, over five days. There is no plan or sketch for creating the compositions. They evolve organically. I’m guided by the shapes and colors of the fabric bits which is followed by the addition of texture and detail with hand stitching and couching various yarn tails. 

Pages 3 and 4 of the 100 Day Stitch Book 2026.

The base fabrics for my pages are yarn-dyed wovens—most are from Diamond Textiles. These textiles hold an innate subtle texture and dimension. They possess a tactile depth even before I add my own stitches. And the soft, supple hand is very welcoming to hand stitching.. 

Yarn-dyed fabric for the book pages. I serge the edges to keep them neat and tidy while stitching.

The 100 Day Stitch Book is about mindfulness, creativity, being present… and making small compositions with fragments and scraps. It’s satisfying to be able to give fiber fragments (fabrics and yarns) a second life. Appliquéd fabric scraps create color-blocked backgrounds. Saved yarn tails become texture. Embroidered motifs and couched yarns become focal points. Stitches create texture and hold the fabric and yarn on the pages. 

Pages 5 and 6 of the 100 Day Stitch Book 2026.

As I appliqué the scraps to the base fabric, I remember the earlier projects from where they came. Every page is like a small conversation between eyes, hands and materials.

Bonus page

On January 24, I was drawn to create this page as witness to the horrific events happening in the country. This is an additional page—not one of the 6 above. I’m pondering how to include it in my final stitch book. I’m sure by the end of the 100 days, the project will tell me.

Bonus page from January 24, 2026.

Stitch Book, Day 10: Holding a thread

Sunday marked Day 10 of my 100 Day Stitch Book project. I should have spent my “15 minutes of daily stitching” to finish up my second composition, but I was compelled to start a new page. It’s difficult to focus on something as relaxing and quiet as hand stitching when the world is screaming.

New book page for the 100 Day Stitch Book.

The violence in our country weighs heavily. It’s impossible to ignore how these heart wrenching acts are tearing at the fabric of our country. Families ripped apart. Communities living in fear. The damage isn’t abstract. It’s felt—in bodies, homes, communities, in the future. 

This new book page may be out of sequence, but it’s stitched as a form of witnessing, and perhaps speaking out through fabric and thread—“Enough! We’ve had enough.” 

“Enough!”

Each fabric scrap is a fragment that the chaos has created. Each stitch is an act of hope for repair. What does repair mean… how long will it take… and how do we bear the cost? I don’t know. Thread can mend, bind things together; but it also shows the seams—the places where the division was.

I’m continuing with my 2026 stitch book—each day, a stitch at a time. This page is not as light-hearted or seem to fit cohesively with the other pages, but neither is the world right now. The Stitch Book project is a record of time spent… but it also documents the days in which we are living.

A return to slow stitching with the 100 Day Stitch Book

There is something grounding and meditative about the ritual of daily hand stitching. Whether it’s a simple running stitch, tiny French knots, the randomness of the seed stitch, or the act of pulling thread through fabric, it serves as a quiet punctuation mark to the end of a busy day. Aside from being totally in love with the binding method for this fabric book, this is why I am participating in Ann Wood’s 100 Day Stitch Book Challenge again in 2026.  

Fabric pages for the 100 Day Stitch Book 2026, with my completed 2025 Stitch Book.

This is my second time participating in this project. The first was in 2025. The Stitch Book is not only a wonderful scrap buster project but a visual diary… remembering from where each fabric scrap was generated—from previous quilts, in a workshop, from fellow students in a class, in the throw-away bin, or simply found objects. They are fragments of memories from the past. 

The scrap collection box has a variety of prints.

My first book used trimmings from various improvisational patchwork pieces I made and were mostly solid fabrics. This time, my scrap “collection box” has a variety of prints (shown above). It will be a new journey to discovery. I’m also thinking about incorporating bits from my jar of yarn ORTs [odd random threads] to explore surface texture and layers. Scraps love other scraps, right??

Stitch book prep 

I’ve cut a variety of fabrics for my 5.5” x 7” pages. The majority are soft, supple, yarn-dyed wovens from Diamond Textiles with the addition of two blue pages from a chambray—because the color was so inviting and a lovely contrast to the neutral palette of the other pages. 

Cut and serged fabrics for the pages of the Stitch Book.

The edges of the fabric pages were serged since the fabrics will be handled a lot during the stitching process (a proven idea I used last year). I cut sixteen fabric pages in the 5.5” x 7” size and have reserved the last 4 pages for the front and back (inside and outside) covers which will be slightly wider in size. The extra width accommodates the thickness of the spine of this fabric book—another lesson learned last year. 

Scraps are ironed and ready for appliqué. 

A bundle of scraps for the appliqué has been ironed and I’ve gathered my ORT jar of yarn tails from last year’s Make Nine Taos crocheted wrap. 

Serged pages, ironed fabric scraps, and ORT jar ready for the 100 Day Stitch Book Challenge 2026.

The power of "Small and Often" 

The beauty of the 100-day format is that it removes the pressure of the “Big Masterpiece.” You aren't making a quilt; you are making a moment… stitching 15 minutes each day… the pages are only 5.5” x 7” in size. By the end of the 100 days, those moments build into something tactile and beautiful that you can literally flip through.

To everyone else picking up a needle and thread for this 100 Day Stitch Book Challenge—whether it’s your first time or your fifth—happy slow stitching! Stories and memories will unfold, one thread at a time.