Reformatting my Create Daily Tracker for 2026

My 2026 Create Daily Tracker has a different—but familiar—look. I’m using the format I used in 2022 and 2023 for this year’s tracker. It was designed by Sarah Reebs, @smrt783. She uses it for her embroidery practice and I’m using it again for a Create Daily Tracker.

Create Daily Tracker for 2026.

The key to being successful with a tracker

I’ve been using a daily tracker since 2020. It reminds me to do—and document—something creative with my hands every day of the year. Now, you might think that making something “daily” is too overwhelming or impossible. The key is to be gentle with yourself. Set yourself up for success. For example, if I only have time for 2 rows of knitting on a dish cloth, or a line of boro / running stitches to mend a pant leg, or making a few stitches in a stitch book, it qualifies! 

Of course, there are days when I can lean into a process and devote hours to it… making patchwork for a kitty quilt, free-motion quilting, spending an evening crocheting while watching TV… so the longer making sessions balance out the short sprints. Just do what you can with the time (or amount of energy) you have on any given day. 

A year-end reflection 

Below is my Create Daily tracker at the end of 2025.

Finished Create Daily Tracker for 2025.

My tracker has seven categories/disciplines that I’ve formulated to cover my creative activities—including an annual 100 Day Project. The time spent on each activity over the last year is as follows: 

  2%  sewing/garment making 

  5%  free-motion quilting 

14%  patchwork 

15%  slow stitching/mending 

16%  art making 

23%  yarn 

25%  100 Day Project

At the end of the year, it’s interesting to see what I spent my time doing. In 2025, my days wer almost equally divided into 5 categories. The 100 Day Project (25%) and my crochet shawl yarn project (23%) were nearly equal at the top. Art making (16%), slow stitching/mending (15%), and patchwork (14%) were next with almost identical percentages.

In keeping a daily tracker, I’ve also learned that small individual tasks—a few minutes here and there—add up to big results. There were 23 finishes over the course of a year:

• 13 entries were of completed Make Nine items 
• 10 entries were of other finishes 

I’m happy with these accomplishments!

Looking to the future

Each year brings something different. I never know what I’ll be presented with over the next 12 months but will be enjoying the journey… one day (and one tracker square) at a time.

Starting month 9 in my Create Daily Tracker

In January, I started another Create Daily Tracker (my 6th) with the continuous goal to do something creative with my hands every day of the year. No pressure for perfection—just taking a little time for myself, and carving out a space in the schedule for making. 

With over 240 days of making behind me, it’s interesting to see what the year entailed thus far. 

Create Daily Tracker 2025. September 6, 2025.

Over 8 months of creative endeavors 

My creative practice so far this year has included a wonderful mix of mindful stitching tasks, improvisational projects, and a few structured challenges. All were achieved with an assortment of daily short stints and longer inspired binges. Here is a breakdown of the percentages of time spent along with a comparison of the status check from June.

• 2% garment sewing (down from 5%)
• 4% free-motion quilting (down from 7%)
• 47% slow stitching and mending, including the 100 Day Stitch Book (up from 40%)
• 14% patchwork (down from 18%)
• 16% art projects—collage, mixed media, painting, art journaling (up from 11%)
• 17% yarn—knitting, crochet (up from 12%)

Thirty-three entries of patchwork and using scraps paired with 9 entries of free-motion quilting resulted in charity quilts. Sixteen kitty quilts were donated to two local vets early in the year, I’ve made two more this summer, and a few lap quilts got quilted and bound for my guild’s Cuddle Quilt project. 

Free-motion quilting a charity quilt. I attach the binding by machine.

Mending was the uppermost technique during “A Winter of Care and Repair Challenge” and my 100 Day Stitch Book entailed a lot of slow stitching. I found The 100 Day Stitch Book to be a very rewarding project. I learned the slot-and-tab binding method which resulted in the making of two additional textile books of stitched collage compositions from my 2023 100 Day Project. At the suggestion of my students and the urging of my cohorts, I hope to develop a class around soft bookmaking. 

Slow stitching compositions from the 100 Day Stitch Book project.

My art practice included 37 sessions of slow drawing, mixed media, watercolor, and participation in two month-long Junk Journal Challenges—Junk Journal January and Junk Journal July. Following daily prompts, the Junk Journals became tactile, expressive pages with layers of paper, paint, and hand lettering to convey stories and messages. 

Junk journals for January and July 2025.

A few days of garment sewing resulted in a Make Nine finish—a remake of the Siena Shirt using a fun fabric line called Perfect Points. 

Make Nine 2025 worksheet. September 2025.

A log of 40 entries creating with yarn resulted in the stack of hand knit dish cloths. Pattern research last month unearthed a scrap-buster project for my Make Nine “yarn” prompt, so lately, I’ve been heavily engrossed with crochet. I’ve completed 8 out of 9 prompts on my Make Nine list and the last prompt, “yarn,” is well underway. 

Why the Create Daily Tracker works for me 

My Create Daily Tracker is more than just a checkbox system. It’s a gentle accountability partner that helps me: 

• celebrate small wins that might have otherwise gone unnoticed, 
• stay focused on a daily practice—even when motivation wanes, 
• document my makes,  
• make space to honor the act of creating, one day at a time. 

If you’re on a creative journey or want to develop a daily art practice of your own—no matter what your medium—a daily tracker might be helpful. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Just a simple document to capture successes, new techniques, and creative risks, such as mine shown above will work. Ease of use is the key.

Create Daily Tracker 2025, entering the summer season

Today is June 1 which means the first five months of 2025 are behind us. We’re entering the month of June and the summer season. Here’s a check-in on the progress of my Create Daily Tracker for 2025, with five months completed.

January - May, 2025, Create Daily Tracker.

Tracker analysis

January - May consisted of 151 days.

• 100 days were spent on the 100 Day Project for 2025 [Jan. 17 - April 26], the 100 Day Stitch Book. If I spent a significant amount of time also working on another activity that day, I included a small box of with another color in the box for that day.
• 31 days in January were spent working on the January Junk Journal project.

The percentages of time spent on various activities were:

• 5% sewing and garment construction.
• 7% free-motion quilting, which was mostly charity quilts.
• 11% was spent on art projects—painting, collage, art journaling, etc.
• 12% on knitting/yarn projects
• 18% piecing and patchwork
• 40% slow stitching and mending; this includes the 100 Day Stitch Book, and the last half of the Winter of Care and Repair Challenge that started on the Winter Solstice and concluded on the Spring Equinox.

11 days (7%) are marked as Finishes—completed projects from any/all of the above categories/activities.

January - May 2025 creative activities.

With the completion of this year’s 100 Day Project—which involved a lot of hand stitching—the remainder of the year should balance out the percentages of each activity. Unless, however, I stumble upon another enticing slow stitch project in the upcoming months.

A new “Create Daily” tracker for 2025

With the new year, I’m starting a new Create Daily Tracker. It’s a revisit of the tracker/calendar format I used in 2020 for my Stitching Success Tracker, from Nerd Bucket blog. 

Create Daily tracker for 2025.

Year 6 of a daily creative practice

This will be the 6th year of recording a daily creative practice—doing something creative with my hands every day. Activities include things like slow stitching, quiltmaking, free-motion quilting, sewing, painting, drawing, stamp carving, etc. My “daily creating” can be as little as stitching for a few minutes, a row of knitting, to carving a new rubber stamp, free-motion quilting a kitty quilt, or sewing for an afternoon—if time permits. I’m going to color code the activities and the finishes again this year. 

This is what 2024 looked like. The tracker was successfully and fully colored in.

The Create Daily tracker for 2024 is complete.

Create Daily 2024 tracker: Q3 is complete

Three-quarters of 2024 have passed as we say “goodbye” to September. On October 1, I’ll begin filling in the last diagram of My Create Daily tracker.

Create Daily 2024 tracker, September 30.

During the last week of the month, the squares were colored with four different colors—each representing a different creative activity. While traveling, my take-along project is hand knitting.

I’ve also been active in a new sketchbook with exercises from the Sketchbook Revival online workshop. This page was nature journaling and contour drawings with Melinda Nakagawa.

Sketchbook page: Nature journaling and contour drawings.

On the weekend, I made a thread sampler stitch-out with Scanfil Organic Threads for one of my customers. It shows examples of free-motion quilting, hand quilting, hand embroidery, and machine decorative stitching with Scanfil’s 100% long staple organic cotton threads; 50wt and 30 wt.

Thread sampler detail: free-motion quilting, hand stitching, decorative machine stitching.

The sample was improvisationally pieced with American Made Brand [AMB] solids from Clothworks. The binding is from the 2.5” Edition collection by Art Gallery Fabrics.

Scanfil thread sampler, 8” x 10.5”.

And I rounded out the last day of September with slow stitch mending. It’s been a colorful and productive month. 

Welcome October!

Mid-year tracker update

Summer is in full force. The calendar page has turned over to the seventh month. My Create Daily tracker is half-way filled in.

Create Daily 2024 tracker: July 1, 2024.

I have also satisfied 6 prompts in my Make Nine 2024 Challenge and have good options for potential projects to satisfy the remaining three… which is probably because I have an abundance of UFOs!

Make Nine 2024 tracker.

The 100 Day Project: Day 85 update

Happy Mother’s Day and Day 85 of my 100 Day Project 2024.

With only 15 days remaining of the 100 Day Project 2024, Paint, Paper, Stitch, I’m posting my progress with some of my favorite watercolor and stitched compositions.

Day 14 composition: slow drawing, background fills.

The Day 14 composition (above) started with the flower shapes drawn with a black waterproof ink marker and a watercolor background fill. Around Day 73, color was added to the flower petals. On Days 74 and 75, the feather stitching was added to the petals. The french knots were added recently on Day 84. This is how these painted compositions generally evolve.

The composition below from Days 30 and 31 used the flat wash technique and is one of the first that included stitching. The stitching with the orange thread gives this composition a focal point.

Days 30 and 31: flat washes and background fills.

The composition for Day 32 is a second composition in painting flat washes with these oval shapes. This composition came to life with the stitching using the backstitch. The variation in thread weight (thickness), thread color, and overlapping the stitched oval shapes gave this composition a lot more interest than the painting by itself..

Day 32 composition: flat washes.

I experimented more with wet-on-dry painting techniques (glazing) on the Day 48 composition. I needed a painted background on which to practice the slow drawing “U” pattern. Wanting to test a new cotton thread from Scanfil, the seed stitch and french knots were added over a period of a few days. Perle cotton and embroidery floss were used for the color stitches. 

This composition has become more intricate and layered. I have not decided whether to add more stitching…

Day 48 composition: wet on wet painting, blooming, slow drawing

The Day 7 composition was a “walk the dog” painting exercise from Willa Wanders’ Watercolor for Relaxation course. It was also an early experiment with running stitches.

Day 7 composition: color mixing, flat wash exercises.

Create Daily Tracker

I continue to use my Create Daily Tracker for documenting a daily practice. During the 100 Day Project, the date square is colored with the sky blue colored pencil. If my daily process consists more heavily on another technique—free-motion quilting, slow stitching, garment sewing, etc.—the block is colored differently. I’ve had a few finishes during the 100 Day Project as well, which is indicated by a color other than sky blue.

Create Daily 2024 Tracker: May 12, 2024.

A snapshot in time of a daily creative process.

My 2024 "Create Daily" tracker has a new format!

My creative, online friend, Sarah Reebs @smrt783, has created a new calendar/tracker format for 2024. She uses it for her embroidery practice and I've adopted it for my Create Daily tracker.

Create Daily tracker for 2024

It's refreshingly different, don't you think? It's exciting to have a new format for this new year.

Trackers through the years

I've used two other tracker formats in the past. They're all fascinating and clever and I love to fill in the little box for each day! I started using a tracker in 2020, calling it my Stitching Success Tracker. After two years, and a broader scope in my creative practice, it morphed into the Create Daily Tracker.

Here are the Create Daily Trackers from 2022 and 2023. This is another design by Sarah.

Create Daily 2023 tracker

Create Daily 2022 tracker

Here are the Stitching Success Trackers from 2020 and 2021. This design was created by Karalenn Hippen.

Stitching Success tracker 2021

Stitching Success tracker 2020

This is the fifth year documenting a daily art, textile and stitching practice using a creative tracker. Let's see what 2024 brings!

Make Nine finish #8: fast and fun cuddle quilts

In a recent post, I published tips and ideas for making quilts using time-saving techniques, fabrics, and tools. These ideas were used for three charity quilts that were completed for my guild's community service project. I'm using this "finish" to fulfil my Make Nine "Fast and Fun" prompt this year. 

"Fast and Fun" prompt for Make Nine 2023 is fulfilled.

Initially, I thought my "Fast and Fun" prompt might be fulfilled with a set of pillowcases—also a fun project—which I usually make for gifts throughout the year. It just goes to show that one never knows what projects will be put in one's path... these quilts crossed my path first.

Here are the three completed cuddle quilts (charity quilts) for my guild's community service project. With some planning and time-saving construction ideas, they were fast and fun!

Three finished charity quilts.

Now I'm feeling ahead of the game with Make Nine this year—with only one prompt remaining. The last prompt is a UFO finish. 

Oh, I have plenty of options for this one!

Make Nine 2023 tracker, August 2023.

Creative Tracker update: a daily practice = productivity

It’s early August and two-thirds of the year is in the record book. My Create Daily Tracker is progressing nicely and I’ve also happily fulfilled 7 of 9 Make Nine 2023 prompts. 

Create Daily Tracker, August 2023

The blue boxes in the Create Daily Tracker document my two 100 Day Projects this year. Both projects—100 Days of Hand Lettering and 100 Days of Textile and Stitch Collage—provided growth in my art and stitching skills. The other colorful boxes on the tracker represent creative activities such as slow stitching, patchwork, knitting, garment sewing, and free-motion quilting.

Make Nine 2023 tracker, August 2023.

Watercolor and Slow Drawing

I participated in an online Challenge last month called "World Watercolor Month" and occasionally marry watercolor painting with slow drawing. The lime green colored squares on the Create Daily Tracker reflect these art practices. This online Challenge was also a Make Nine project for me.

Slow drawing on watercolor.

Knitting dishcloths with a slip stitch pattern

Recently, I’ve picked up my knitting needles and cotton yarn to make hand knit dish cloths (the lavender colored boxes). These are easy, mindful, and portable projects. I have the slip stitch pattern memorized and this is a convenient project on which to put in a few rows at the end of a day.

Knitting dishcloths with slip stitch pattern.

Improvisational patchwork: triangles

After finishing 12 kitty quilts—which are always improvisationally pieced with scraps and discontinued fabric samples—I pulled out a 2012 UFO [unfinished object] and am doing experimentation with improvisational patchwork. I'm starting with improv triangles. Patchwork is represented by the orange colored boxes in the Tracker.

Improv triangles.

Mindless patchwork and charity quilts

The design wall is always full of work in-progress... quilt layouts, test blocks, PFDs (projects half done). I did purge some scraps for a charity cuddle quilt for my guild. Sewing rectangle blocks is relaxing and good mindless patchwork.

Design wall with various in-progress work.

It's also a good feeling to achieve a "finish" now and then, even if it's from a less time-consuming project.

Finished cuddle quilt top.

Organizing the scrap pile

I gathered together the piles of half-square triangles [HSTs] created from leaders and enders and now have them in a box. These HSTs are made from the diagonal joins on scrappy bindings and "daughter blocks" from making flying geese and other flippy-corner units. 

Scrappy half-square triangles.

It's fun to do these in batches: press a bunch, then clip the dog ears and square up a bunch.

Storage box for triangle scraps and finished HSTs.

Don't know yet what these HSTs will ultimately become. For now, they're all in a box. Any ideas on what to make with multi-size, scrappy half-square triangles?

Starting a new 2023 Create Daily tracker

Hello 2023!
On this first day of the week, of a new month, of the new year... it's time to recap the successes of the 2022 Create Daily tacker and start a new tracker for 2023. 

The 2022 Create Daily tracker is filled and completed.

As indicated by all the colorful squares on this calendar, 2022 was a year full of making. In addition to a successful Make Nine Challenge, I wanted to document the other creative projects that were part of the past 12 months:

• 100 Day projects
• Slow Fashion Challenge
• September Textile Love
• Print*Inktober
• Carve December
• quilt blocks for an animal shelter
• teaching at the John C. Campbell Folk School

Three 100 Day Projects

I participated in "The 100 Day Project" in two different disciplines:

1. Daily stitching with found objects, and 
2. Creating textures and patterns with hand-carved stamps. 

The 100 Day Project—Daily stitching with found objects.

Occasionally, slow drawing and watercolor were incorporated into the printed patterns from my hand-carved stamps.

The 100 Day Project—Textures and patterns with hand-carved stamps.

Another 100 day Challenge was the "100 Days 100 Blocks" Kinship Sampler. This is the third set of Kinship blocks I've pieced. Now I'm curious to see what the 2023 pattern will be.

100 Days 100 Blocks Kinship Sampler with Whimsy and Onyx fabrics from P&B Textiles.

Online Challenges

I participated in two online Challenges last year: the Slow Fashion Challenge, sponsored by Fashion Revolution. I learned a lot from this Challenge.

Slow Fashion Challenge 2022.

And, for the fifth year, I participated in September Textile Love, sponsored by Seam Collective. This Challenge is always inspiring!

Hand-carved stamps

After The 100 Days of Texture and Patterns with hand-carved stamps, I joined Print*Inktober and Carve December, sponsored by Balzer Designs. These are images from these online Challenges.

Stamps and printed images from Print*Inktober and Carve December. 

Slow stitching and patchwork by machine

It's nice to have portable hand stitching projects to take along when traveling! I worked on several embroidery and slow stitching pieces throughout the year. A few of these were stitch practices and a few are work that I plan to continue working on.

Hand stitching projects.

It was fun to machine piece a few quilt blocks for a charity fundraiser. Ten blocks were sent to the auction.

Patchwork blocks for a fundraiser.

One more kitty quilt was finished before "the ball dropped." It just had the binding that needed to be stitched down. 

Patchwork kitty quilt. Completed December 31, 2022.

One of our outside kitties gave the new quilt the "kitty approval."

Stan Leigh on the new kitty quilt.

Back in the classroom with Intro to Free-motion Quilting

Definitely, one of the highlights of 2022 was teaching a workshop at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC. What a fabulous experience!

Teaching free-motion quilting at the John C. Campbell Folk School.

A new 2023 Create Daily tracker

I'm ready to hit it again in 2023! I'm using the same Create Daily tracker that I used in 2022. 

Create Daily tracker for 2023.

Let the new year begin!