The 100 Day Stitch Book, my second Make Nine finish

There’s a particular satisfaction that comes not from speed, but from endurance—consistently staying with something day after day—until productivity culminates at 100 days and results in a soft, textured fabric book. That’s what finishing the 100 Day Stitch Book feels like. 

100 Day Stitch Book 2026

This is the second year I’ve participated in The 100 Day Stitch Book project, hosted by Ann Wood. (It’s becoming an annual thing for me!) I used a different collection of fabric scraps this year and also incorporated the yarn thrums from my 2025 crocheted Taos Wrap that I had collected in an ORT jar. [ORT = Odd Random Threads.] 

I also remembered the lessons I learned from assembling last year’s book—like creating front and back covers as part of the 20 book pages, stitching a title, date and author on them, and making these pages slightly larger to accommodate the book’s spine. 

Back cover page with my initials.

This year’s book also holds more weight—as a tragic incident that happened in the U.S. during the making of this book was interpreted in stitch on one of the pages. 

The practice of using what’s on hand 

Per Ann’s guidelines for the Stitch Book, the page compositions are made entirely from remnants—fabric scraps too small for other projects, bits of patchwork trimmed from previous makes, and my addition of the yarn tails from my crocheted wrap. 

Appliquéd fabric scraps, embroidery stitches, couched yarns.

The materials dictate the process: improvisational, intuitive, and mindful. I used several embroidery stitches—some of my go-to favorites, and some referenced from books and previous projects. Working the yarn bits into the compositions was my challenge this year. The yarns were couched, giving more dimension to the page compositions. Every page was a different adventure. 

Couched yarn thrums with French knots.

Couched yarn scraps and crocheted medallions stitched to the page.

The back sides of the pages are interesting, too. However, they can no longer be seen once the signatures and book are assembled. 

Back side of pages.

Back side of pages.

Back side of pages.

Back side of pages.

Marking time 

One engaging aspect of a 100 day project is how it becomes a record—not just of creative exploration, but of life as it unfolds. 

There is one page in this book that I will never look at casually. 

On January 24, 2026, I stitched in response to the killing of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse at a VA hospital, who was shot by federal Border Patrol and ICE agents in Minneapolis, MN during an immigration enforcement protest. 

January 24, 2026, “Enough!”

I remember hearing the news—how shocking, unnerving, and heavy it felt. How unimaginably difficult to comprehend and process. I abandoned the current page I was working on that weekend and began stitching in response to that horrific event. Stitching that day wasn’t about technique or composition, it was about bearing witness. 

This page is not quiet. 

It stands out among all the other pages because it holds that moment: confusion, grief, anger, and a need to respond in protest through fabric and stitch. 

Left page is the back side of “Enough!”

One of the valuable things about slow stitching (and other art forms) is that it creates space to unleash feelings, to mark time, to work through confusing, frustrating, or sad times. It allows for a kind of reflection or response to the events of the day. 

Hand stitching the openings of the signatures.

The focus of the 100 Day Project: process 

As with all of my past 100 Day Projects, it’s about process and practice more than the end result. This stitch book is a continuation… an on-going promise to my art practice. 

Five signatures ready for the book assembly.

Make Nine 2026: fulfilling the Slow Stitching prompt

The 100 Day Stitch Book 2026 marks the second finish for my Make Nine 2026 list, fulfilling the Slow Stitching prompt.

Make Nine 2026 tracker, April 24, 2026.

I’m pleased with the result of this stitch book and look forward to making more fabric books soon.

“Slow Stitching” prompt from Make Nine 2026 tracker.

100 Day Stitch Book 2026

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.

Happy Thanksgiving

 

With grace and gratitude to all the makers, teachers, business partners, associates, and mentors who inspire, encourage, collaborate, and support the arts, creatives, and their endeavors… a heart-filled Thank You!

100 Day Project, Stitch Book 2025: a Make Nine finish

In January of 2021, I discovered the 100 Day Project. Since then, I have successfully completed eight of them—including this year’s 100 Day Stitch Book 2025 with Ann Wood. I am counting this project as a Make Nine finish.

100 Day Stitch Book 2025.

Slot-and-tab book binding

The 4-page slot-and-tab signatures are finished and the Stitch Book is assembled. The cover (which was not part of the Stitch Book instructions but was added) was embroidered with “100 day Stitch Book” and the year to document the project. Here are few of the inside page spreads, starting with the first page.

Inside front cover and page 1 of the Stitch Book 2025.

I think a few of the spreads look very cohesive, especially those that had the same background fabric.

Two-page spread of the 100 Day Stitch Book 2025.

As the 100 Day Project progressed, I referenced previously stitched pages and began thinking about side-by-side pages (page spreads). Even though these pages were stitched at different times (not consecutively), the page spread looks intentional.

Two-page spread of the 100 Day Stitch Book 2025.

Two-page spread of the 100 Day Stitch Book 2025.

Two-page spread of the 100 Day Stitch Book 2025.

Here is the last page and the back cover.

Last page and inside back cover of the 100 Day Stitch Book 2025.

Things I learned from making the Stitch Book

The assembling of the pages into the slot-and-tab book structure was quite interesting but somewhat challenging. Were I to make another book with the slot-and-tab construction, here are tips and things I would consider:

• Leave more unstitched margins on the page perimeter. The pages with appliquéd fabrics added to the bulk—especially at the gutter—causing a few pages to not lie as flat as they could have.
• I think less pages would make a better, flatter book. I think an 8-page or 12 page book would be good to try. Or a book with a larger page size.
• Thankfully I added 1 inch to the width of the front and back covers. This allowed the covers to extend past the interior pages. Note: the front and back covers actually wrap around and create the spine of the book, so extra fabric is needed.

View of the slot-and-tab book spine.

View of the stitch book spine.

• For a future book, I would make the “tab” pages with a slightly deeper tab, and the “slot” pages with a slightly larger slot. The initial page assembly of my book was tight and I unpicked a few stitches to accommodate a little bit of “wiggle room.”
• This is a fun scrap buster project. I used four different fabrics I had in my stash for the base pages. With planning, it would be interesting to use the same fabric for all of the pages.
• I would also plan to have front and back covers for the book and incorporate this into the initial design of the book.

A perfect improvisational, stash-busting project

The 100 Day Stitch Book was a good project to use up scraps and random bits of fabric cut-offs. Since this was an “improvisational” themed project, I used scraps specifically from my improv quilts over the years (I’m glad I saved cut-offs from those projects). In addition to scraps from my improv quilts, I incorporated students’ scraps from the “inventory department” of my recent Intro to Improv Quilting class as the Folk School. 

I also used random lengths of embroidery floss, yarn, and perle cotton for the improv stitching and enjoyed researching potential stitches from embroidery books in my library.

Top view of slot-and-tab fabric stitch book.

Make Nine finish: a Wild Card prompt

My 100 Day Stitch Book is fulfilling one of the Wild Card prompts for Make Nine 2025. It was a great 100 Day Project and I would do it again.

Make Nine 2025 Wild Card prompt.

This is the 4th documented completed project for Make Nine 2025.

Make Nine 2025 tracker. 

Assembling the 100 day Stitch Book with the Slot-and-Tab binding method

Last weekend, I completed the final page—number 20—of the  100 Day Stitch Book 2025, a 100 day stitch challenge with Ann Wood. The next step was to use the slot-and-tab binding method to put the stitched pages into book form.

Twenty hand stitched pages for the 100 Day Stitched Book 2025.

Pagination for the Slot and Tab binding method

As someone who studied printing technology, publishing, and bookmaking, I quickly noticed the slot-and-tab binding method does not follow the standard page imposition like traditional book signatures. The number of pages does need to be a multiple of four, but the 4-page folios do not follow the traditional pagination scheme. Slot and Tab binding… a new bookmaking method for me to learn! Ann provides a pagination guide for the Stitch Book challenge on her blog.

Individual pages for the Stitch Book 2025 with the pagination guide.

For the pagination, I considered keeping the pages in the date order of when they were created. But upon laying out and examining all the pages together, several of them lent themselves to cohesive 2-page spreads—which I found more appealing.

Determining page spreads.

As recommended by Ann, I used painter’s tape to number each page as it would appear in the book sequence.

Labeling the book pages.

Adding a cover to my stitch book required a new folding dummy

I also wanted a cover for my book. I had large scrap of a cotton/linen fabric (white fabric with blue rings shown below) from this Berwick Street shirt that I made. It was large enough to cut out covers for the Stitch Book. The covers were cut about 1” wider to accommodate the book’s spine and to make sure the inside pages of the book were covered when the book was closed.

White and blue cotton/linen fabric cover for the stitch book.

With the addition of four more pages—the front and back outside covers, and the inside front and inside back covers—the pagination scheme needed to be updated (my book has 24 pages instead of 20). I made a classic folding dummy (with paper) to determine the page sequence and accommodate the extra four pages.

Using the paper folding dummy to determine the slot-and-tab folios.

Sewing the slot and tab folios

Following Ann’s instructions and using her page template, the pages were sewn into either a slot or tab format.

Sewing the four-page tab and slot folios.

The next steps are turning the signatures right side out and assembling the book. Stay tuned for more Stitch Book assembly.

Day 30 of the 100 Day Stitch Book project

We’re 30 days and 6 pages into the 100 Day Stitch Book with Ann Wood. This stitch Challenge started on January 17.

Pages 1 and 2 of the 2025 Stitch Book.

Using fabric scraps and leftovers

It’s satisfying for me to pair my leftover scraps from various improvisational patchwork projects with improv hand stitching to create these small 5.5” x 7” pages. This project is giving purpose to my improv scraps. I thought these scraps might find their way into another improv patchwork project, but in this little stitch book, they are the stars of the show. It’s so fun!

Pages 3 and 4 of the 2025 Stitch Book.

I’ve got a mix of fabrics for the base pages—a blue cotton/linen blend from Art Gallery Fabrics and a few 100% cotton yarn-dyed wovens from Diamond Textiles.

Pages 5 and 6 of the 2025 Stitch Book.

The threads I’m using consist of variegated cotton sewing thread, perle cotton, embroidery floss, and an 80 wt. soft poly for the appliqué. I’m using basic, familiar stitches: running stitch, blanket stitch, French knots, seed stitch, feather stitch, back stitch, and an invisible appliqué stitch.

The backs are colorful and interesting as well.

Backs of pages 1 and 2.

Backs of pages 3 and 4.

Backs of pages 5 and 6.

This is the start of page 7.

Page 7 of my 100 Day Stitch Book 2025.

I’ll work on this page for five days and then start another one.