Throughout my family’s super-crazy-amazing-but-bonkers-busy 2025, I lost way too much of my writing and creating mojo, time, and energy. We had a great year with so many wonderful memories, but it is now time to refocus on my creative endeavors. I have podcasts to write and record, I have books to read and talk about, I have stories just begging to be told, and I have quilts to continue stitching.
I’m happy to share that I have returned to my writing, I have Episode 4 of the Hand Quilted Podcast ready to record, and with the start of my son’s soccer season, I’m back to quilting on the sidelines. So things are looking up for 2026, but admittedly they have been slowly looking up. I’ve been needing a big kick in the pants to fully shake myself out of the creative funk I’ve fallen into. That’s where an incredibly well timed peek at Substack yesterday delivered just the right nudge I needed to finish igniting my creative motivations.
Thank you, Jamie Gregory, for sharing your preparations for Lindsay Jean Thomson’s 100 Day Project. I love when serendipity comes out to play, and that’s exactly how reading your post felt! After reading about your preparations, I also spent yesterday preparing for the next 100 days. Recently I happened to have treated myself to Passion Planner’s Self-Care Gift Box, and it contained a little notebook that was exactly the right tool I needed to create my 100 day checklist, track my stitching progress, and even jot down a thought or two that I may want to keep track of over the next couple of months.
For these next 100 days, I will be working on my Jane Austen quilt from Riley Blake Designs, which was beautifully designed by Lori Holt. This quilt was created in honor of Jane Austen’s 250th birthday. I signed up for what is called a BOM, or Block of the Month, which means I purchased all the fabric, stencils, and pattern for this quilt, but instead of getting it all in one package, I am getting smaller bits of it every month for the course of the BOM. In this case, that will be over 10 months that started back in August. The idea is to take the larger project of making a quilt like this one, and chunking it down into smaller, more manageable pieces. It’s not uncommon to fall behind when it comes to putting together a BOM. At least it’s not uncommon for me! For those checking the calendar, month 7 just arrived, and I’m still working on the first month’s block.
So, for the next 100 days, I plan to spend a minimum of 20 minutes everyday stitching away on this very special quilt project. Lori Holt carefully designed this project to be done easily on a sewing machine, but I have elected to do this one by hand. Most of the quilt is done using a technique called appliqué, which can be done by hand or machine. I have committed to myself to do all of the appliqué by hand, and I’m very seriously considering doing all of the patchwork piecing by hand as well. However, that’s a much bigger commitment that I’m not completely sure I’m ready for. So my plan is to give it a try when I get to those steps and see how the process feels. I’m currently loving stitching machine free, but I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself.
The 100 Day Project starts today, and I will be sharing my progress through these next 100 days here on Substack, but while I will be tracking my daily progress in my notebook, I’m not sure of my best posting schedule. It’s a lot like that patchwork piecing portion of my Jane Austen quilt. I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself and commit to something that will become too overwhelming. When I get too overwhelmed I shutdown, and I know none of us what that.
So here we go, cheers to 100 days of creativity!