Of course, I’m doing Make Nine 2025. It’s my 7th year!

A new year with Make Nine 2025. Lucky number 7 for me! Who else is in?

Make Nine 2025 tracker.

I so love this Challenge! This will be my 7th year participating. I’ve fine-tuned the prompts over the years and use the ones with which I do best. My prompts keep me aware, help me be productive, yet are still flexible enough to accommodate something unexpected that [often] presents itself during the year.

Make Nine 2025 prompts

My prompts for 2025 are mostly classics from past worksheets. For 2025, I’ve added “Simple and Stress-free” which is an amendment of the “Fast and Fun,” or “Fun and Easy” prompt of previous years. The “stress-free” part is indicative of what’s needed in the world these days. Here are my nine:

• UFO x 2: there are two UFO [unfinished object] prompts. I need to whittle down some of the lingering half-finished projects that have accumulated over the years. I’m only choosing those that are good candidates for completion. Yes, there are projects that are justified to never cross the finish line—workshop projects, practice pieces, experimentations with or curiosities about a new technique. I consider these learning opportunities. They don’t need to be finished.

• Mend/upcycle: This checks the “sustainability” box. It keeps the focus on taking care of and using what we have, minimizing waste, and being kinder to the environment.

• Make it Again: one of my favorite and most successful prompts over the years.

• Simple and Stress-free: for the mindless patchwork, fun free-motion quilting, scrap and stash buster opportunities. Still being creative and doing something with one’s hands without the confines of a deadline, perfect seams, matching points, and perfect stitches. This prompt is purely for the process of making.

• On-line Challenge: I’ve come across several of these and usually participate in one or more of them during the year. They keep me on-task and help hone a skill or learn a new technique I’ve been curious about. It’s also a great means of meeting and finding other artists and creatives that like the same sorts of things I do.

• Wild Card x 2: I’m targeting one of the Wild Cards to doing, using, or learning something new—using a new pattern, a different substrate, different materials, etc. This is a variation on previous “Something New in ’22,” “New to Me in ’23,” and “Learn More in ’24” prompts. [And, I couldn’t come up with a rhyme for “25.”]

• Yarn: I’m hoping to find a stash-buster project to meet this prompt.

Documenting Make Nine projects and processes

I use a Make Nine worksheet to document my Make Nine makes. In addition to illustrating the project and writing a description, I’ve learned to include the date of completion on the worksheet. As the year progresses, my black/white worksheet comes alive with color. I also document the makes and processes with a blog post.

For example, here is my Make Nine worksheet from 2024. In January, 2024 it looked like this: 

Make Nine worksheet in January of 2024.

And, by the end of the year, it’s very colorful! 

Make Nine 2024 completed and colored worksheet.

Make Nine recaps from pervious years are:

• Make Nine 2019 recap—first year
• Make Nine 2020 recap—2nd year
• Make Nine 2021 recap—3rd year
• Make Nine 2022 recap—4th year
• Make Nine 2023 recap—5th year
• Make Nine 2024 recap—6th year

I’m looking forward to new makes and finishes this year. Anyone else going to Make Nine?

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.

Make Nine 2024 recap

Make Nine 2024 was a success! Here is a recap of my 6th year participating in this Challenge.

Make Nine 2024 recap.

In answer to my 2024 prompts, these projects were completed (from top left):

• UFO: An improv quilt top from 18 - 19 years ago was finally quilted and bound. (finish #1)

• Wild Card: the first of the Wild Card prompts was fulfilled with this quilt using Dashwood Studio’s Spellbound fabric collection. It was displayed at the booth at the H+H industry trade show this past May. (finish #4)

• Yarn Project: Scrappy yarn placemats was a yarn stash-buster. (finish #3)

• Mend/Upcycle: a new binding was given to this quilt I made in the 1990s. (finish #7)

• Learn More in ’24: I learned how to make these triangle pouches this summer and made several of them for friends and associates. (finish #9)

• On-line Challenge: I participated in the Winter of Care and Repair Challenge this year. Several mends, up-cycled or repurposed items, and using up yarn and fabric scraps. (finish #2)

• Make it Again: One of my favorite prompts! I made another version of the Berwick Street tunic and another pair of Valencia pants. (finish #6)

• Wild Card: the second Wild Card prompt was fulfilled with an improv quilt that was donated to the auction/fund-raiser for the John C. Campbell Folk School. Blocks were made by the students in my Intro to Improv Patchwork class. The top assembly, quilting and finishing was done by me. (finish #8)

• Fun and Easy: Another yearly quilting project of mine is making kitty quilts. I make them throughout the year for friends with cats, neighbors with cats, for our own pack of kitties, and to support a local Cat Clinic and a local vet. A total of 10 kitty quilts were completed this year. (finish #5)

This is the completed worksheet for Make Nine 2024:

Make Nine 2024 worksheet.

I’m contemplating prompts for Make Nine 2025.

Happy Christmas and a mend-ful New Year

Out of the gate for a Winter of Care and Repair is this pillow that had literally busted at the seams. It’s been mended and in use again... in time for the holidays.

Mended tree pillow back in service.

This pillow is a long-time, scrappy favorite of mine. It was a project I made as a beginner quilter. The original fabrics for the sashing, border, and the pillow back were solids—and likely from a source that was used before I knew about, and understood the value of, “quilt shop quality” cottons. As you can see, the fabrics didn’t hold up as long as the rest of the pillow.

Unstitching and removing the patchwork from the pillow top.

Disassembly and the mending process

I decided to save just the center patchwork and put it into a new setting. It didn’t seem prudent to unpick the other seams and try to salvage the lesser-quality solid fabrics. (They will find their way into another scrappy project.) 

For the new borders, a cotton blender—a “holiday red” (merlot is the color name) from the Canvas collection [Northcott Fabrics]— was my choice for the replacement fabric. 

Unstitching the center patchwork from the old pillow.

After unpicking the patchwork from the borders, doing a little “quilty math” to fit the size of the pillow form correctly, the new strips were cut and sewn to the patchwork.

New borders added.

I sew rounded corners on pillows so they won’t be so pointy once the pillow form is inserted.

Sewing rounded corners.

A new pillow backing (I use the overlap style) was added using the same Canvas blender fabric. The old pillow form was inserted, and the tree pillow is like-new again.

Mended pillow.

The Winter of Care and Repair is off to a productive start. Happy patchwork for a happy Christmas!