Create Daily Tracker: month three begins

March 1st marks the start of a new month on my Create Daily Tracker 2026. I’m currently immersed in two 100 Day Projects: The 100 Day Stitch Book and A Scrap a Day. 

Create Daily Tracker 2026.

The 100 Day Stitch Book is now at Day 45, with nine pages complete. I love incorporating fabric and yarn scraps with slow stitching. The pages fill slowly—but the steady act of commitment adds up and the compositions get more complex and interesting each day. 

Pages 7 and 8 of the 100 Day Stitch Book, 2026.

My Scrap a Day 100 Day Project began a week ago on February 22. I’m filling up a small pocket journal with daily found papers—punching out 1-1/4” squares. I’m looking forward to filling the pages with a variety of small images. 

Scrap a Day, 100 Day Project.

The new month starts the next section of the Create Daily Tracker—with new boxes to color, new stitch patterns, and collecting more paper scraps. I’m feeling energized to continue the daily practice and making progress.

A second 100 Day Project for 2026: A Daily Scrap

I’ve decided to do a second 100 Day Project to introduce a co-worker to this wonderful, creative, art practice. So, in addition to The 100 Day Stitch Book, this 100 Day Project—A Scrap a Day—will coincide with the global 100 Day Project that begins today, February 22. 

A Scrap-a-Day 100 Day Project for 2026 

For my second 100 Day Project for this year, I’ll be collecting one scrap per day from found objects: fast food wrappers, receipts, packaging, bits of paper, daily detritus—items usually tossed or recycled without a second thought. It will be fun and freeing to work with items that already exist. Trash will become texture. Packaging will become pattern. These fragments and tiny artifacts of daily life will be put into a small junk journal—an appropriate vessel, it seems, for a collection of the mundane. 

Junk journal for my 100 Day Project 2026: A Scrap a Day.

This junk journal is 4.25” x 5.5”, a good, pocket size for the project. It has 

• three signatures, 4” x 5.5” in size,
• a paper cover with a 1/2” spine,
• is pamphlet stitched. 

Three signatures pamphlet stitched to a cardboard journal cover.

I’ll be using a 1-1/4” square paper punch to fussy-cut the paper scraps. This square shape and the 1-1/4” size will be the unifying factor for the collection. But this will also be the challenge of the project—to capture a daily theme, idea, or event in that small format. I’ll see how it goes.

My new 100 Day Project junk journal and the 1-1/4” paper punch for the daily squares.

By using a junk journal for this project, the goal isn’t to make something polished. It’s building a record of days as they actually unfold. 

A sample of what the daily 1-1/4” square will look like on a page.

Do the 100 Day Project 

If you’ve ever thought about joining The 100 Day Project, this is your invitation! Pick something small—like this. Creativity doesn’t require new materials—just a little attention and commitment. Show up and let repetition do the work. 

One scrap at a time, I’ll be building a book of days. 

The history of the 100 Day Project 

Michael Bierut, once a professor at the Yale School of Art, started The 100 Day Project as a project for his graduate students with a simple but powerful idea: choose a creative act and repeat it every day for 100 days. No perfectionism. No overthinking. Just show up, do the work, and learn from the practice. 

Artists, designers, writers, and makers around the world have taken part each year, using the structure to build momentum, experiment, and reconnect with their creativity. Showing up daily can shift something in you. Even if the act feels small.

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.

Wanted: more Joy in the world

In these bleak, gray, cold, February days of winter, it seems the world could use some color and comfort to shift our collective mindset. Last week, I foraged time to finish three kitty quilts—all improvisationally pieced from scraps that were ready for a second life. Letting the scraps and color lead the way, the patchwork was built organically around blocks from fabric panels. 

Two scrappy kitty quilts with blocks from a fabric panel.

One quilt is going to a cat-loving friend and the other two are keeping our pack of outside cats snuggly in their cat boxes. The backing fabric is a cute bunny flannel print to make the quilts extra soft and cozy. 

Three blocks from a fabric panel make this scrappy quilt.
Finished quilt size: 27.75” x 24.25”.

All three quilts were free-motion quilted—a simple quiltmaking task that keeps me grounded and renews my mental energy. The bindings were also finished by machine. 

Scrappy binding made with seven different fabrics.
The flannel “bunny” backing fabric can be seen here.

I love the binding on this quilt that was made from scraps from seven different fabrics! Piecing together leftover bits for these quilts and the bindings—turning fabric scraps into something of value—is in keeping with a resilient spirit that is much needed today.

Scrappy kitty quilt. Improvisationally pieced and free-motion quilted.
Finished quilt size: 27.5” x 23”.

I recently read a blog post by a collage and mixed media artist, Lucie Duclos, that stated, “making something with your hands can help regulate your nervous system. It can be art, baking, knitting, stitching, whatever works for you.” 

Detail: quilt block from a fabric panel incorporated into an improv quilt.
Finished quilt size: 27” x 24.75”.

Making and finishing these scrappy quilts gives me a sense of calm and joy. I’m sending this calm and joy to the recipients as well.