Prepping for The 100 Day Project 2023

The 100 Day Project kicks off this week—February 22, 2023. I'm prepping supplies for my third year participating in this free global art project.

Base fabrics for 100 Days of Textile Collage and Stitch and two reference books.

For the past two years, I did two 100 Day Projects each year. This year, again, I'm planning and prepping for two different 100 Day Projects: 

• one involving fabric, threads and stitch,
• the other is going to be hand lettering.

100 Days of Textile Collage and Stitch

For the textile project, the plan is to create textile and stitch collages on fabric "pages" that will ultimately be assembled into a fabric stitch book/journal. The journal will be assembled using the "slot and tab" bookbinding method. This allows me to stitch individual pages without having to worry about page spreads or page order. 

Auditioning fabrics for the stitch collage journal.

I've pulled and cut different yarn-dyed fabrics [from Diamond Textiles] into 9" squares (with allowances for squaring up after stitching and seams). I envision the finished page size to be approximately 8" square. Now that backgrounds are cut, I want to serge the edges to prevent raveling during the process.

Trimming yarn-dyed fabrics for fabric collages and journal pages.

Threads, fabric scraps, and various stitch collage fodder will be gathered and packed into small baggies and zippered pouches along with tools such as needles, pins, scissors and perhaps an embroidery hoop.

My two reference books for ideas and inspiration are: 

• Inspiration for Embroidery by Constance Howard, 1967 (and the pages have that lovely nostalgic scent of an old book), and
• The Collage Ideas Book by Alannah Moore, 2018

I'm amused that these references were written over 50 years apart and I'll be using them in a 2023 project. 

100 Days of Hand Lettering

This past Christmas, I received a cool calligraphy set of nibs and inks. As with any hand skill, in order to get comfortable and proficient, it requires practice. The 100 Day Project is the perfect platform and motivation for doing this! I also enrolled in an online hand lettering class for art journaling—"Love your [imperfect] Letters" with Willa Wanders—and I'll be using it as a guide through the 100 days of practice.

Calligraphy set and tablet for 100 Days of Hand Lettering practice.

What do you get out of The 100 Day Project?

I'm Doing The 100 Project

Here is a video documentary from the Marquette Arts and Culture Center that hosted a community 100 Day Project and an exhibit of the body of work created by participants. Several of the participants talk about their project and what they discovered from the process. Have a listen...

Then find a simple idea,
make a promise to yourself,
show up every day,
and trust the process.