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?
