100 day challenge projects, habits and learning

Hi friends!

A few weeks ago I shared about my new adventure- fabric and surface pattern design. I am anxiously awaiting my first digital fabric line to arrive- shipping woes means delays. Sigh. Patience required!

But today I want to talk about 100 day challenge projects, habits and learning.

100 Day Challenge

On Instagram, there is an account called #the100dayproject. What is this? It is a (free) global art project. For 100 days, participants commit to 100 days of creating. And they help themselves stay accountable by posting daily on IG, FB or wherever they want to share.

What do they have to create? Whatever they decide! They may decide to draw, to paint, to write poetry, to dance… whatever it is they want to commit to.

Let’s think about quilting. I have a quilter friend, Debbie Grifka who has done her own 100 day challenge projects a few times. She was even on The Quilt Show with Ricky Timms and Alex Anderson talking about her 100 day projects.

Why would she do this? It gave her a structure that allowed her to explore a theme in her quilting. She has developed an amazing minimal style of quilting that comes from daily practice.

What would a 100 day challenge project do for you as a quilter? Think about those units in quilting that, when they show up in a quilt, you think- oh boy! I am not good at … say, flying geese! What if you made 1 flying geese block every day for 100 days? I bet you would be much better by the end!

Is there a quilt technique you want to get better at?

Daily Habits

There are some interesting books about habits. Years ago I read the book The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. It was fascinating! Another book that has been recommended to me is Atomic Habits by James Clear. I haven’t read this one yet.

But, one thing that we know is, if we start doing one thing everyday, we can slowly create new habits. We can create muscle memory for doing that task. Maybe for making flying geese!

We can create habits for our health, for our psyche, for our businesses and our hobbies. I know I don’t drink enough water. So I have started one small task to get me started on a better path. I leave a cup of water by my bedside each night. It is an insulated cup so the water stays fairly cool and each morning when I get up, I drink that cup of water before I leave the bedroom. 

I am not fully in the habit yet, but I know I am getting there. If I get up, see the cup and don’t drink, it is starting to feel wrong!

Creating a new habit is a process and one that requires patience, forgiveness and fortitude.  Patience to slowly see the change and thrive in it, forgiveness for when you don’t do whatever it is you are trying to master and fortitude to encourage yourself to continue when you hit a rough patch.

My 100 day Project

I think I may take a stab at the #the100dayproject. But what do I want to do? 

Good question! I did manage a while back to make 100 quilt blocks in 100 days. They were small quilt blocks and I have yet to put them together into a quilt top. But I made the blocks. 

Here are some of my ideas for my challenge project:

Quilt idea 

Make a quilt block each day out of scraps in my stash. They I could sew them together into a charity quilt. They could just be simple 4 patch or 9 patch blocks.

Surface pattern design idea 

I could make a repeat pattern or maybe a small drawing each day. Just to create lots of motifs for future patterns. Might need a theme for that- flowers would be a fun theme with lots of ways to gather inspiration.

Health idea 

There are so many options here as I am not doing enough to keep myself healthy! I could commit to adding another specific water drinking plan, I could commit to riding my stationary bike daily, taking a daily 2 mile walk even when it is not great outside … so many things…

One thing I do know- if I take too much on at once, it won’t be sustainable. So for this project where I will post images daily on IG, I think I will got with a daily drawing. I have been wanting to commit to that so here we go.

Plan

Here’s one thing about a 100 day challenge project: while the idea is to do it daily for 100 days, there is no rule that says you can’t take a day off! Life happens, family, friends, vacations, business trips… and then there is sometimes just a need to relax, unwind and escape!

I hereby give me (and you!) permission to work on a 100 day project (if you want!) but take days off here and there. Giving myself permission to miss a day and then get back in the groove the next day. 

Want to play along? What would you like to do for 100 days? What habit would you like to create, what technique would you like to learn to be better at or just what would you like to to for 100 days? Or maybe 50 days? 20 days?

Just something to think about.

I am really thinking about the small quilt blocks too…. I have a LOT of 2 ½” squares that would make great 9 patch blocks. One block a day. Hmmmm….

happy quilting!

Kate

p.s. Have you ever thought about turning your doodles into fabric? 

I so wanted to be a fabric designer. But I admit, I thought I couldn’t do it. I am not trained in design, or color or art… I was trained as a nurse.

But I love fabric and thought wouldn’t it be fun to design fabric?

Have you ever thought that? Have you thought about designs you would like to see out in the world and wouldn’t it be cool if you created them?

Would you like to see how you can get started designing? There are many courses and workshops out there on how to become a designer. I took a course from Bonnie Christine on using Adobe Illustrator to create designs and repeat patterns. Her course was also about how to get started as a designer! She was amazing. A wonderful teacher, very inspiring and very supportive. I would not have been able to create what I created without her and her community of like minded designers.

She is running her FREE Workshop that started Monday Feb 7th called Secrets to Success in Surface Pattern Design. Even though it started Monday, you can still sign up and watch the replays! I am just catching up myself.

In this 4-part video series, Bonnie will be sharing:

• How to craft a career (and life!) you love in surface pattern design
• The essential stages to becoming a designer
• Mapping out your personalized road to success
• Creating income as an artist and adding multiple streams of revenue

If you’ve ever thought about creating patterns, you can register for the FREE Workshop right here using my affiliate link*: Click here to check it out . 

You will learn so much and by participating in the free workshop, you can enter for a chance to chance to win an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil! How cool is that?