another 100 day project

 I am gearing up for another 100 day project! This will be my fourth time participating in the official 100 Day Project. Last year I did 100 improv shirt blocks to commemorate the Great Resignation. In 2021, I had a 100 day monster drawing project. And in 2020 I learned the Korean technique of Bojagi hand sewing. Three totally different projects! After weighing different options for this year, I have finally settled on a 100 day idea.

I'm going to be Gelli Printing on fabric for 100 days, and then working my prints into a quilt. Gelli printing is a new to me technique that I've been exploring the last few months. Most of my prints have been on paper...

Gelli printing is done using a gelli plate, like this one, a brayer and paints. I've been using acrylic paints for my prints, along with stencils and other interesting tools. If you're curious about the process, go to YouTube and search gelli printing. But only if you have hours to spare! I still have a lot to learn, but I'm having a great time doing it. Here's my favorite print so far...

This one used some foam stamps I bought at a second hand craft supply store. What a great find.

I experimented with printing on fabric a while back. These prints are currently in the process of becoming a quilt which I'll share in my next post...

The 100 day project officially begins on February 22, which also happens to be the day I leave for Quiltcon in Atlanta. I'm thinking I'll do a few days work ahead of time so I don't start up the project already behind. Will you be joining in with a project of your own? I'd love to hear all about it and follow along.

My 2022 100 Days Project

 Well haven't I been a horrible blogger these past few months? Geez. I will tell you I've been so busy making things I haven't made the time to blog! I guess that's a good thing, right? Anyways, I have some serious catching up to do. Let's start with today's finish, shall we?

Way back in February, I posted here about my plans for this year's 100 Day Project. Just to recap, I purchased recycled men's dress shirts at the Goodwill and planned to make 100 improv quilt blocks inspired by The Great Resignation (if you're not familiar with this concept, google it! So fascinating). I created a wheel using the Tiny Decisions App on my phone which gave me a way to randomly choose each day's block type.

I also created a hand written document to keep track of each day's blocks. Setting myself up for success!

I'm happy to report that I successfully completed all 100 blocks, assembling my quilt top as I went along. The hardest part for me was sticking to only one block each day! The only time I made more was when I knew I was going to be traveling.... I didn't want to fall behind. 

Here's block one...

each block is 5" square

If you want to see my week by week progress photos, you can check them all out here, on Instagram.

I managed to get the quilt back and the binding all out of the remains of my recycled shirts! I quilted the finished quilt top on my domestic machine and finished up the binding today! The finished quilt measures 48"x45" (the extra width comes from 1/2 blocks I added to each row to stagger my layout).

Oh, I also added improv letters to spell out "I Quit", keeping with my theme of the Great Resignation. Many on Instagram thought I meant I was quitting the 100 day project. They were surprised when I kept going! 

I'm really happy with my finished quilt! This year's 100 day project was a huge success for me. Have you ever done a 100 day project? How did it go?

Preparing for my 100 day project

 The "official" 100 Day Project begins on February 13 this year. I have really enjoyed doing this the last two years. You can read about my bojagi project (2020) and my monster project (2021) here on the blog. Both of these focused on learning a new skill, which I thoroughly enjoyed. This year, I'm heading in yet another direction.

I was inspired by the phenomenon of the Great Resignation of 2021, where Americans resigned from their jobs en masse, initially as a covid response then later as a general strike against workplace policies/pay and government replies. I decided to make a quilt in response to this issue. Also, it is not lost on me that while everyone was resigning from the work force this past year,  my husband had the opportunity to return to work in a career he loves, after a long stretch of unemployment. There is irony there for sure.

First step was to gather supplies. I purchased 15 mens dress shirts from Goodwill and another thrift shop, where they had symbolically been left to die as their owners resigned from jobs.

I tried to get a good mix of colors, in stripes, plaids and solids. My pal Chris quickly pointed me to the larger mens sizes where I could get more fabric for the same price. With deep discounts, a senior discount and some good searching, I ended up spending a little over $5 for each shirt.

This is what 15 shirts looks like! I washed them all as soon as I got home. Many had holes or stains which was not a problem for me.

I carefully cut them up, salvaging as much fabric as I could. With fronts, back, sleeves I was able to get approximately 3/4 yard fabric from each shirt. Some of the larger shirts yielded even more.

I also saved as many buttons as I could! I'm always searching for dress shirt buttons to repair my hubbys shirts. These will come in handy!

My plan is to make one 5" improv block each day of the project. These will be random styles of block, as selected by my randomizer wheel.

I created this wheel using the Tiny Decisions apps on my phone. Sarah told me about this app and its will work perfectly! Every day I will spin the wheel and do what it tells me to do. Brilliant!

So, I'm ready! I have missed having a structured project to work on the last couple of months and can't wait to get started. Are you doing a 100 day project this year?

100 day project

 I'm delinquent in sharing this year's 100 day project with you. You might remember my 100 days of Bojagi that I did in 2020. It was great fun and I became better at a new skill, which, for me, was the point. This year I decided to go in a totally different direction. No needle or thread this time.... I decided to doodle 100 days of Monsters! Why monsters, you ask? Why not?!?

The project wrapped up several weeks ago. Here are all of the monsters I drew in the 100 days...

First because the project began in February, my birthday month, I drew monsters at a birthday party...

Next up was a monster picnic.

Monsters at the grocery store....

A monster Zoom party....

By now baseball season had started, so the monsters headed to the ballpark.

Of course, the yard work needed to be done...

and finally, they headed off to the bakery for a treat...

I had so much fun drawing monsters! Have you ever done a 100 day project?