In 2018, I decided to do a 100-day project. The massive online 100-day project didn’t start for months, so I knew I didn’t want to wait that long. I certainly didn’t want to go the cliched route of starting a significant project on January 1st.
I chose to time my project around a completion date instead of a starting date. I aimed to finish my project on my birthday, making it a gift to myself! I diligently counted back the days from my birthday, only to discover that I was born on the 100th day of the year. Since then, I have done at least one 100-day project every year, most of which are quilts or related projects. Some years, I would get on a roll and do more than one project!
Today, I’m reflecting on nine of my favorite 100-day projects and taking a peek at my current project!
Resonance
Resonance is the quilt that started it all. In the weeks before 2018, I had done a couple of sample mini quilts and was excited to get started on my first 100-day quilt.
This quilt had 100 blocks, and I started with the intention of completing it in 100 days, so I averaged more than a block a day of hand appliqué.
One of my main goals with this quilt was to use quilting thread to draw the color of the appliqué circles into the background spaces.
Blue Improv Log Cabin
In 2020, I set out to use my stash to create a 100-day quilt. At that time, I was mainly sewing with solids, but I had a fabulous stash of prints that I wanted to incorporate into a project. I had more blue fabrics than any other color in my stash, so I focused the design on that palette.
To use up a chunk of my fabric stash, the back of the quilt is pieced nearly as much as the front. The back uses large pieces of fabric, extra blocks from the front, and even a small quilt top I made in a class but never got around to quilting!
Yellow Hexagons
When I finished my blue improv log cabin, it was apparent that 2020 would be unlike any previous year of my life, so I dove into another 100-day project.
I had enjoyed having a color focus for my first project that year, so I chose yellow for my second project. My yellow stash wasn’t as extensive as the blue, so I went with a smaller block-based project, and this time, my goal was to create 100 small blocks instead of a finished quilt.
Because my yellow fabrics were more limited, I had to get creative to get the most out of my stash. I pulled many fabrics in this quilt from charm packs, layer cakes, and other precuts to get a full range of yellow hues.
I assembled the quilt top after 100 days and have been hand quilting it on and off ever since.
Sugar and Spice Sampler
My third 100-day project of 2020 focused on using the reds and pinks in my stash. Using Barbara Brackman’s Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Blocks, I selected dozens of traditional quilt blocks to incorporate into this quilt. My only rule for selecting blocks was that I had to be able to make the block without any preliminary drafting or design work. Any prep work or math needed to happen in my head or on scratch paper, and I needed to make the block with the rulers I had on hand. To help the quilt fit together, I made all the blocks 6″, 12″, 18″, or 24″.
I filled the gaps between blocks with stripes or simple piecing and finished the quilt with straight-line quilting.
Emergence
Emergence was my fourth 100-day quilt of 2020 and extended into 2021. This quilt was my countdown project, set to finish the day before the virtual QuiltCon Together kicked off.
Until this quilt, my 100-day projects of 2020 had only used stash fabrics. However, as this quilt with an orange focus developed, I realized I needed pastel colors to finish the design, so I mail ordered fabric to complete the project.
Keeping it 100
Have you noticed that most of my 100-day projects have a strong color scheme? In 2022, I decided to mix things up and use this project to explore “more is more.” The term maximalism was occasionally brought out, but it was still a relatively new concept in modern quilting.
I based all elements of this design around stripes. This quilt’s biggest challenge was embracing maximalism while maintaining control over the design. There were many times when I realized the quilt was growing out of hand, and I needed to reel it back in by adding another element.
Pink Log Cabin
Later, in 2022, I started my next 100-day project, focusing on the color pink and a more controlled version of improvisationally pieced log cabin-inspired blocks. Following the prior maximalist quilt, the construction using all solids was a soothing process.
I completed the quilt top in 100 days, but it was too big for the design wall, so I don’t have a final photo- I need to do that now that I have a larger wall. This quilt is still waiting for me to quilt it. I think it wants hand quilting…
100 Days of Greenery
100 Days of Greenery was a much smaller quilt than most of my 100-day projects but centered on more detailed construction.
This project included a focused design process with a printed template to guide the fabric placement. The design and the quilt top construction took place during the main part of the project, but I had a hard time deciding how to quilt it. I ultimately landed on grid quilting to emulate how we frequently see the natural world through a screen.
100 Days of Apple Cores
In November of the previous year, I determined my 100-day project for 2024—previous projects centered on various shapes: circles, triangles, rectangles, and hexagons. This time, I wanted to focus on another traditional quilting shape, the apple core. Even though the Pantone Color of the Year had not yet been announced, I decided it would be the key color in the design, featuring a color gradient.
When Pantone announced the color would be peach, I had to change my gradient plan because I didn’t want to end up with the same color scheme I used in Emergence. Instead, I pushed the peach towards grey at the top and deep violets at the bottom.
100-Day Potholder Quilt
This year, I’m taking the old-fashioned technique of potholder quilting and combining it with modern maximalism to create my 100-day project. Each section is pieced or appliquéd, quilted, and bound on its own before getting hand whip stitched together. In this sketch, the black lines represent the binding that divides the sections.
This quilt is an extensive project with a lot of hand appliqué, so I’m not sure if I’ll finish in 100 days, but I will try!
1 Comment
Wendy
February 28, 2025 at 10:52 amHi Cassandra! I love receiving your emails because I learn so much from you. Your aren’t just trying to sell, you are educating! Thank you so much for that!