Monday, February 26, 2024

100 Days Project

I was struggling to figure out what I should attempt for the 100 Days Project. I've never participated in this event, but have always wanted to. This year, I managed to come up with something, and although I started out a couple days behind, I'm all caught up now.

So, the idea of the 100 Days Project is to do something creative every day for 100 days in a row. Basically trying to instill the habit of using your creative muscles as being something you do every day. There are no rules, it's up to each person to make up their own (or not).  

I bought this interesting stuff called Scrap Tape at the Batty Lady booth at PIQF in 2022.  It's a 25 yard long, very lightweight, non-woven, wash-a-way interfacing. 

The Scrap Tape is 25 yards long, I did the math and that works out to 9" a day for 100 days. My rules are pretty simple:

  • Use scraps from that day's work
  • Use scraps from the scrap basket
  • Use scraps from the scrap boxes
  • Embroider the # of the day out of 100 (either by machine or hand) in that day's section
  • Be mindful of  the 1/4" seam allowance on either side when piecing.
  • Can sew together scraps to make them big enough to use
  • Raw edges are okay.
  • If I buy new fabric add some to that day's section.

Here's my first day's worth of sewing scraps onto the Scrap Tape. Crumb quilting is a term going around these days, but that sounds a bit pejorative to my ear. I guess it's supposed to be something like eating every last crumb of a tasty piece of cake.
Maybe by the end of 100 days I'll have come up with a better term for what I'm doing here. Some of the pieces I'm sewing on to the Scrap Tape directly. Some like the horizontal strip bit on the right hand side, I'm sewing together off the tape and then piecing it in along the join with the grey fabric.
It's looking pretty interesting so far. And it's going to be fun to plumb the depths of my literal boxes and boxes of scraps.
After 3 days worth (or 27") I'm already having to wind up and clip it together to keep it out of the way and manageable as I continue sewing. 
At one point I clipped through a bit of the Scrap Tape and just taped it together on the back and sewed over it. Seems to be fine.

When I need to trim, I'm folding back the Scrap Tape and then ruler/rotary cutting.

This is going to be really fun to see how this turns out in the end after 100 days in a row.
It's going to be 25 yards long! I'm envisioning using this as various lengths of columns surrounded by a solid color.

Note: Do I like the name of the brand of this Scrap Tape, Gypsy Quilter? No, I really do not. If the Entomological Society of America can take the time to change the common name of the gypsy moth to spongy moth, I think the owners of that company can come up with something else that doesn't disparage an entire group of people. It comes down to the fact that words matter.

2 comments:

Jaye said...

I blew past this post (sorry) when you originally posted it, but after reading another post about your project, I went back to get the info. It is a really interesting project. I like the way you took a product and made something up that used the product and your scraps! Great job. Very creative

I also like the idea of using what you have handy - the daily items. I guess you are sewing every day? What happens if you miss a day? I don't think you should torture yourself about it.

Take a look at my Ends quilts. They sound like what you are talking about for your final project.

Julie Zaccone Stiller said...

I'm glad I came up with a way to use the Scrap Tape. I'm not limiting myself to only daily scraps, I'm diving into my archival layers in my various scrap boxes as well to provide more variety in colors, etc. If I miss a day, I make it up at some point. Yes, your Ends quits are similar to what I'm envisioning as a use for this roll of tape.