A 100 days of Organic Applique

I few weeks back I started this year’s The 100 Day Project. I have been planning to join in for the last few years but never got my act together in time. This is the 10th anniversary and I had an idea ready to go so I jumped in. And I am having so much fun!

For those of you unfamiliar with this concept The 100 Day Project is a free, global art project. Every year, thousands of people all around the world commit to 100 days of exploring their creativity. Anyone can join.

The idea is simple: choose a project, do it every day for 100 days, and share your process on Instagram with the hashtag #The100DayProject. They also have a Facebook group if you would rather join in there.

At the start of the year I started creating little Organic Applique with Embroidery samples pieces that then became part of a fabric book which in turn has become one of my workshops for the new Thread House Academy and our forthcoming Retreats. I wrote about these in this post.

I wanted to continue experimenting with these playful needle-turn applique with embroidery embellishment blocks so chose this as my subject.

I’ve become a bit addicted to using this mix of linens and wovens for my hand sewing and, as it works so well with the organic applique, I chose it for the 100 day project. It’s mainly Essex Linen, Manchester Linen (both by Robert Kaufman) and Alison Glass Kaleidoscope Wovens (along with a few random fabrics that fit). I’ve been stocking more Essex Linen in my shop recently so that also helped me decide!

I cut a 4 3/4″ square from each of the chosen fabrics. I don’t have quite 100 so I will double up on some of these when I run out. Once finished the blocks are trimmed to 4 1/2″.

I did jot down a few ideas to start with but as I’ve gone on I have added many more that are created on the spur of the moment.

This is day one (right). It’s one of my favourite motifs but with an organic style (all a bit wonky and asymmetric).

Almost every shape is cut out freehand with scissors. I don’t usually draw anything at all to start with, either on the background or on the motif fabric, I just start cutting with the shape in my head. This is amazingly freeing and exciting!

I use Aurifil 80wt to stitch the applique and then I embellish with Aurifil 12wt wool thread and simple embroidery stitches such as whipped back stitch, running stitch, colonial knots, crosses and chain stitch.

Here are the first 4 days. My idea is to use these to create a fabric book. The book will have 4 to a page with a thin sashing between the blocks.  For this reason I am trying to batch the colours together so that the book has a consistency across each double page spread of 8. I think the book will end up around 9″-10″ in size.

I am planning on entering it to The Festival of Quilts this year. They have a category called ‘Quilt Creations’ for clothing or 3D items and I’ve always wanted to make something suitable for this.

Here are the first 12 days. I think you can see how much fun I am having with these! I tend to prep 2 or 3 at a time and then work on them in the evenings with the plan that I will finish a particular day on the evening before or the morning of that day.  It’s the only way I can structure this to keep up, otherwise I would always be a day behind. And some of the blocks do take a while, as much as an hour depending on the amount of embellishment, so I need to make sure I build this in to my available time.

I share the finished blocks in my Instagram stories every day and I have a Stories Highlight on my feed where you can view them all day by day.

Here is the most recent batch. When I start to plan a block I first take the background and then I reach into my bag of linen scraps and see what I can find that works with the background colour and that sparks an idea. If nothing comes immediately I will consult my initial sketched ideas. Plus all the time I am having new ideas that I jot down as they come to me. So far I haven’t had any days of ‘stitchers block’! Some days I create a sort of collage with the available scraps which is a new idea to me that I hadn’t expected to do. I am trying to stitch all the motifs from my scraps.

As regular readers will know I love to work in this improvisational way. I find it so stimulating and satisfying and this means I am currently a bit obsessed with this project and unable to think of much else! I will of course keep you posted with this project as the 100 days goes along.