Getting into the Flow with Daily Projects

I love having a daily project!  If I don't do anything else creative that day, I at least have a feeling of accomplishment and moving forward if I complete my daily project.  It's nice to pick up something without giving it much thought and know exactly what to do.  It often jump starts me to move on to other projects, but if not, at least I did one thing.

 I can spend as little as 15 mins. on a unit or up to an hour with more intense stitching, so I know I can squeeze it in with as much time as I have available.

 My 2016 daily project was organized in little ziplocks.  (How did we function before ziplocks?)  I kept the backgrounds simple neutrals to unify all the pieces,and I stitched only in black, white, or neutral threads.  Each month I would fill a baggie with the colored fabric that felt right for that month.  Along with my needle case and a baggie of complete units, my whole project was ready to go.

 They all fit neatly into this wonderful bag my friend Lorraine made me out of a feed sack.  It's about a 12" square.

I've done other daily projects, like a 30 piece in 30 day challenge, but this is the first time I've stuck with something for a whole year.  I was thinking about some of the things that made this work so well for me:

1.  It's portable.  I didn't have to be in the studio to work on it, and I could even easily take it traveling, although actually working while traveling was another issue.

2.  It wasn't messy.  No paint, no clean up.

3.  It didn't take much thought to get started.  In fact, I often randomly drew fabrics out of the bag as a starting point and a challenge to make them work together.

4.  It was limited and contained.  No searching my entire fabric stash for the right fabric.

5.  Since each component was based on the seasons and their daily shifts in color and light, inspiration was always at hand.

6.  There weren't too many decisions to make.  Keeping the backgrounds and threads all neutral simplified that.

7.  The time required to do a component could vary depending on available time.

8.  There was some variety introduced each month with a new packet of colors.  I always looked forward to that.

So now I'm underway with my 2017 project which I'll show at the end of the month.   I'm already facing some new challenges and am not sure it will go as smoothly as this one.