100 days of creative play: Days 1 – 10

7 min read

One thing people keep telling me about motherhood is that I will have less time for myself. Like – a lot less. I am sure that is true, especially for the first couple of years when children need a lot of attention and care. In around 14 weeks the baby is due. (Crazy, right?!) I thought I would try and use this time to engage in creative activities I won’t be able to do as much once our little button is around and I want to spend every waking hour staring at her or his cute little face (plus breastfeed and change nappies! Haha.)

So, I decided to give myself a little challenge: For 100 days I want to do something creative every single day. “Something creative” can mean 10 minutes of knitting, sewing a couple of seams, cutting out a new pattern, baking bread or a cake, practicing guitar or trying some other crafty endeavor.

Choosing creativity = choosing joy

In Germany we are right in the middle of the third wave of the pandemic and I have to be pretty careful in terms of Covid, as numbers are super high. Which means I am spending a lot of time at home. I miss people! But taking on this little challenge is giving me something to look forward to after work and it takes my mind off this scary situation and stops me from scrolling Instagram too much.

My word for 2021 is Joy. For me, joy often involves a decision. Deciding to do things I know light me up. I love the feeling of losing myself in a creative endeavor, learning new things and expanding my creative skills. In my opinion we experience joy when do what we were made for. I believe that each and every person is created in the image of God – in the likeness of the creator. Hence, we are all made to create. Whether that is by creating beautiful sounds, making delicious meals, knitting socks, designing houses, drawing or creating an atmosphere or a space where people feel at ease. So the goal of this little challenge is to do exactly that: to be who I was created to be and enjoy how God has made me.

100 days of creative play: Days 1 – 10

Day 1: Macramé

Creating two Macramé plant hangers. I made them to be birthday gifts for a very good friend of mine whose flat basically is a little jungle. Hopefully she will love these planthangers as much as I do!

I hadn’t done any Macramé in a while and it was so fun to create these. It’s super addictive. I would love to make a big wall hanging sometime – maybe for our next flat!

Day 2 & 3: Working on my quilt

Over the last weekend I finished my quilt! I made a quilt top but never before quilted together the whole “quilt sandwich”. I am very happy I tackled this challenge! However, I ended up messing up the boarder a bit – it ended up being very wonky and the edges were all weird and not crisp at all. It was pretty late by the time it was all done, but I decided to take off the boarder and re-attach it to give the blanket a nicer finish. I am not a perfectionist, but when there are such glaring mistakes in an otherwise beautiful project, it is sometimes worth going the extra mile and fixing a mistake (or at least try!)

Day 4: Getting creative in the kitchen

Day 4 was a Monday. I work full-time, meaning that in the week I don’t really have many hours to get crafty but I did manage to make a cake in the evening! I had a bunch of apples that were a bit wrinkly, so I decided to try out a new apple pie recipe.

It was super quick to make and rather delicious, albeit a bit dry. This might have been due to me leaving it in the oven for a bit too long, so I might try this recipe again but take the cake out a bit quicker!

Day 5: Cutting a pattern

If you have been following my blog or social media for any length of time, you probably know that I love sewing. The thing about sewing however, is that you have to do a lot of things before the actual sewing. One step being cutting out a pattern.

Currently, I am a bit obsessed with the Love To Sew Podcast and had listened to an episode about maternity sewing. I don’t really want to sew lots of maternity wear, as there will be only a short amount of time in which the garments will fit me (at least I hope so! Haha.) A good tip in the episode was to make garments that aren’t specific maternity garments and will look just as good once the bump has retreated.

So, I decided to cut out a pattern for an open cardigan. I wear cardigans a lot – they are such great layering pieces. The Blackwood Cardigan by Helen’s Closet Patterns has no buttons, so it is very bump friendly!

Day 6: Seam ripper to the rescue

As mentioned, I wasn’t very happy with the border of my quilt. So, I spent my creative time on day 6 ripping out all the stitches of the border. It actually took quite a while, as the border is attached on both sides of the quilt… but it got done!

Day 7 & 8: Finishing off the quilt

I re-cut and re-attached the border! On day 7 I sewed the border onto the back and on day 8 onto the front. And I did a happy dance about my completed quilt!

However, when I was figuring out how to do the border better, I read a number of articles on quilting and everyone stressed the importance of pre-washing fabrics. In the wash they might shrink and potentially the different fabrics shrink more or less… I didn’t do this! I am keeping my fingers crossed that this beautiful blanket won’t come out of the wash all wanky! But hey, it was very fun to make either way…!

Day 9: Agnes Top

Day 9 was a Saturday which means: lots of time for sewing! Before I knew I was pregnant, I had cut out an Agnes Top by Tilly and the Buttons. I am very keen to finish off any started projects in my stash before the due date. So, I decided to start sewing the top. Until now, I haven’t done much sewing with Jersey and found it a bit tricky to begin with. However, this was a great project to get a bit more comfortable in handling stretchy fabrics. I actually managed to finish the whole top, which was extremely satisfying!

Day 10: Sock progress

I almost always have a pair of socks in progress. To me, knitting socks is just super satisfying. It is a relatively fast project to complete and an easy way to try out new knitting techniques, like colour work or lace knitting.

Currently, I am making a pair of Coraline socks by Coop Knits. They are made with an afterthought heel, which I have never made before and am very excited to learn! Day 10 involved completing the colour work section on the second sock plus adding a few stripes.

Thoughts so far on my creative challenge

This is so fun! I am excited for the next 10 days! My head is full with ideas of things I want to work on, finish and try out. I am super inspired to push myself creatively, learn and expand my skills. Obviously, I don’t really know what the next 90 days will look like. Maybe I will miss a day but that is okay. Progress over perfection! But also – I love the flexibility of this project. Even on a busy day I can just do 10 minutes of knitting. That should be doable, right?

Let’s see where this journey takes me! Have you been working on any creative projects lately? I would love to hear about them!