The other day I spread out 30 bird coasters I've sewn as part of a project started by Kristin Axtman, founder of @Brooklynhaberdashery, in which a group of us complete one project a week for a year and post them online.

The idea is not new; one of the first people to do a project like this was Lisa Congdon, who believes one-a-day projects spur new ideas and increase productivity. She became known for her Collection-a-Day blog, which is how I found her.

One of the benefits of the one-a-week project has been the realization that even the gentlest form of accountability, with strangers online, works for me. It is almost enough to carry me through, which is odd, because although the group provides encouragement in the form of “likes” and comments, none of us is really checking up.

I say "almost" because at several points in my project, #52littlebirds, I’ve become stalled; restless with my chosen theme of birds, with the square coaster form, and with the orange, blue and tan fabric I want to use up before buying more.

For a few weeks, I staved off boredom by sewing printers’ marks I copied from a book I bought at Molasses Books in Bushwick. Then for awhile I found inspiration in Chris' sketchbooks and kid's books. I went on a bird hunt in the American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Mini themes helped me generate new interest in the project. Yet at the halfway point a couple weeks ago I wanted nothing more to do with birds. The whole project was taking too much time, I decided—and for what and why?

But the beautiful thing about structure is it becomes the why when I am foundering. Sure enough, a happy accident got me humming along again, when I forgot to bring enough fabric in my sewing bag and had to shrink a square to 2.5 inches. The smaller size allowed me to finish more quickly, easing my worry of falling behind. Around the same time, at McNally Jackson Store: Goods for the Study, I fell in love with images of birds in their exquisite card collection and, while looking at the cards closely, rediscovered the beauty of asymmetry.

Now that I’m past the halfway mark, I know I can take this project all the way to December. As for the ultimate what and why, I will only know once I get there.