Some Reflections on the Old Year and Some Thoughts on the New Year

This week has been the designated time for "office work" - an attempt to begin 2006 in a much more organized, business-like fashion... It's time to pay membership dues to several of the art quilt organizations, time to update my SAQA webpage, time to update the resume for Fiber Revolutions, time to update the quilt/location/listing, yada, yada, yada...ad nauseum. And it's also time to determine which shows I'd like to enter during the coming year. I really hate this sort of paper work - as so many of us do. It's so darned time-consuming and has so little by way of immediate or obvious benefits!

Still, the resume writing turned out to be easier than I thought it would be since it really was merely a matter of building on last years resume. TaDa and it was done. Writing checks to pay dues wasn't too tough - except on the bank balance, of course! One by one, things are being crossed off the "things to do" list. I only wish I could stop all this paper work and go back to creating ART!!!

It was gratifying, however, to realize just how many pieces of art I created this year (14 full pieces; 10 Journal Pages; 50+ fiberart cards) and how many that have been donated and/or sold during 2005. I'm still working up that list, but it looks like I donated about 30 fiberart cards - 20 or so to the American Cancer Society through Virginia Spiegel's gargantuan efforts and another 10 for the Katrina Relief efforts spear-headed by Laura Cater-Woods. I believe all but one of those cards have been purchased - Virginia discovered one of my cards upon her return home from Houston so it will be in Chicago for the Quilt Fest at her booth there, along with some new ones I'll be making for her.

Aside from the donations, I sold 6 quilts and several framed and unframed artcards. One of my quilts was accepted in the Fiber Revolution exhibit at the New England Quilt Museum this year. Another quilt was accepted in "Quilts=Art=Quilts" at the Schwienfurth Museum in Auburn, NY. (Yes, I was rejected from numerous other exhibits, but I got into these two!!! And isn't that the important thing - what worked out well?) And one of my fiberart cards was published in "Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine," Winter 2005 issue! Last year at this time, I never would have guessed that the year would be so prolific or so successful. 2005 was a very good year for my art and my business!

And now 2006 is here, I have several projects 'in the works,' although nothing that really fuels my passion at the moment. I've committed to curate the art quilt exhibit for a local group, Eclectic Threads (in which I am a new member) at the NJ State Quilt Guild Show in June. And I've agreed to co-curate, with Carolyn Lee Vehslage, a Fiber Revolution exhibit proposal to the Museum of the American Quilter's Society in Paducah... Keisha Roberts has curated two of my memory quilts into her "Nearness of You" exhibition at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival in February... And, for Christmas, my dear husband gave me the gift of a Hudson River Valley Art Workshop with Laura Cater-Woods - "Tempting the Muse: Beyond the Surface" scheduled for the last full week in April.

When will I find time to create?! That is the most important of all, creating. It's important for my sanity, my joy, my play, my life - not to mention I need new work to submit for the upcoming shows... The time will be there because that is where my passion is - in the experimentation and creation of something out of a multitude of fibers at my disposal. 2005 was a very good year. 2006 will be a very good year as well - one way or another, I will hone my attitude to create a very good year and so it will be. May yours be so, as well!