I thought since today marks the turning point in the year when we start having longer days and shorter nights that I would look at what I’ve accomplished for the year. I set goals at the end of last year and I plan to set some for 2011. Hopefully, I’ll do a little better at following through in the coming year. It’s not that I didn’t get anything done this year in the world of fiber art but due to a back injury, I have been a bit limited on sitting at the sewing machine and leaning over during felting. As this has still been an ongoing problem, I have had to learn to adapt.

My main goal for last year was to:
Develop my voice as an artist and begin to produce a consistent body of work in my own style.
I can’t say that I’ve really accomplished this.
I had established steps to accomplish my main goal which were:

• spend more time in the studio making art
• complete more sampling
• practice art/design in my studio journal
• develop more 3D artwork in combination with machine embroidery
• Begin Level II Machine Embroidery course
• no guilt about time spent in studio

I started off in January and February and really felt that I was doing well and focusing more on my fiber art. Then the back injury in mid March just through me for a loop and I haven’t gotten back on track again. But I did have some accomplishments in 2010 and although I didn’t manage to complete all of the steps above, I did the following:

• Created 12 pages for the Traveling Pages Swap
• Worked in my studio journal several times a month and started Design Focus Fridays
• Started a local fiber art group that meets monthly
• Made a variety of stamps and stencils with my own designs
• Completed a mini-course on Photoshop Elements
• Made several more tutorials for the blog
• Made work to sell including cat toys, sweater flower pins, dyed scarves, nuno felted scarves and barrettes
• Experimented with solar dyeing
• Finished a very, very slow WIP (hopefully  more on that soon)
• Tried machine embroidery Carol Shinn style
• Took a needle felting doll class from Kay Petal and completed a doll
• Made several small felted, hand stitched pieces
• Made a cobweb scarf
• Made several 3D felt vases
• Taught myself to spin with a hand spindle
• Made felted slippers

That’s not too bad a list, do you think? Did you set any goals for 2010? Did you follow through with them? I’d love to hear how you did. I am working on a new set of goals for 2011 and steps to accomplish them. I’ll post them soon. In the meantime, I hope you are having a wonderful holiday season and not driving yourself crazy making last minute gifts!

 Here is the shabby chic/vintage page I made for Debi. She likes pale colors or white. So I went for the white on white and the theme of snowflakes. I nuno felted the background with several different kinds of wool, silk noil, lace and several ribbons. I added machine and hand stitching.

 Here’s the hand stitched snowflake in wool embroidery thread.

 I added a few snowflake buttons and stitched a machined cord around the edge.

The back is a photo of some icicles on our house. Hope you like it Debi!

I’ve finished another page for our Traveling Pages Swap for Debi. Her theme is shabby chic/vintage. This is the 12th page I’ve made so I only have one more to go. I’ve already started on the last one and soon this swap will be completed. I do have to make the front and back covers for my book and put it all together. I have some ideas on how that’s going to go so I’ll get started on that soon. For any of you wondering about how I did on my goals set for 2010, I’ll be writing a post soon about that as well as my planned goals for 2011. More soon!

 Living in northwest Montana in the winter time means that you don’t see the sun that much.

 So when it comes out, you rejoice.

 Go exploring a bit.

 And take photos of the blue sky and sunshine.

So you can remember it for the next several weeks before it comes out again! Hope you all are having a wonderful day!

 Do you have lots of birds visiting your backyard? Or do you have a friend or family member that loves to watch birds. This is a quick and fun gift to make using recycled materials. I had a bunch of these net tubes. I can’t remember what they held originally but this would work with other size nets from onions or oranges etc. These tubes were a great size though and it doesn’t take a lot of fiber to fill them.

 The other nice thing about these tubes is that one end is already sealed off. If your netting isn’t, you can always tie a knot in the end.

 Then take a bunch of threads, yarns or extra string.

 And some fiber bits that you don’t mind donating to the birds. You layer a bunch of fiber, then thread, yarn or string, then more fiber, then thread until you have a fiber parfait in your tube. I pulled my fiber bits apart so that they weren’t just one big mass. That will make it easier for the smaller birds to get smaller pieces of fiber.

 Once your parfait is complete, you tie the end. Leave enough room to tie two knots. One close to the fibers and one close to the top of the netting. Pull out small nubbins of fiber through the netting (or not). I love the little lumpies poking out.

Then hang it in a tree and your  bird friends will have a wonderfully colorful home next spring.I just used an S hook and ran it through the netting between the two knots. I’ll be watching to see if fibers start disappearing and I will really keep an eye out for colorful bird nests in the spring. If you give it a try, let me know how it works for you! I made three, two as gifts and one for me.