My Year End Review

Victorian Belsnickel

This is my last post for the year.  I am looking back to see just what exactly I did this year.    Sometimes it feels as if I did not get anything done, but I actually accomplished quite a bit.  After checking through the  year's blog posts I am always amazed.  I get the feeling of "I did all that?"  I also get to see what I wanted to do that fell by the wayside.  Even in a whole year, there never seems to be enough time.

A lot of my time this year was spent on taking trips.  This year my husband and I made nine road trips.  Our average trip length is four days.  So at least thirty-six days this year were spent on travel.  There were also some trips that did not make it on the blog because they were related to business.  However, the trip itself does not cover the time involved.  Each trip also takes up a couple of days on either side of it for planning, shopping, packing, doing the laundry afterwards, and catching up on everything that did not get done while we were away.  So really, about seventy-two days were involved once you count in all of the effort involved in taking the trip.  That actually takes up about a fifth of the year.   I guess that is part of the reason that I felt as if I did not do a lot of crafting this year.  But spending time at our cabin is worth every minute of the effort involved.

Handmade Lamb.

Embroidered Jacket.

Our travels to the cabin were as much about hard work as they were about leisure.  This year we primarily worked on the bedroom.  We primed and painted the walls and trim.  We installed a wood slat ceiling and laminate flooring.  The front porch was rotting out and that was repaired. And of course, there is always yard cleanup, lawn mowing, and getting up leaves.  That was a lot of work in a very short period of time. 

The leisure part of our travels was that we spent time with friends and family.  We also attended the Wine and Garlic festival.  This festival was something we have attended annually for a number of years now.  We also made a trip to Pennsylvania to spend time with family members.  A good time was had by all.

Eggshell mosaic.

The crafting part of my year seems small but some of the projects were complex and took a great amount of time.  Three of my projects were entered into competitions at the State Fair of Virginia.  It was my first time to enter these competitions. My efforts were rewarded by receiving ribbons in three categories.  My first project of the year was a doll:  a Victorian Belsnickel.  That took third place the the Handmade Doll contest.  My folk art lamb took second place in the handmade toy contest.  I embroidered a denim jacket for a second place finish in the Wearable Art category.  It was really exciting to be able to show my work and have it appreciated. 

Snowflake quilt.

Owl stencil.

Aside form the long, time consuming projects I also did a few smaller, less intensive projects.  I practiced making a small mosaic using pieces of eggshell.  I created a stencil for a silhouette of an owl painting.  I also painted a small picture of an owl in acrylic paint.  Coloring groups were started this year and I made a couple of fabric colored pencil holders in order to transport my pencils.  Unfortunately, the groups did not last long.  I have a lot of colored pencils and coloring books, and very little time to work on them.  I also made the ill-fated sphere mold.  I was trying to make a mold for making spheres that I could use to make my own foam spheres.  That was quite a laugh.  I filled the mold full of foam.  The foam was under so much pressure that it forced its way out of the mold and all over the ground.  The foam leaving the mold created a siphoning action which pulled out almost all of the foam.  When I opened the mold it was empty except for a thin coating along the inside of the mold.  Well, live and learn.  Not every experiment is going to be a success.

Pencil holder.

Quilting and embroidery played a big part in my year this year.  Aside from the embroidered denim jacket, I also made a small table runner quilt with snowflake embroidery.  I completed that quilt just before Thanksgiving.  Since I completed the snowflake quilt, I have begun work on another quilt.  I will be blogging on that in the coming year.  I also joined a group of quilters that met at our local library and began quilting that once a week.  I have been invited to join their quilting guild.  I will become a member after the new year starts.  It looks like next year is going to be extra busy.

Road trip.

Aside from the quilt, I also learned how to embroider around mirror tiles.  Mirror tiles embroidered on textiles is a feature in some forms of Indian embroidery.  I was fortunate enough to have met a woman from India this year who took the time to teach me the skill.  It also opened up new horizons for me as I explored other types of Indian embroidery.  It is a very rich tradition of beautiful thread work.  I look forward to learning more about this type of embroidery.

This year I also worked on two other dolls.  For Halloween, I created a vampire doll.  It lies in a small wooden coffin.  When you open the lid, a concealed spring releases and the doll springs up and looks as if it it trying to climb out of the coffin.  It was just a fun project.  I could have spent more time on it than I did and it would have looked a lot better. 

Embroidered mirror tile.

I am still working on the second doll.  I saw an article in Art Doll magazine about how someone had used a doll as a mold to create a papier mache' doll.  I decided to give it a try while adding on some additional challenges for myself.  (See my December 2016 blog posts entitled Doll Experiment to see more on this subject.)  I am still working on that doll, and this project will carry over into January.  I have completed making the doll, and have started on painting the doll and adding its clothing.
 

There were a few projects that I had hoped to get to, but were either never started or fell off the radar along the way.  I had started the year with a plan to do more drawing to improve my drawing skills.  I made several sketches but as other projects needed to be completed by a certain date I let go of the drawing. 

I also wanted to do some wood carving.  That project never even got started.  I do plan to make another walking stick and there may be some wood carving on it.  Last year when I was in San Diego, I saw an exhibit of carved walking sticks at a Folk Art Museum.  There were many inspirational pieces there.  It may take my walking stick plans into some new directions.  I had learning wood carving on my to do list but I just ran out of time.

Well, that was my year in a nutshell.  The next post will be on Thursday, January 5th.  I will not be blogging on New Years Day.  Check back then for the next blog post.