I do this every year to keep a personal record of the highlights throughout the year, mostly focusing on tapestry. Following in that tradition are my reflections of the (mostly) tapestry highlights of 2025.

Looking back, 2025 wasn’t my most productive year…

But it was an important one in a lot of ways and has definitely paved the way to future plans as 2026 begins.

one of the images I found in an old portfolio case I thought I’d lost

In January, what stands out in my memory - and with a little help from the photos stored on my phone - was the beginning of an undertaking I’d been putting off for awhile. Cleaning out and re-arranging storage closets. It’s still an ongoing endeavor a year later, but I have made some great progress and found some treasures from my past.

Tapestry-wise, I started selling some of my smaller weavings on my website.

In February/March I began another piece on my Tissart loom (above) with the warp left from Murmuration and also started a new piece on the Shannock.

I guess Soumak techniques were on my mind. March was also the month I taught a Soumak class for ATA- and wrote a blog post highlighting some of the work from students in my Many Faces of Soumak online course.

And then everything weaving-wise seemed to go on hold while I focused on my duties for American Tapestry Alliance. I was in my last few months of serving on the board as Volunteer Director, but I was also very involved as theme co-ordinator for our members-only publication, Tapestry Topics. That meant I was compiling all the articles, photos, and captions for what was to become a two-part issue on the work of Silvia Heyden. Do check it out if you haven’t seen it! (Of, course, you might need to join ATA first).

I was also getting ready to teach my last in-person workhop with the Chattahoochee Handweavers Guild in Atlanta (again, on Soumak!) in April. It was a wonderful ending to my teaching travels.

Oh, and the catalogs for our Murmurations collaboration arrived!

Looking through my phone photos and weaving journals - and blog posts, of course (!) - it doesn’t look like there was much studio work going on during the months of May and June. I know I was still spending a lot of time with Tapestry Topics and ATA duties, so maybe that explains it.

I do remember I was also continuing to clean out closets at home, turning up a few more gems - old weaving journals! - and the phone is full of wildflower images from those months.

July 1st was my self-declared retirement date and a big goal I was looking forward to. “Retirement” is not a word I like, but it seemed appropriate for stepping down from in-person teaching and outside commitments and a time to focus on my inner world. To be continued…

My (Mostly) Tapestry Highlights of 2025- part one