Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and I wish you all the best one ever! For us it will be smaller than usual. We’ll miss the ones that will not be with us, but look forward to spending time with those that are. The turkey is thawing in the fridge and yesterday we shopped for all the goodies to go with it. What did I forget?

I seem to be in a slump as far as creative urges go – just can’t seem to get motivated right now. I think I am driven by deadlines and at this time they are not pressing enough. Even that new hand dyed fabric from Ghana and the blank wall in my living room that needs a nice landscape don’t seem to be enough to get me going!

Perhaps getting past Thanksgiving will do the trick and some new inspiration will “dawn” on me!

For the last couple of days I have had a table at my quilt guild to sell no longer needed items — my plan was to re-home some books that I no longer need. Mostly traditional or beginner or historical that I haven’t opened in forever that are taking up valuable space that art quilt books want to live in. There were hundreds and I sold 35!!  Not too bad! I also sold a wonderful Pfaff sewing machine that I didn’t need, since I also have my Bernina and a Viking for back up. And one of my 12 X 12 pieces mounted on stretched canvas – “For Wrent”. And some acrylic template sets and stabilizers and other stuff I’ll never use. It was a very successful endeavor that I may have to do again!

Today I am off to staff the Topeka Art Guild Gallery all day long – it is going to be a very cold day with the possibilities of snow flurries in the afternoon – yuk! So being inside is the thing to do. Maybe I will have time to think about my next project.

In lieu of the pictures that I didn’t get this year, I offer this link to the winners at Houston. While you cannot fault the workmanship on the judge’s choices, I felt that there was a definite slant to the traditional this year and I was not interested in looking at most of them. I had nothing in the contest this year, my entry, Longhorn Splashdown would have been in Art Quilts – Pictorial had it been juried in.  The quilt that won second in that category was one of my favorites, but most of my favorites were not prize winners, so are not shown.

Friday evening was the opening reception for the “Inspirations” exhibit at The Classic Bean in Topeka.  I arrived home at 3:45 from Texas, changed clothes and after a short visit was gone again to be there by 5.  My piece, “Colorado Kids” looked great! This is the exhibit that is a collaboration between photographers and artists, mostly paintings, but there were some digital manipulations of photographs as well as one other quilted piece on display. A nice exhibit to see if you are in the area. I will try to get photos later.

I have made some headway on getting things put away, but I think it will be a while before I am free to start sewing again!

I’m back! Houston was fun as usual; Rose and I visited favorite places and found new ones to enjoy. Our list gets longer every year and time does not allow us to do it all. This year, quite by accident we found a little cafe that had been featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, that didn’t look like much on the outside but was packed with customers and famous for amazing hamburgers. Lankford Grocery, go there!

I took lots of pictures but this morning when I tried to download them there was only one and it was not worth keeping! I’m not sure what is going on with my camera! It’s hard to see in the bright light if I am getting anything and apparently I wasn’t.

There were SO many quilts in the various exhibits at the show that I could not see them all. I concentrated on seeing the art quilts and missed most of the traditional ones. There were so many vendors at Festival, and I made the rounds; bought some fabric and some thread but not as much as usual. Truth be told, I didn’t need any more of either but there were a few things I couldn’t pass up, like some hand dyes from Ghana and a few well priced batiks.

Market seemed slow with attendance down judging by the fact that I was only able to give out nearly 500 handouts compared to 1000 when I started going in ’97. Sales were fair but, again, not what they used to be–you can’t sell to empty isles! My new “Threadâ€� pattern was the favorite, by far, appealing to both the traditional and the contemporary quilters.

I’m unpacked but that is about all.  I have everything to put away and organize and lots of catching up to do!