First day at wholesale market in Houston.  This is a picture of some of the booths from the second story of the George R. Brown Convention center.   It's about 3 blocks long, 1 block deep and three stories high.  It's pretty overwhelming for a buyer to try to sort out what they need in their shop.

All the Overbrook Quilt Connection crew went to the Moda party after close this evening.  A wonderful meal and then entertainment.... Texas style dancing and a mechanical bull.  Amy tried to get me to ride the bull but I had on a straight skirted dress.  It would have been quite the show just trying to get onto the thing with that dress.

Back to the show tomorrow from 9 to 6.  We try to get in there a little earlier so I can see some of the other booths.  The bad part of having a booth there is I'm stuck in it most of the day and miss a lot of the show.

This is a very busy time of year.  Last weekend was a sewing retreat with friends which included a wiener and marshmallow roast.  The weather was beautiful for this.  And we had a great time.

Now we are getting ready to go to wholesale market in Houston.  Dennis will be holding down the fort at home.  He always tells his friends that I'm on vacation.  But what kind of vacation is it when you stand on your feet for 10 hours.  Visiting with old friends is nice, but why don't they stage it in a nice meadow or something.  Concrete floors are for the birds.  Amy will be shopping for new items and on the lookout for her next year's block of the month.  I'm mostly stuck in my booth and the only time I get out is usually early before the show opens.

Jane Anderson is going with us.   She will be doing demos in my booth on embroidery with a regular sewing machine and re-hooping for large designs on an embroidery machine. If you are at the show, come by and visit with us.

We have been checking the weather in Texas and it looks like we are traveling to summer and leaving the nice fall weather.  Fall is my favorite time of year!

Hopefully, I'll get around enough to take some pictures to share.

Saturday morning found us in Taos at the Wool Festival at the Kit Carson Park.  Lovely weather, slightly cool to begin with but it turned into such a beautiful day.

This lovely fellow was the winner of the best felted dog coat.  I think this is especially lovely since they are sunflowers for this Kansan's eye.  And he was such a very well behaved model and just ate up all the attention.  If you want to know he is an Italian Spumoni.  As the announcer said, he sounds more like a food than a dog. 






 Don't know how I managed to get the next two pictures on their sides and, worse, I don't know how to correct it.  I guess you'll just have to lay on your side to view them.  Or truly you can just drool over the colors like I did and not worry which way you are viewing it. However, the trees are a little distracting to be laying on their sides.  This booth had lovely felted pictures.

 
 

 
 



A fellow fiber addict.

What a pretty send off for our
last evening in Dixon, New Mexico.

We tried something different from the regular motel room.  We did an airbnb.  We had a three bedroom house in the middle of an apple orchard.  It was adobe and it sure kept the sounds from the outside outside. 

Went to Ghost Ranch north of Abiquiu where Georgia O'Keefe painted.  Saw lots of different terrain from mountainous to desert. 

Fall is coming to Kansas. 

The sunsets get more vivid as the shadows grow in length.  The birds are gathering up for their trek South.  And the nights are getting cooler finally.  A blessing for us since we don't have AC in our house. 

I put my fall wreath on the front of the house this evening.  Guess that makes it official!  

TRAIL BOUQUET

Fall wholesale market in Houston is quickly approaching. This is the first quilt that is at the printers to get ready.  I thought I would be far ahead in my readiness, but life happens.  There will be two more pieced patterns and hopefully the digitized barns will be ready too.

I designed this quilt to be used as a block of the month in the Kansas Country Register.  The flowers were found by the pioneers using the trails across our country,  For the retail pattern, I've added two more flowers that might work well on a lighter background.  On my quilt I used more intense colored flowers so they would show up on a dark background.

Researching various wildflowers for this quilt was fun!

So what's up with the pretty pink and white althea I planted last summer?   I think it forgot what color it was supposed to be.  Makes me wonder if the color changes with the soil condition like hydrangeas.



But good old Kansas sunflowers always know what color they are supposed to bloom.