Creativity starts with playing like a kid

 Happy Canada Day!! 

I had the perfect shirt for today, but I've searched everywhere, and I can't find it!! It was orange (in support of our Indigenous peoples and it had CANADA on the front of it with a maple leaf. Now, what the heck could I have done with that shirt? Sigh................

I've had a project on my to-do list (NOT The Task Master who is wicked!) for a while. I need it to be done TODAY, as well as another project. Well, today is the day, and I'm making great progress on both. They will be finished soon, and I'll share them with you tomorrow. 

Now here's the thing - why do I always wait until the absolute last minute to finish things? Because I'm CREATIVE, that's why!! 

I read more of John Cleese's book on creativity, and I had to laugh when I read this part. 

The book's premise is that creative people KNOW how to play, and they defer decision-making for as long as possible. 

Here's a quote from the book:  (the "they" he refers to are creative types)

"It simply means they are able to tolerate that vague sense of discomfort that we all feel when some important decision is left open because they know that an answer will eventually present itself." 

WOW  -- that speaks volumes about me. 

So it appears that creative people get the deadline in their internal clock. Yep - I do that all the time. And why do we defer the decision-making? We may get new information about the project, or we may get new ideas!  

Oh boy - that is so true. One of the projects that I need to finish had a niggling little problem. This morning when I looked at it - the answer came to me. That's so amazing!!!! And that happens ALL THE TIME!

It turns out that leaving those options open causes some people to become very anxious. On the other hand, creative people can better tolerate that worry about the unresolved issue. 

WOW -- that's HUGE. The other thing is that we need to play LIKE CHILDREN to maintain creativity. Well, perhaps NOT the children of today, but the children of the past. No agenda, no parents hovering - just play. Make mistakes, have fun, try new things. Oh yes --- I'm a super creative person, according to this!

That makes me very happy to see it laid out like that. I will endeavor to be better at meeting deadlines - well, I guess it's OK as long as I meet the deadline, and I'm pretty good with that. But don't expect me to get something done early. It's just not going to happen. 

So if you give me an assignment and need it by a certain date - you can put a false deadline in to meet your comfort level, and I get to have my creative time!

It's July 1, which is not only our country's birthday, but it's the start of a new virtual challenge. It's the second year for The Big Canada Run. A group of four (myself, Helen Anne, Nancy, and Shelly) will walk 10,000 KM over the next 12 months. That's a group goal - not as individuals. Hey - we're good, but we're not that good!!! 

We are in Victoria this morning, and I see there are already about 20 people who have logged miles. Good grief - did they get up in the night to run or walk? They are NOT the creative type, that's for sure. They are driven by getting there first! I have no desire to get there first. Slow and steady is my game. My mileage will get logged automatically overnight as it does for my other walks. 

The other new thing is that the old way of getting an e-mail about a new blog post has changed. Yep - yesterday was the last day, so I waited, and I shouldn't have done that. I think the new company will help people migrate over, but you need to put your e-mail in this new box on the screen. Sorry for that delay. 

A NEW way to get my posts via e-mail

There are all kinds of quilt books on the market, but everyone seems to prefer flashy ones. The ones by well-known people. But what about the workhorse books? The one with the real meat in them? That's how I learned a lot about quilting. There were no YouTube videos. I swear - these older books are the best. Sit down with them because thought went into them, and there's a ton of information in each. Not someone on YouTube making a video because they can! Yes -- I have a thing with YouTube. I love it and think it's great, but ANYONE can make a video, and their information isn't always right! 

Here's a couple of books on Rotary Cutting that I rediscovered when I went through my books looking for the border book. 

I think I might peruse these again - just because. I might learn a new tip or two. 

Basic quilt-making book

Yep-- one book on rotary cutting is not enough - I have two. 

Great book on rotary cutting

There were few specialty rulers when I started to quilt. I remember one of the first projects I started required a diamond ruler. I searched the country and our neighbor to the south to find the ruler, which I eventually did. But guess what? This book gives you directions to cut ALMOST any shape with a regular ruler. Now that's a GOOD book and saves a LOT of money. 

Instructions for cutting a Trapezoid

I was busy on the long arm and got a customer quilt done. It wasn't as large as the one the day before, but I had to load wide Minky, so that takes a wee bit of time to get it on without stretching it. 

Customer quilt - DONE

I was excited about the theme of the quilt. A jungle print, and I had the PERFECT pattern for that. Big fern leaves!!!!

Fern leaf pantograph

I have a couple of quilts to trim today. And I have to make the backing for the next quilt, so my goal is to get the quilt loaded. It's complicated, and that's all I'll say about it. The customer and I had discussed it, so it's not anything I didn't know about. 

So I whipped the Long Time Gone quilt off the design wall to put my rows for the All in a Row quilt on the board. 

My All in a Row quilt so far

Oh my -- those rows are so cute!!!! I've only got one main row - the owls in my quilt so far. I love the tulips and the butterflies, but they are NOT going in my quilt, so I only made one block of each for the class. 

This is quilt one

OH -- there are five rows done, and I think I have nine in total. I realized that the class is next weekend, not this coming weekend, and I'd better get myself organized on the homework. I am a bit behind on that quilt. 

So far, The Task Master for next week has ONE task on it, but there are still 13 or so on the list to be completed by Sunday. Can I get it all done and start fresh for next week? Only time will tell. But that list does make me very focused. I NEED to continue using it all the time. 

I'm sure you all have bobbins with bits of thread on them. I use these all the time. This morning I needed a bobbin with green thread. I checked my bobbin rings, and VOILA - there was the perfect bobbin waiting for me. 

Bobbin rings

On that note, it's time to get the day started!!! Lots of super exciting stuff going on - well, I'm lying. It's just regular mundane stuff, but it's all how you look at it! Each new project or finishing up the old ones can be very entertaining, and if you let them talk to you - you'll learn something from each! Oh yes - my projects usually tell me exactly how they want to be finished. It just depends on whether you listen to them or not. Remember - that's how children play. They have imaginary friends who tell them things, and so do I!!! 

I'll be working on some more backgrounds later this week, so don't think I've forgotten or abandoned that idea. I know that some of you have made some. Just be patient. I'm away next week, so there won't be time to play with them, but once I'm back, we'll be playing!! 

Tomorrow, I'll share some of the stuff you can use to play with those pieces. Just think of anything in your house - buttons, beads, trims, paper, metal objects or other found objects, fabric, thread, basically anything that you can attach to a piece of fabric. If you've made a colored background, you might want to use items of the same color or go wild. It's totally your choice!!!  Oh - we are going to have fun!!! I can feel my friends chattering up a storm right now!! They are calling, "play with me NOW!"

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!! 

It's all about CREATIVITY

 It's the end of the week! How did that happen? There was so much going on that I just went from one thing to another, and well, here it is - FRIDAY!!

OK - so I didn't get as much done as I wanted yesterday, but I did have fun, and that's what life is all about. I watched one of the presentations for Quilt Canada (in french), and it was great. Amazing how much I still remember after all these years. And it's not even my first language. When I was listening to the French radio station the other night, they were talking about Zoom sessions where you could just converse with others in french. I must find out more about that. My writing will never be good, and that's OK - I don't want to write in french, but I'm a bit rusty in oral French. 

Why is this such a big deal? I'm supposed to be doing presentations in the fall in French, and I need to brush up. And I do NOT know all the sewing terms in french. So if anyone out there speaks French and knows sewing terms, let's talk. 

Well, after watching that presentation, I spent a good part of the day in the live (virtual) demos put on by the stores, and then I shopped. So far, I'm just window shopping - not for windows, but browsing what each store has to offer. I've found a couple of things, and yes, the shipping is higher than what I would like to pay, but what the heck - I would have spent more money if I went in person, so I'm going to buy a couple of things later today. 

There is just a small suggestion that I'd make to the organizers. The list of live demos is a bit convoluted, and I keep getting into the wrong session. It should be listed by TIME SLOT, not by store. That way, today being Friday, I can just look at the Friday sessions, not the way it is now. But overall, I give the Quilt Canada team a HUGE THUMBS UP. They have done an amazing job. I was into one of the galleries to see the quilts as well. It's very well done. I'm impressed. 

I put my wireless earbuds on and started "watching" Quilt Canada. And while I did that, I got a customer quilt done. 

Customer quilt - DONE

It's trimmed and ready for pickup! 

I got all the fabric pressed and cut, and I have 30 more pillowcases ready to be sewn together. Yeah!!! I have one more small quilt to get done, and then I have the next batch of stuff done for MIL. Oh yes - if she is going to sew, I will keep prepping stuff for her. 

30 more pillowcase kits

OK -- here's what happens when you have a brain fart. I'm participating in the Barn Block Quilt-a-Long at Thimbles and Things. The bonus this month is to make a very complex paper pieced block. I'm reducing the size of the blocks from 18" to 9". We received the 18" block pattern. I thought I would be clever and recreate that in EQ8 so I could print the pattern out for a 9" block. 

Oh boy - I looked at it and started to draw and thought - "why am I reinventing the wheel?" So I sent a note asking for the file so I could resize it. Then I walked the dogs. Hmm - it's a paper pieced pattern, I can simply reduce it by 50%, and I'll be good. 

So when I got home, that's what I did. Thankfully before I started to piece the block, I tested the size. Hmm - NOT the right size. Then I realized that the original was also wrong. I had printed "fit to page," NOT actual size. 

I had to reprint the original, and then I reduced it by 50%, and now it's perfect! Of course, the seam allowances are wrong, but those are easy enough to add on. 

And here's my reduced pattern. Now to figure out what color goes where. 

My paper pieced pattern

Thankfully, we have one more month to get this block done. I was able to cross one more thing off The Task Master yesterday, and I have FOUR things that NEED to be done, and that will leave four things that can wait. I might just get it all done by the end of the weekend. I'll see how it goes as there are some scheduled things over the next couple of days. But overall, I feel in good shape. 

Oh boy -- it seems that we have a neighbor gone rogue! I was almost home, and Murphy was freaking out because of a squirrel. She tries so hard to be good (OK - she doesn't), but if I don't see the squirrel first and start saying "NO" to her, she goes crazy. So I was telling her to calm down and stop barking like an idiot. One of my neighbors accuses me of swearing at the dog and being a bad dog owner. Seriously???  What is her problem? And then she made a comment that I didn't really grasp at first, but after I thought about it - it was a RACIST comment.

Using her arm to encompass not just me but our house, she said, "we were NOT her peeps.". Well, thank goodness for that! I want to walk over and give her a piece of my mind, but it's not worth the trouble. But we really need to be careful what we say and to whom. It's easy to tell someone, "don't let those kinds of comments bother you," but you know what? It made me feel angry and upset for part of the morning. I'm over it now, but seriously - am I supposed to just let Murphy pull and yank on the leash? I should have offered for her to walk Murphy when the squirrels are out. 

Sigh........................

On a happier note, I found the article about creativity from John Cleese. You need to read this. It's the FIVE things that he feels are important to make your life more creative. Check out Number 2 and Number 3. Both of them are TIME. Yes - we need time to play. 

What's really scary is that when kids are small, they are supposed to have playtime to learn to explore, be curious, get creative, etc. However, their lives are filled with screens and organized activities that they don't have time to make houses from leaves and sticks. Not only do they not have time, but they are taught that leaves and sticks are not good enough. They need to have LEGO or whatever. 

I might have said this before, but what exactly is creativity? I was asked that question in an interview for a sales job. WHOA! That took me aback. What does creativity have to do with a sales job? Well, I've learned that creativity is not making quilts or coloring in a coloring book. Creativity is the ability to play, learn to make mistakes, recover from mistakes, solve problems, explore, and not be afraid to make mistakes. I did get that sales job, and I had to be very creative as I solved problems, like what to do when the cables for a computer didn't get shipped and other crazy situations. 

So do yourself a favor. Book some time where you can just play. Play with your fabric, your threads, your sewing machine, and other tools. You do NOT want to make something perfect. You are here to make mistakes with fabric choices, color, techniques. And that's how you're going to learn. Don't go for something large. Make small projects - about 9 by 12". I hope to do a bunch of that over the summer, and of course, I'll share that process with you. OH YES --- the project just came to mind. OK -- so start collecting odds and ends of STUFF in your favorite color. By odds and ends, I mean stuff that you could attach (or photocopy on fabric) so you can attach to a small project. It could be trim, ribbons, buttons, fabrics, etc. 

I made myself a note so I won't forget that. I'll start collecting today so you can see what I mean. 

Well, it's time to get the day rolling. 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!

That was intense

I've worked some long days in my time. There's a huge difference between sitting at a desk for long hours and sewing for long hours. I'll take sewing anytime over a desk job!

Of course, I'm leaving today for the weekend sewing events in Earlton and North Bay and of course, there's a quilt that has to be sent to a magazine. Those deadlines often fall like that! Note to self - get better organized!

Anyway, when I started yesterday morning early - I had 12 of 18 blocks of one sort made and I hadn't even cut the remaining 17 blocks. I opened up my audiobook and quickly got to work. I almost had all of the blocks sewn together by lunchtime. Yes - I can focus when I want to. I barely stopped for a break, I had no interruptions and I seriously think my main focus was to listen to the audiobook and oh, by the way, I made a quilt while I was doing that!

After a quick but decent lunch break, it was back to the sewing machine. I had two borders to sew on and to make the backing.

I had a wee bit of a SNAFU with this quilt. It would appear that I wrote down the finished size as 55" by 73". Yet, I had 35 blocks in the quilt and the blocks were 12". So if you do the math, you can see that something was off. I think the blocks were "designed" as a 9-inch block, but that didn't work for the two different blocks in the quilt. They needed to be 12". Anyway, when it came time to make the backing, I was short a little bit. I dug into my stash and found the EXACT amount needed. That took a little bit of time to get sorted out. It was tight to quilt, but I had about 2 inches on each side.

The quilt measures 70" by 95" - "slightly" larger than it's supposed to be. Oh!  The quilt was loaded and was ready to start quilting by 4 PM. All I can say is thank goodness that I have that computer for the long arm - I'd be sunk without it. And it performed beautifully.

The binding was made and it's now half on the quilt. As I was sewing the binding on, I realized that I still have to deal with a sleeve for the quilt!

I'm in good shape as far as that quilt goes.

I trimmed that other large quilt that I had quilted earlier in the week and I think I'm going to need to empty the scrap cutting basket. It's a tad overflowing.

The scrap bucket on the cutting table

Thankfully, I have a couple of pillowcases that I picked up last week. This is going to have to wait until I'm back. I won't have time this morning to deal with it.

Pillowcases to make cat mats from

Has anyone noticed that everything you buy in a thrift store has this very strong peculiar odor? Why is that and what is it? It must be industrial detergent that they wash everything in?  I don't know, but it's pretty strong.

I'm in the process of finishing packing samples for the classes. That shouldn't take too long and once I get that sleeve dealt with, I'll be out of here. It sounds like the weather is going to cooperate so that's a good thing.

I came across this great article on creativity. Check it out. Bottom line - creativity is NOT just for the arts and crafts world. I've been saying that all along!

Don't forget that today is the last day of my blog posts on QUILTsocial. Some great stuff about the technology in today's machines and some embroidery. I love it!!!

On that note, I'm out of here. I've got a few things to tidy up before I leave and it's going to be a long drive so I want to be out of here at noon!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!

Creativity is everywhere

We had the most amazing day yesterday at Sit n Sew. Seriously - there's NOTHING like having the day to sew with friends. I'm very blessed to have the space to share with my friends and even more blessed to have friends to sew with. Thanks to everyone who shares in the Sit n Sew days.

Now, I'm going to make you wait one more day to see what we worked on. Don't worry - I won't forget, the pictures are edited and waiting to be uploaded - tomorrow.

Today, I have a disturbing story to share with you - don't worry - it's not all that bad. But first I've become my MOTHER! Oh no!!!!!

So after I couldn't find a left-hand red mitten, I decided that I should take a peek in the mitten box in the hall closet to see what I could find.

OH MY GOD - I got a huge chuckle when I found this crinkled note that was obviously left for M. She did have a habit of stealing my stuff if she couldn't find her own. Likely because it was upstairs in her room or lost or in her car. Anyway - this was good for a chuckle. Oh - I hope I threw that away.

A note to the mitten thief in our house

I found a "slightly" worn out pair of gloves. Notice that it's a matching pair of gloves. Of course - who would want to steal such a hot mess. I used these for walking the dogs. Let's just say that they are now in the garbage. My mother would have kept them!

A pair of gloves - GONE!!!

Then surprise - surprise. I found FIVE single gloves. Seriously? Yep - there were five of them. Two were nice black gloves - just the left hand of each. I guess I could "pair" them with the two right-handed red mittens I have! Just kidding - I wouldn't do that.

What's disturbing is that there's a GOOD glove (right-handed) that I thought belonged to DH for cold weather golf. Nope - he says it's not his. Could it be that I bought a pair of cold weather cycling gloves? Probably - well - where's the other one???? 

Five ODD gloves

And what else was in the basket? There are SEVEN brand new pairs of mittens/gloves. SEVEN!!  OK - I have a problem, to say the least. And I found my black leather gloves. A wee bit caked with mud that was obviously from dog walking last spring. But I love to drive in the winter with leather gloves rather than mittens so I'm glad I found those. And yes - there's a left and a right. A matching left and right!

My basket of gloves and hats

And I found a LEFT red mitten. Yeah - now I have a pair and one spare! However, the next morning when I went to take a picture - do you think I could find that mitten? I swear that it was real, but I couldn't for the life of me find it. Those mittens are nice by the way as they are fleece lined which makes them very warm.

I was getting ready to take the girls for their walk and guess what I found in the living room. The mitten THIEF!!!  (I have a new mitten thief to worry about) Not only had she stolen the mitten, but she had also taken a hat! She must have pilfered those off the table? I can't imagine I left them on the floor. And you can see the guilty party in the picture below.

My missing red mitten

She doesn't chew them or damage them in any way. She just takes them to this spot and leaves them. I should have looked there the moment I knew it was missing.

Now here's the disturbing part of my blog post. I was in Chapters the other day. I had a few minutes to kill. Normally I only look in the magazine section, but I thought I'd browse the craft section. There were almost zero books on quilting. They just don't stock them anymore - people don't buy their quilt books at Chapters. There were loads of books on knitting and paper crafts.

As I was walking to the craft section, I noticed a new section (new to me) called Creativity. Hmm - I like creativity so I popped over to have a look. Oh boy!  This is a serious problem.

An entire section of books on Creativity at Chapters

Books like this .....................

Art will save your life!

 And this....................

The creativity challenge

The section was also filled with books on mediation, how to relax and let your inner spirit out. I took a ton more pictures, but I think you get the point.

Now, why is this an issue? Why do we need a whole section on how to release our creativity? That's something that should be happening from the moment you're born. Give your kid a cardboard box - let them create ......................   a house, a castle, a car.  Give your kids some crayons and BLANK paper - let them draw. What will they draw? Whatever they want. Give your kids some old clothes and let them play dress up and become whoever they want to be.

Society is so focused today - there are custom playhouses, iPads to play with, and costumes of known characters. Even LEGO  - you don't just buy LEGO anymore - you buy a SPECIFIC set or item that someone ELSE created. You get the picture. 

We shouldn't be learning how to be creative in our adult life - that's something that we are born with and parents/teachers should allow that to be part of everyday life.

And the meditation thing? It's not a bad thing at all. But seriously - society is in a bad way when people have ZERO time to just relax. Don't worry - I take loads of time for myself - I read a LOT and I've been known to just nap when I'm tired. I sometimes feel guilty if I've got a huge commitment, but not much. And a clean house? Not in my house.

I just think it's sad that we don't allow our children and ourselves to just play. I know many quilting friends who don't take the time to play. They just want to make stuff because there's a deadline. Make samples, make mistakes - that's how you learn. That's how I've been learning for the past 20 years and I'm still learning! I've said it before and will say it again  - the day I stop learning is the day that I'll die. That's my Dad's philosophy and I'm sticking to that.

I remember being asked in an interview for a computer sales job - how creative was I? That question surprised me as I had always equated creativity with making things. But creativity is actually problem-solving. You have a blank piece of paper and crayons - what are you going to do? That's a problem to solve. You are baking cookies late at night and realize you have no vanilla? How are you going to get more vanilla?  That really happened and we found a restaurant that gave us some vanilla! You are selling someone a computer (a really big computer for their database) and some of the cables don't arrive with the order. What do you do? That also happened to me and I managed to scrounge the cables from somewhere until the real ones arrived. All of those are examples of creativity!

The more you exercise the creative part of your brain, the better it works. Mine is often kicked into high gear and I'm solving problems for things that aren't really problems. That's a good problem to have! The other thing that gets me is the sterile house. How can you be creative in a sterile house? You can't! I'd be dead within a couple of weeks of living in a sterile house. I need stuff around me to keep me stimulated! Well - I probably don't, but who wants to live in a sterile house? Not me!

So if you're a grandparent or a parent, PUT those electronic toys away for the grandchildren/children. Get them a box of crayons and some blank paper. What can you draw together? In the car? Create games to play to keep them entertained or even easier - TALK TO THEM. Here's something I saw at the hardware store the other day and I want one.

Now, what could you do with that on fabric?????  Oh yes - I want one. Santa????

As for what did I learn yesterday? I'm finally finishing up the book - Quilter's Academy - Vol 1 by Harriet and Carrie Hargrave. 

I learned a new trick to do before putting the borders on. Hmm - I never thought of that before. This is a book for BEGINNER quilters and yet even myself after 20 years of quilting - I learned something. If you have this book - read Class 180 near the back of the book. I'm not in total agreement with everything they say, but some interesting tips on squaring up your quilt before you put the borders on. I've got to try that. I guess I'm going to have to get the Vol 2. If you're new to quilting, this book really helps you figure out how to calculate yardage (very important), good piecing and pressing habits - and there was something else that I learned from the book. It was worth the read.

Speaking of creativity. I taught a class on Improv quilting a couple of weeks back. Here's another piece that one of the students finished. It's amazing - she found a very creative way to use those cut-off motifs. They were cut because of how they were positioned on the yardage - I should say the motifs were part of running yardage, not a panel and you'll always get some images that are cut off. Then she used the black for bars and then found a totally unrelated but totally matching fabric to tone down the black bars. The nice little bit of organza is a super touch!!!  I love it and I love when students send me pictures of what they finish!

Trixi's finished Improv piece

Now that I've babbled on, I'd better get myself organized. Oh - one more thing. In that Creativity section, there were loads of books on writing. Apparently writing every day is CREATIVE!  Oh my god - who knew. Well, I did, but I don't think about it. But writing is supposed to be therapeutic. It's an outlet. I can't write in a physical journal - my hand just couldn't take it, but writing on the computer - it's great. And I know that M writes in a journal every day and loves it! That's why our parents had diaries!!!  Try it sometime. Just write - there are loads of workbooks out there (if you need help) to write. Write a story about a missing red mitten, write a story about the frost on the windowpane. Write a story (or a list) of your quilt projects, hopes, dreams, etc. There are lots of things to write about and it's not for anyone else to see - just write for the sake of writing. It'll awaken your inner spirit!!!

I could go on and on, but I won't but I'll say one last thing! I was listening to Roger Ashby on CHUM-FM this morning. He's been in the radio business for 50 years and as a young boy at home, his Dad built him a "studio" in the basement of their home. From an early age, he knew what he wanted to do. He said how lucky he is that every day for 50 years he went to work at a job that he wanted to do and loved. How many people go to work every day just because. That's sad! We've got to figure out a way to change that. We need to go to work and be inspired, be inspiring and love what we do. I love my job too much!!!!

Now I'm gone.

Have a great day!!!

Ciao!

In the car.....

After my little incident with that online application and the fact that I didn't get everything done - I had to get up early.   Out of the house by 6 AM or shortly thereafter.   Starting the day off tired.

It was going to be a long day as it was pouring rain when I left.  I hate driving in the rain and I hate driving when it is dark and raining.   And I was a little concerned because I was going through the border. But no quilts were harmed in the border crossing and none should have been as they technically do not fit the "commercial samples" category.  But you hear these horror stories!

However, the border crossing was a piece of cake and the rain decreased once I was in the US.   I swear that the GPS took me around in circles - I was never going to get there.  I had to stop for bathroom breaks twice, then a stop for gas, then lunch and yes - I had to pull over in a rest area and have a nap. None of those events happened at the same stop - so yes - I stopped five different times.  It wasn't my best drive!

I did listen to a great book on the way down - called Creativity Inc by Ed Catmull who was the President of Pixar - the company that made the first animated movie completely made on a computer - Toy Story!   What a fascinating story and it's about business versus creativity.  There were a couple of quotes that I want from the book so I must get the book because I do not remember them. The book is read by the author which makes it all the more fascinating.    Check out these quotes from the book.  You can bet that I'm going to be posting them as I LOVE THEM ALL, but none of them were the particular quote that I want.

Creativity Inc by Ed Catmull

Well as I'm driving, there is NO mention of Lancaster.  And I'm driving from one highway to another.  At last, I see signs for Lancaster - thank goodness because I was getting worried that I didn't have the right address in the GPS and wouldn't that be funny if I ended up in Idaho!!!!   Although I knew I was in Pennsylvania.

Met up with the rest of my group and we got our booth together, then out for dinner and then to the hotel.

Northcott booth - just need to hang our sign this morning

We are staying at the Lancaster Arts Hotel which used to be a tobacco warehouse!!!   Exposed beams and brick walls - it is gorgeous and I want to buy it and make a studio here.  For some reason, I have exposed brick walls on my brain and a studio.  Now I just need to win the lottery and I'm all set.  I also saw this big beautiful old house on the outskirts of town - must go back and get a picture of that.  It was stunning.

Hotel room

Lancaster Arts Hotel

Wow - had a quick peek at some of the vendors yesterday.  Had a quick peek at some of the quilts!!!   Oh my - hide the credit card and just take the camera!!!!!   I've already seen the most gorgeous fabric - I know - I don't need fabric, but it is stunning and some of it may just find its way into my suitcase.  Heck - I got an entire car and thanks to Mary for the reminder - I can bring back $800 of goods. Now how does that exchange rate work???   Who cares - just fill the car and pay the consequences.

On that note - I better get ready.  We can get in ONE HOUR in advance - so that gives me four 1 hour windows to get my pictures.  And there is much to see!!!!

Have a great day!!!!

Ciao!!!!