Post Thanksgiving update

I had big plans for posting over the Thanksgiving weekend, but alas. We had a great holiday, 14 members of my family! It was really nice to be together. I made 9 pies, including a new recipe for apple pie. My family doesn't cotton to changes in the menu, especially their apple pie, but the new one went faster than the traditional one. I guess it's a keeper.



This is my latest. I've been doing postcards, but this is about 18 x 24. I like the curved piecing, and even though I rarely use browns, I like this a lot. I have several more tops finished, but not quilted. This one needs the edges finished. I'll probably face it.

I'm in a local group, the Fiber Artists of Baltimore, which is having a group show in January. I'll need all new work for it, so I've been busy. I will also have some postcards for sale in the Columbia Art Center's holiday art sale, so I've been cranking those out too. Maybe I'll get some of them photographed today, before I take them over.

Thanksgiving Tradition

Thanksgiving is here already. Our weather has been cold and clear, but today is gloomy. #2 son flies in tonight from Atlanta, and tomorrow we'll be joined by #1 son and my sister and her family. My father and stepmother will come on Thursday, with my stepsister and her husband. My nieces and nephew will join us too.

I love Thanksgiving. It's such a family holiday, without all the tensions and anxiety of Christmas. No decorating to speak of, just food. And I can do food. I'll start the pies in a few minutes. We have to have the pumpkin pies made by Wednesday, because our tradition (for the 4 of us) is to eat pumpkin pie for breakfast on Thanksgiving. It began when the boys were little, and we would drive to Richmond on Thanksgiving morning. I bribed them to get moving by saying we'd eat pumpkin pie in the car! And we've kept it up ever since, and the boys are 26 & 24. I hope we always do it.

New Drawing

This is my most recent drawing assignment. We were to sit in a dark room and draw a lighted space. I chose to draw in the den looking out toward the hallway.

Valley of Fire

Not being a gambler, Las Vegas has never been high on my list of places to go, but when my husband offered to take me along on a business trip, I went. We were only there for a few days, and it was not at all as I had imagined.

While he was at his conference, I took a tour to Valley of Fire State Park. It was really interesting. Since I'm a life-long East Coast resident, the landscape fascinated me. The color palette is so different, and there are no trees to speak of. There were some palm trees around the resort/casinos, but I don't think they are native species. Here are some photos I took in Valley of Fire.

This is what the landscape looked like.

There are lots of petroglyphs in the park, and this boulder fell off a high cliff, so it's more accessible than some of the other petroglyph sites.

Here is a close up. If you look closely, you can see the various animals depicted: a snake, a sheep, and a mountain goat.

This is another site, higher up. It's been defaced with spray paint (WHAT are people thinking?), but I don't think any of that is in the photo.

I like the places in the sandstone where the wind has created holes, or little caves. Once a hole gets to a certain size, the wind whips the sand around inside it and carves out a circle in the side of the hill. This cave is big enough to stand up in, and it curves around inside to a point where the wind has carved a window looking out over the landscape. Pretty cool.

This arch is tall enough for a person to walk through. I'd guess it's about 7 feet high.

We stopped by a hot spring, and this sign was by the water. Eeewwww!

Here is another petroglyph site. I loved the way the blue sky contrasted with the red of the sandstone.

And this is what the sky really looked like. I've never seen such a blue and cloudless sky.