A Day of Thanks & Turkeys 11-22-07

Yes, I am thankful, especially for the community I have discovered on the Internet. Although I have written vacation blogs for several years, I wasn't sure that I could do a daily blog. I'm still not sure! But I am still trying and I hope I will have something of interest for you throughout this coming year.

In the early 1990s I worked in a fabric/needlework shop, which has been my only retail experience. I enjoyed it, but didn't ever bring very much money home! One learning experience was discovering that customers will buy a pattern, but they want to make it with the same fabrics shown in the pattern picture. Naturally that fabric was long out-of-print. One pattern we carried was from a company that made everything from hearts and I thought this little turkey (about 3-1/2" square, made of three hearts and a shape like a butternut squash) was especially nice, but it wasn't flying off the shelves. So, I choose fabrics available in the shop and made up a bunch of turkeys. The customers were attracted, but most wanted to buy the turkeys already made - not a chance. We made up little kits and sold them with the pattern, which we reordered many times. It still mystifies me that anyone would want to make a duplicate of another person's work, but I know from subsequent experience that it is true of the vast majority of quiltmakers. I made many more turkeys because I was invited to Thanksgiving dinner with a large family and wanted to have a little something for everyone - even the guys - and also for my friendship group. But I used different fabrics for the hearts and then mixed and matched so each was unique. And each one has a pin back. I wonder where all of those little gobblers are today! These two were left over, so when I go out for Thanksgiving dinner I always wear one - usually pinned to my hatband. I have stayed home today, but wore one of these turkey pins anyway.