End of Year update

We don't have a fabric store in town.   They moved away a few years ago.  Instead we now have a Len's Mill store which has a huge fabric department with mostly huge prices as well.  However, they have a fairly large clearance section, with reduced prices, which go on sale a couple of times a year.

They used to carry 19th c reproduction prints.    While I haven't seen them for ages in the new fabric section, there are several bolts left in the clearance fabrics.  So for this sale I got a dress length of the brown dots for an 1860's dress, a dress length of a non-period but very homespun looking yellow and blue check for an 1830's dress, and the blue, which is hopefully a match for a previous purchase which for some reason I didn't get quite enough yardage.

What is it about cats and puzzles?  Here is Kevin doing his snoopervisory best to "help" with our traditional Christmas puzzle.   At one point there were 3 cats checking it out, although the old kitty was right under the terrifying and terrorizing ceiling fan, which he spent his entire time staring at before he couldn't take it anymore and bolted.  We can't run a ceiling fan during daylight hours because he panics so much when he sees them.

We were amazed our tree was upright throughout the holiday period.  We did come home a couple of times to find it tilted precariously and a scattering of ornaments all over the floor, but it never actually got tipped over this year.  I still won't put any of the "good" or vintage ornaments up.  This year our tree was really fresh, but had large spaces in it.  I had to get some of those huge ornaments to fill the spaces.  It looked lovely though.   Just to add that apparently those ginormous ornaments are call Christmas Onions!

I've been playing with 19th c hat patterns.   I was loaned one for use, and the one pattern must have assumed everyone was a bobble head, it was so large.   I've been playing with resizing and a bit of reshaping since the brim angle seems a bit too deep on the original.   I'm almost ready to make a mock up.  Yay!