Still Sewing!

Second Post of the Day

Yesterday Leslie sent me a picture of our mother that I had never seen before. A photo of her with one of her books at the Feast!

I was able to identify the Feast year by the button she is wearing, one that she drew and is my all-time favorite of 59 years of Feast buttons.

It's 1992, the 25th anniversary of the event. She is speaking to Don Stoike, who was also an early Feast planner and worker. They are looking at the Feast cookbook that my mother illustrated, Ouabache Potpourri.

There were several editions of the book over the years but it was first released in 1980. Here is the history of it with photos of Mom's drawings.

The image she drew of the moon behind the blockhouse has been used many other times for Feast and Fort Ouiatenon things.

Anyway!

It's set up day! Lisa, Curt, and the kids are coming over at noon to bring the clothing downstairs and pack it into the cars along with the tubs, boxes, chairs, and other things that are going out to Fort Ouiatenon.

I'm excited, I'm nervous, I'm champing at the bit - let's do this!

I'd said I was absolutely positively DONE with Feast sewing, but yet again yesterday, I was back at the sewing machine. I wanted to make two more pin pillows as gifts for friends.

The first is for Brooke, the Feast Director. She let me hold The Happy Trails Dan Patch Show last year in her building in Oxford and at the time, had just gotten the bathroom completed days before the model horse show.

It's an IYKYK kind of gift and I know she will laugh when she sees a decidedly NON 18th century dinosaur pin pillow!

Her new bathroom was lovely and had a touch of whimsy (which is so Brooke.) Like most bathrooms, it had some extra rolls of toilet paper set out. 

But rather than go for a staid, traditional type holder for them, Brooke had a brachiosaurus statue with a very long extended neck. The rolls were slipped over the Dino's head and resided like collars around the dino's neck, waiting for someone to need to change rolls. (I so wish I had taken a photo!)

The heart pin pillow is for my customer Lucia who is getting married next month. It was challenging and took some planning and practice before I called it done.

The lace on the front side is an overlay over the charmeuse and charmeuse is very slippery to work with. After a failed first try, I basted the lace to the charmeuse which helped to stabilize it and then I was able to stitch and stuff the rest of the pin pillow together.

The lace flowers are several layers of thread themselves and very thick. So thick that turning the heart right side out was difficult and it is a little misshapen in its finished form.

But I don't think Lucia will mind. 

I'll put some pins into both of them and then wrap them up and take them out later today when we go set up.

In the meantime, back to writing blog posts. I have six different drafts that I want to finish and have ready to use as needed over the next few busy days. I really don't like to post a "Gone Riding" picture and leave ya'll hanging, so wish me luck in getting those done and ready for posting.

Let the set-up begin!

Stay 'tooned! 

It's Feast Week! Jolis Chevaux's History 2022 & 2023

 First Post of the Day

I learned a lot in 2022, that first year that I had my own sutler tent. Lisa helped me so much, as did Craig, Curt, and Lukie who set my tent up.

I was as prepared as I could be but there was a learning curve.

It was still very much a family event for us as it has been since the 1970s. I made clothes for the local grands Ian, Mila, and Lukie, and they came out to their very first Feast, not really knowing what to expect. (My grandchildren are the fourth generation of our family to be a part of the Feast.)

They figured it out quickly, and especially enjoyed sneaking into my tent through the back when I was busy with customers and they wanted to come in quietly and take a break. This is one of my absolute favorite Feast photos of all time.

And another favorite. 

Lukie discovering the joys of your very own turkey leg that's been cooked outdoors over an open fire!

Cole brought his family up from Tennessee in 2023. It was Leslie's last Feast as director, and they wanted to come and celebrate with her. It was a very big celebration lasting two days.

Cole, me, Kate, Susie, and Julie.

Julie with her new parasol and fan, Susie holding her folded fan, Emily,

and Kate with her treasures.

Leslie gets lots of Hershey Bars from friends at events, and Feast 2023 when she retired was no exception. Rick had slid that package out of her arms and tucked it away to hide it from people. After all, there were no Hershey Bars in the 18th century!

Leslie received a surprise honor - the voyageur camp lined up and gave her a paddle salute. Look at her face! It was really touching.

Tomorrow I'll wrap up my personal Feast history with years 2024 and 2025.

Stay 'tooned! (And keep listening to Hell on the Wabash!)

Packing & Buttons & Presales & Saddles (Oh, My!)

Second Post of the Day

A little at a time, the tubs and boxes in my office have been brought downstairs. I'm stacking them out in the garage so there is less distance to carry them to the car when I pack it on Wednesday.

Still to come down is the finished clothing.

There are nineteen (NINETEEN!!) bags of clothing still in the office. I want to keep them on the clothing racks as long as possible to minimize wrinkling.

Leslie and Rick are dropping my tent off Wednesday morning out at Fort Ouiatenon. Curt always helps me set my tent up, and since it's Fall Break for the kids, Ian, Mila, and Lukie are helping, too. Lisa will be, too. They will come here first and help me carry all those bags down and lay them in the trunk of the car(s). Then we'll be off to the fort!

Last week I picked up my Feast packet at early registration. The 2026 Feast button was inside.

I'll add it to my collection of Feast buttons in the sewing room next week after the Feast has concluded.

The Feast has received a very big honor this year. Coming to perform is The US Army Old Guard Fife & Drum Corps!

Coming from Virginia, this is our nation's fife and drum corps and it plays at every presidential inauguration and other official United States events.

They will be performing both Saturday and Sunday at 2:00. I am hoping that I will be able to hear them from my tent or that maybe they will march past it on the way to the arena. (The main marching route for the Feast passes close to me so I often get to see and hear the music.)

Even if I don't, I am so proud that the Feast is receiving this very high honor. I think of my Mom and all her hard work publicizing and helping grow the event for decades, of Leslie, director of it for 25+ years, and how the Feast is now the largest 18th century event in the Midwest and one of the very biggest in the entire country.

Their hard work has helped make the Feast what it has become, and I am happy for them and proud of the parts they played in that. Huzzah, Mom & Les!

I had another early sale yesterday - to Leslie!

She fell in love with this bedgown and it now belongs to her. We haggled over it - she wanted to pay for it, but I didn't feel good about that since she loans me her extra tent and helps me out in other ways.

So I suggested a trade. Two block prints for one bedgown. She countered with three block prints, and we sealed the deal.

I also finished a custom order for a repeat customer, Lucia. It's for her soon to be husband, Tim.

Tim asked for a white shirt (check!) with a specific length (check!), wider cuffs (check!), and bone buttons (check!)

They are getting married next month and it will be fun to see them again and hear more about their upcoming wedding.

Two more presales are in progress and if presales are any indication of how my actual at-the-event sales will be, I'm going to have a good Feast.

Finally, a photo of our garage which is stuffed full of others' belongings right now. When Nan moved, she gave us some of her furniture to hold for someone else who will pick it up later this Fall. My Feast tubs and boxes are piled in there along with packing boxes and materials for the friend who is taking Nan's furniture. Needless to say, we can't get our cars in right now.

But look closely. Do you see what I see? Something that makes me smile and my heart sing?

There are four saddles in my garage right now. My western saddle (bottom right, near the orange bucket), Leslie's 18th century side saddle (on the bed frame, bottom left), my English saddle (background, left of the Coke cooler), and my Dad's 1930s saddle for his pony Oh Boy (back right, against the wall.) 

When there are saddles in the garage, the world seems a little bit brighter and I sure feel like smiling. In fact, I am smiling now as I write. Because, saddles!

Stay 'tooned!

It's Feast Week! The History of Jolis Chevaux

First Post of the Day

Here's some living history that's personal - the early days of my own living history history. (Does that make sense? Hah!)

This photo goes all the way back to 1995. That's a family friend, Michael Dotson, my mother, me, and Mountain Mama Jessica at our very first event ever as sutlers. We are at an event in Hebron, Indiana. 

After decades of working The Feast of the Hunters' Moon as officials (Mom and Leslie) and participants (Jessica and me), we had opened Chien Noir (Black Dog) in the summer of 1995. I came up with the name - see that ginormous black Newfoundland, Makwa, that Mike is holding? I suggested we name our company after her.

 

In 2021, retired and still interested in living history, I stepped back into re-enacting by helping Leslie with Chien Noir at the Feast with Lisa joining us. See the Chien Noir sign in the back ground behind us? That's Makwa painted on it. 

The next year, Jolis Chevaux (Pretty Horses) set up in its own spot - a business of my own and using the same tent that we had been using since 1995.

When I started it in 2021, I wanted the name  of my company to connect to Chien Noir but to also reflect me as well. I was actually trying to translate "pretty ponies" into French for the title, but the alliteration did not translate well into French. So Jolis Chevaux (pretty horses) it became.

We are sister companies, independent and yet intertwined. My sign reflects that connection in its colors and with the horse in the center. Leslie and I help each other out, share information, check on each other during events ("Do you need a bathroom break?" "YASSSS!!!") and have a wonderful time together.

Lucky, lucky me.

More of my own living history history coming tomorrow.

Stay 'tooned!

Early Sales from Nebraska & Here

Second Post of the Day

I'm starting Feast week off with a beautiful picture of my mother, Fern Honeywell Martin. She was the Feast's publicist and began working behind the scenes starting in the 1970s and ending in 2010 when it just became too difficult for her. (Understandable - she was 82!)

To this day, folks stop by my tent and share their memories of her and how she supported the Feast from its earliest days. She is still missed and very much loved. I share those feelings.

I have noticed the number of group members on Jolis Chevaux's Facebook page has been ticking up recently. A quick check of the new names shows me that the Nebraska contingent is growing. 

It all began with Blake, one of my very first customers in 2022. Hailing from Omaha, he comes to the Feast every year, buys shirts from me, and then takes a handful of my cards back home with him. When asked about his shirts at western events, he tells the person about me and hands them my card.

I had no idea he had been doing this until earlier this summer when I discovered that he has been a willing walking advertisement for Jolis Chevaux.

Blake and Carrie visiting my tent. (And he's wearing one of my shirts. Hah!)

Apparently the sewists on the western living history circuit don't use block prints; they sew more for the Mountain Man/Cowboy era. Their shirts are solid colors, checks, calicos, and ginghams. So when Blake began wearing my block print shirts, people noticed and I benefited. Thank you, Blake!

Saturday I was contacted by a new member of Jolis Chevaux. He asked about a particular shirt, bought it and paid me immediately (giving me a chance to brush up on my Square skills for the Feast), and then sent me his shipping address. 

Kearney, Nebraska. Yep, friend of Blake. 

The shirt he purchased is a truly iconic block print pattern - very correct and highly popular in both red and blue. An excellent choice and introduction to others who might be interested in learning about or wearing block prints. They don't get any better than this print.

Although I thought I was done with Feast sewing for this year, I did accept a request to make a white shirt for a friend.

I've been working on it off and on since last Thursday - they are going to pick it up at the Feast so there's no hurry.  I'll finish it this afternoon or tomorrow morning. Then I'll be done. (Really. Truly. Not taking any more orders. Well, unless it's family or a friend... LOL)

Other presales have been coming in. One of my regular customers is outfitting a friend, and then Leslie wants another bedgown and is coming today to try a couple on.

They're all packed up, but for her, I'll unzip those zippers. (That basket on the bottom left? The very same one my mother is holding in the photo above. That realization brought tears.)

I don't mind early sales and am grateful people are buying, especially at a time when there is uncertainty with the economy.

Stay 'tooned!

It's Feast Week! Huzzah!

First Post of the Day

Yeehah! Or in 18th century speak, huzzah!! It's Feast week!

So, of course I have to listen to Hell On the Wabash!

I'll hear it many times this weekend done by numerous fife and drum corps along with lots of other tunes played on Scottish bagpipes, fiddles, dulcimers, and much more. It's the Feast, but the music is just as big a part of the event as the food. 

And speaking of feasting, I can't wait for some forfar bridies, beignets, homemade rootbeer, apple dumplings, gingerbread...

... maybe some pumpkin pie, buffalo stew,  parched or roasted corn...

My mouth is watering just thinking of it!

Here's a photo from the mid 1990s of me, my mother Fern Martin, and daughter Jessica Michell together strolling the grounds. Well, Jessie and I were strolling; Mom was an official and taking time for a quick photo with us. I am glad she did.

Tomorrow I will share a little of my own history within the living history community.

Stay 'tooned! And huzzah!!

An Online Surprise that I Didn't Know About

I was reading through some of the perks I now had (again) as a member of the 2027 Deluxe Collectors Club and was surprised to see that I had access to some workshops. Workshops?

As a member, you also have access to our collection of exclusive Collector Club Workshops, which are available on-demand whenever you’d like to watch them. We’ll have a few more for you to be released throughout the upcoming year!

Somehow I'd missed that. Not surprising since I rarely watch videos, TV, or movies. I'd much rather read. Curious, though, I clicked on the link and to my surprise,

I saw that one of those workshops was one I'd done a few years ago for the Collectors Club newsletter. The snow globe one!

I guess it shouldn't surprise me that Breyer kept the newsletter workshops and put them all together for members to have access to, but it did. (I have often wished that the BreyerFest workshops would be kept in a similar way and made accessible to collectors, too. Maybe in the future some time?)

It was fun to watch it again and remember making it with Lisa behind the camera and Cole splicing together all the clips into one whole for me.

But did we ever have trouble while filming and ended up having to reshoot the end. Read about that disaster here. I'd made snow globes with the grands before; why did I have so much trouble?

It finally came together and I still have the Fighting Stallion snow globe here on my desk. (I gave Pony Pal Cambria the unicorn one.) 

I'll hang onto it for a little while, but I'm growing curious about what the Stablemate looks and feels like after three years submerged in water. Despite the passage of time, the seal is still firmly intact and water has never leaked out from the globe. Not one drip. To open it would require stronger hands than mine to break that seal.

I'll think about it as I'd like to keep it through the holiday season. Then we will see.

Stay 'tooned!