November Give Away: The Story Behind the Question

Today I will announce the winners of the November Give Away, but first I'd like to share the story behind the question, What did the man who came into my Feast tent have a license to ride?

You may remember that I had mentioned a couple of times on the blog that I had a very unusual block print, one with elephants on it. (A motif that was popular during the 18th century due to blossoming trade with India.)

It's an unusual, hard to find block print, and I was excited to find it, quickly turning it into a shirt to take to the Feast.

The shirt was hanging on the rack when the man and his friend came into the tent. They walked around looking at my wares and then spied the elephant shirt and the laughter began. I wasn't sure what they found so humorous until the friend said, "Too bad you don't have a license to ride those, too."

Turns out the man was licensed to ride camels. And when I said I'd never heard of that before, he pulled out his wallet and opened it, handing it over to me to look at.

Whoa!! He really did have a license to ride camels!!

The man let me take a picture of it and gave me permission to share that photo here, even with the wording on it. "Who will be able to read the number?" he asked when I said I'd black that out.  And so you get to see a camel riding license in its entirety.

We could not talk longer as I had other customers come in, and another gentleman bought the elephant shirt later that day.

Fast forward to a few weeks after the Feast and Leslie invited me up to her farm to shop the new block prints that had just arrived.

And look what I found.

One with a camel border!

And not just camels, but smaller elephants above them! Oh, how I wish I had that man's contact information - I think I would make him a trade shirt from this block print for free!

So, that's the story behind this month's question And someone did guess correctly that the answer was "camel."

Now it's time to spin to win.

And the winner is...!

 And the winner of the second spin is...!

Congratulations to you both!

NaMoPaiMo & Back to the Sewing Room!

It's February 1, and most hobbyists know what that means - NaMoPaiMo begins today!

I seriously considered entering NaMoPaiMo this year, especially when I unboxed my paints and brushes when I cleaned out the closet. 

I have several blank models and all the tools that I would need, but I was too busy with cleaning and sorting my collection and the horse closet to prep anything. Maybe next year. 

In the meantime, best wishes to all who will begin painting their models today! Have fun and enjoy the process. To echo my former student Can Do Gracie, you can do this!

While I may not be participating in NaMoPaiMo, I have plenty to do here at home.

My sales models have been packed away for the March Great Lakes Congress show - finally. That clears some space in the horse room, space that is rapidly beginning to fill with things for my other hobby, living history.

Kalamazoo isn't until mid March, but the Conner Longrifles is in two and a half weeks.

I'd forgotten about it - I'm not going, even though it is less than an hour's drive from my home. But Leslie and Rick are. They are setting up their 18th century business, Chien Noir, and Leslie called and asked if I'd like to send some things down to sell with them.

A quick check of my records show that my men's shirts sold very well last year. That's good. But the downside is that sales like that would take a big bite out of what I've already made for Kalamazoo, which is just a month later. It would be a challenge to sew enough shirts to restock for that.

So... I'm heading back into the sewing room this morning. I've got a really neat elephant block print fabric that I've been saving. (Elephants are period correct for the 18th century and are a very popular motif among living history folks.) I'm going to try to get a couple more shirts done, either for Conner Longrifles or for Kalamazoo. 

After those are done, hopefully I can cut some haversacks out of the new fabrics that I just got and stitch them up!

Finally, thanks for all the well wishes that so many of you sent after I wrote about my fall. Compared to Craig's, my fall was very minor. He was badly injured and is still healing several weeks later. (A big lump over one eye and a tender knot on the bridge of his nose remain.) 

I'm bruised and scraped, with my own big, tender knot on my shin, but it wasn't a serious and concerning injury like his. (No head injury protocol for me!)

An announcement is coming tomorrow! I think you will be happy with it.