Camping and Making Hats

I just came back from a week camping with family at Greenwater Lake, Saskatchewan. Beautiful site, mostly good weather and plenty of fun with family and friends.

With Quad War fast approaching, I thought this would be a good opportunity to make some items to sell. Something small and suitable for hand-stitching, like hats. One hat per day would be a reasonable goal, right?

So I stitched while listening to the birds and watching the squirrels dash across our site.

(This is what my work table looked like.... lots of fur and wine)

And I stitched inside our wee Boler (a.k.a. prairie egg) when it rained....

And voila! Six hand-stitched fur-trimmed hats completely finished (and a few more hats cut out and partially sewn, and lots of fur strips matched up)

Most of the hats are not lined. I've been told that the melton cloth is quite warm and doesn't need a lining. I try to keep the inside of the hat pretty neat, even when I add wool embroidery.

One of the hats (linen-lined) is rather small but it looks quite nice on this model. Thanks, Kale!

All in all, a very relaxing -- and reasonably productive -- week. Note to those who may buy one of these hats: There's a lot of happiness in every stitch!