I had lunch with a garden club at a friend's house last week. Her main table had the most beautiful fall runner and napkins and I fell in love.

Figuring they were old, I asked where she got them and she replied "April Cornell". I couldn't wait to get home to visit April and order the same linens. Alas, that was not to be -- they had tablecloths, dish towels and wash clothes and aprons. NO runner. NO napkins.

I called for sometimes they'll have a few in stock but take them from the website. Not in this case. And the lady I talked to even said that she would call the outlet stores to see if they had any in stock. And she got back to me and said that they didn't.

Where there is a will there is a way . . . .

So I bought the biggest table cloth they had for $50 something. And from that cloth I got the runner and 8 napkins.

I'm having company for lunch next week and I am so happy that the cloth came, that it all worked out (because it could have been a BIG $50 mistake) and that I was able to stitch them all together yesterday.

I am one happy camper.

I love this pattern for the colors are fall but they're not in pumpkins or fall leaves and so I think it can be season-less and used ANY time of the year. But because of the colors -- the browns, oranges and that sage green, it does look especially fall-ish.

I do like my linens to multi-task (as I like my dishes to multi-task!)

The motto is: NEVER GIVE UP

THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX

Martha