Now that the really cool bossy kids lunch table is filling up I can see that in our house octagonal windows would be a tacky choice. This is not a classy house at all. It's pretty much homemade with pros coming in to do stuff we can't and to laugh at us. I am going to start a new thread to combine this thread with my one about the fireplace being a squirrel freeway ( is that allowed or would that be a gardenweb no no. I'm new to posting and am sure I've already broken the rules but I'm just ignorant, not malicious.) I will post a computer drawing my husband has cooked up with the windows in a more socially acceptable shape, square. Can someone tell me how to post a link to the old threads in my new post. My Luddite ways are hindering me. I can build a chimney but heaven forbid I do a function from computer 101 without someone holding my hand.

Huge linen fan here! I belong to a hobby medieval recreation group for which I need "period" clothes, or, as we call it, "garb." The choices are pretty much linen, wool, and silk. I have several linen under-dresses and overdresses. This is CA, so I often just wear the overdress in a non-period short sleeved version. I have one wool Viking apron dress, which I love, but it's awfully warm. The point is, I wear those linen items on multi-day camping trips where between the archery and the cooking/cleaning nothing stays clean for long. When I get home I drop them in the wash along with the jeans or whatever and they come out just fine. I like linen so much, I snatched up 3 pair of wide leg linen pants on sale at Macy's. They go in the general wash too. In my washer & dryer, the pants tend to be pretty wrinkly, but in my daughter's newer machines there's not a wrinkle to speak of. Matter of fact, I have a pair on as we speak. My costume dresses I make myself with linen I buy from Fabric-store.com. Linen ravels like mad, so all the seams need to be overcast or something that serves the same purpose. Medieval dresses have multiple gores, so that's always a challenge! These pinafores look fabulous and I appreciate the work that goes into making them.

tnfarm - wanted to get back to you. I washed my white cotton sofa slipcover and it came out great. I dissolved about six scoops of Oxy-clean in a bowl of hot water, stirred it around for a few minutes and added that to the cold water in the machine. I also used detergent. I let the machine run for a few minutes then stopped it and restarted it the next day. They came out great. Best thing is I had these strange orange/yellow discoloration spots on one of the cushions, I thought it was from bleach and would never come off but it did. I think instructions do say to use Oxy-clean with hot water but I didn't want to risk these slipcovers shrinking, and they came out really better than they ever have.

Does anyone have a set of placemats (& tableclot) for each season: Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall? ...Or is that just too much? I have several for autumn, in autumnal prints/colors, including the one above. I don't have many matching cloth napkins since I like to mix and match; I also have a set of natural colored linen napkins which work well with most of the tablecloths. For the rest of the year, most of the tablecloths are some version of blue-and-white block print or batik, and I just change up the napkins, plates, glassware, etc. for the seasons. Other than wood/grass/bamboo placemats, do your placemats ever look the same after the first wash? It seems the sewn/2-sided ones never do for me. My placemats are all wicker/rattan/grass, or cork-backed (Pimpernel), so this hasn't been a problem. Be aware that the current Pimpernel placemats are nowhere near the quality they used to be. And, what do you do about stains? Not having to worry about them is definitely another plus in my book for colorful patterns : ) . Especially since we're hosting Canadian Thanksgiving later today with about 25 people. I wouldn't worry too much about placemats not looking the same after washing. I think there's something lovely and welcoming about well-used, and clearly well-loved, table linens, that show they're used often to welcome others around the table. And unless you're actually hosting very formal dinners, I think there's a lot to be said for guests as well as hosts not worrying too much about perfect, pristine-looking table linens through the entire meal. As a guest or a host, I would much rather concentrate on the conversation, family, friends, than worrying about spills and stains that might happen or have happened. At one dinner with a heavy white damask tablecloth and napkins, and all the best silver sparkling, the conviviality came to a screeching halt after a guest spilled a glass of red wine, and the hostess seemed distracted and upset; we all pretty much got the impression that she couldn't wait for us to leave to break out the club soda. I also think of the napkins and other linens I have from my mother, some older embroidered napkins from my grandmother, and think of the memories and history. If I can't convince you : ) , then I'd either agree with Jan's Sunbrella suggestion, or suggest linen tablecloths, placemats, and napkins, in darker colors (with a different color for each season) and a mangle/clothes press. LinenMe has some very nice things. Linen tends to look better the more it's used and washed. Good luck! Am off to preheat the oven for the turkey : )