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18513. Ulgine Barrows - 2/14/2006 7:07:40 AM Ms.No, what have you been up to?
I have been eating lots of Chinese take-out and reading this retarded book about feng shui decluttering. 18514. Ms. No - 2/14/2006 7:19:24 AM Ah, de-cluttering. My magic method was gifted to me at Christmas. It's called the e-book reader. I am slowly replacing vast numbers of paper books with electronic files thus freeing up many cubic feet of space in my apartment.
Certainly I'll keep some "real" books, but I've got over 1200 of them so most of them are going slowly but surely as I find the electronic files online.
Then it will be the task of getting rid of all the paper clutter that has accumulated and the tchotchkes that I don't need. Dust catchers and the like.
But all that is less on my mind of late than it was. I've become consumed by my hobby in recent days. So long as I've got the space to work on that I haven't much cared about anything else. 18515. Ulgine Barrows - 2/14/2006 7:23:22 AM the leatherworking? 18516. Ms. No - 2/14/2006 7:27:14 AM I was confronted by a rather nasty little quirk of mine the other day that's been holding me back. I've been thinking about this project that I want to do for ages. Really, since almost my first class I've wanted to make a fringed bag big enough to actually put stuff in and carry it around, but I haven't done it. I made a small bag from a kit but it wasn't practical.
I made a paper pattern. I bought a bunch of leather and waxed thread etc. and then I just didn't do anything. For 10 months.
Because I was afraid to fuck it up.
How stupid is that? OF COURSE I might fuck it up. I've never done it before. I'm a beginner. But nobody's going to die if I fuck it up. Even if it's total crap I can take it apart and make something out of the scraps. Hell, even if it were beyond salvage and had to be burned and the ashes scattered at sea it's not like I couldn't get another side of leather and start over.
So what's the big deal?
This weekend I finally mocked up the bag in muslin and I'm going to take the leather by the store tomorrow or the next day to have my instructor help me cut the thing out.
I can't believe I let myself get totally paralysed by fear of not being perfect at something. How insane is that? Truly, I need to go stand in front of the AutoSlap-Whap Machine™. 18517. Ms. No - 2/14/2006 7:29:48 AM Yep, the leatherworking. I was tooling stuff like a fiend for Christmas and then it all left the house so I look around and it's like I have nothing to show for months of work. It's like I never did anything at all because there's almost nothing here. It's all in other people's houses.
Now I've got a little time to try some other projects and maybe keep a few around for myself and see if there are things I want to branch out into. The coasters were cool for gifts but they're not all that exciting to do at this point. I'm kind of burn out on them, but I made a LOT of them so that's no surprise.
18518. Ulgine Barrows - 2/14/2006 7:33:32 AM Listen, I sew, and that crap of making up something in muslin is just that, crap.
WORK with the real thing, make your mistakes on it, muslin is nothing like leather.
We only have so many hours to give to our art. Let them be done with the best materials at hand. 18519. Ms. No - 2/14/2006 7:39:52 AM I did the mock-up because I wasn't sure if I'd gotten the proportions right --- whether it was going to end up being too deep or if I'd made the gusset too wide or something. I didn't mock out the strap or anything just the body of the bag. The strap and the fringe length will be determined to some degree by what's left of the hide when I cut the bag body out of it. It's a pretty big hide though so I should have plenty of leather.
You're right, though, nothing really has the weight of leather. Hell, the hides can vary so much from one to another that half the time leather doesn't have the weight of leather. 18520. Ms. No - 2/14/2006 7:41:25 AM I always wished I could sew. I never really took advantage of my grandmother like I should have though. She was amazing --- one of those people who could shop with a sketchpad.
What do you most like to make? 18521. Ulgine Barrows - 2/14/2006 7:53:50 AM Like to make?
Vain woman that I am, with my long legs, skirts. I can sew a damn fine flirty skirt to show off my legs.
But where sewing really comes in handy & economical is the home dec stuff, window treatments cost a fortune but not for me.
Also pillows, it is fun to stuff them. 18522. Ulgine Barrows - 2/14/2006 7:57:47 AM I made a roman shade for a window that priced out at over $300 for $45. 18523. Ulgine Barrows - 2/14/2006 7:59:29 AM I'm a good remnant bin scavenger.
I worked in a fabric stroe for several years, too, and I have WAY too much fabric. 18524. Ms. No - 2/14/2006 8:07:00 AM Clothes for the body, clothes for the home! I like throwing pillows. And if you can't indulge yourself with your hobbies what are they good for?
I'm determined to make a deerskin blanket/cover for the bed by next winter. I'd thought about sheepskin, but it just doesn't get cold enough here and even buying them at IKEA which has insanely cheap sheepskins is still expensive if you're trying to make a Full or Queen size bed covering.
At one point I was insane enough to think I might try and learn to quilt. I liked the obsessive collecting and matching together of little pieces of fabric and patterns within patterns. I'd have gone quite happily mad because I'd never have been satisfied. I'd have just spiraled down into infinite neurosis like trying to sort grains of sand on a beach or something. 18525. Ms. No - 2/14/2006 8:10:15 AM Oddly enough I have lots of fabric as well. Even though I don't sew I LIKE fabric. It's kind of like even though I don't write letters I like stationery. 18526. Ulgine Barrows - 2/14/2006 8:20:54 AM Yeah, I don't like quilting on first glance, but I have seen some contemporary work that is more my style.
Is your dog OK with no walk? Or did you just send it into the backyard?
Back to quilting....
Not the typical stars and geese crud, but fabric sewn into painting like a sunset, or really abstract. I hate birds and florals, geometric abstracts are more my style. 18527. Ulgine Barrows - 2/14/2006 8:21:49 AM Me and my mom used to go to fabric stores and just feel up the bolts, ha ha. 18528. Ms. No - 2/14/2006 8:33:03 AM When I was up in the Blue Ridge last November we stopped and saw a quilt display that had some gorgeous works. Somebody had even done a reproduction of Van Gogh's Starry Night that was just amazing. I like a lot of the traditional patterns if they're not too fussy particularly some of the Amish quilts.
I just took Billie out for a short one. We went out earlier so this was the last leak before bedtime which I need to be off for myself.
It was good to see you! 18529. Ulgine Barrows - 2/14/2006 8:37:06 AM yeah, I'm done too, tired, bye 18530. Macnas - 2/14/2006 11:28:26 AM This evening of fine leather work and dress making was brought to you by Acme fabric'n'hide, your best source for fine cloth and first quality cured animal skin. 18531. Magoseph - 2/14/2006 2:37:08 PM Hi, Mac!
It was a very enjoyable conversation and I’m now envious of the time Ms. No and Ulgine can devote to hobbies.
I think my problems keeping Flexy resting and healing are over--He hurt his left shoulder yesterday and it took a while to realize how he did it because he was not about to tell about it, not wanting to hear, I suppose, the infamous: “I told you so!”
In the morning, I had brought back two-forty-pound-each bags for the water softener and left them near the front door. Sometimes during the day, probably while I was out shopping or with the dog, Flex carried the two bags across the length of the house and down the basement’s stairs, two long trips in the state he is.
Now, the broken ribs are acting up, as he put it, and his left shoulder and left wrist hurt and he’s very sorry--right where I want him so that I won’t be anymore so fearful to leave him alone. 18532. Macnas - 2/14/2006 2:58:16 PM "Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards."
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