Upholstery Class Week 2

I'm going to keep track of what we did in the hopes of being able to reproduce it eventually.

Week 2:

We finished tying off our springs.

I forgot to take a picture of my finished tying job before I had moved on to the next step.  

So I took a picture of my fellow student's tying to remind me of what it should look like.

Hers looked nicer than mine anyway!

Next we cover the springs with burlap and tack all around.

Looks comfy, huh?

Then we had to create some little bumper type things.

I'm sure they have a name, but I don't know what it is...

whatever they are, they make the edges nice and cushy.

We attached these with tacks also.

I was thinking I was definitely running out of places to put tacks!

But somehow I got them all attached.

We also used chalk to outline where the springs were and then hand sewed the burlap to the springs so that everything is nice and tight and connected.

Not beautiful!

But everything is where it should be...

closer view of the bumpers

We cut the corners square with a knife and started layering batting

Making sure it was nice and fluffy with no lumps.

Next time we'll be putting foam and then a nice muslin cover over that.

And then...

FABRIC!

the sad part?

I'm missing it. Ack! Missing a class!

The happy part?

I'm going to a concert of "The Piano Guys" instead.

I wish it weren't at the same time as my class but we bought the tickets AGES ago before I even imagined taking this class.

So when I come back next time, everyone else will be way ahead.

:-(

Hopefully its easy to catch up/figure out what I'm doing when I'm the only one doing it!

Today while shopping

I'm trying on a down coat and frank comes up and gives me a little punch in the stomach.

Me: Hey! Why are you punching me?

Frank: The coat was poofing out and I was just trying to make it less puffy.

Me: But it wasn't the coat, it was me.

Frank: (looking sheepish) um...yeah...my bad.

Me: *sucks my stomach in*

Sigh

More fall beauty

I arrived early for my upholstery class on Wednesday

(wasn't sure how bad the traffic would be)

so I walked down to a nearby park and enjoyed some New England fall beauty.

The leaves here haven't all turned yet

so I'm excited to see it all transform each week.

(all photos taken with my phone, so not terribly impressive)

I sat on a park bench and read a book for awhile.

Tons of walkers and runners went past.

I was feeling a little bit guilty for sitting there with all this exercise going on around me!

But, I was strong.

I stayed right there on the bench.

...aaaahhhh...

Upholstery Class!

I am taking an upholstery class in Boston.

Oh my gosh, I'm so excited about it!

A picture of the school from their website

I forgot to take one. Doh!

I lost some of my excitement on Monday when I did a test drive out to the school.

I wanted to see how bad the drive would be

and the parking situation.

Both were bad.

So I drove home wondering if I'd made a good decision in signing up for this class.

Wednesday was my first day of class.

And it was SO MUCH FUN.

Here is our fancy basement workroom.

I opted for the beginning class where we all make the same project

a small ottoman

rather than the next class up where you bring your own piece of furniture to work on.

I figured I would rather start from scratch and learn all the basics

even though I've done some simple upholstery before.

I'm really glad I did.

In just the first class we learned webbing and tying springs.

I've never done either one of those things before.

Next I need to pick my fabric, which will be the hardest part for me I think.

I'm leaning towards using several different fabrics to make a bohemian type of look.

The parking and drive there went fairly smoothly.
But as the winter sets in this could change...especially the parking.
Snow will really muck things up I'm sure.

And I did get lost/turned the wrong direction/was very thankful for GPS on my phone
several times driving home.

So I still have some kinks to work out.

I'm glad I'm getting out of my comfort zone though.
Go me!

Leaf Peeping

On Sunday, since it was General Conference

we decided to go leaf peeping while listening to church on Frank's XM radio.

Every year I think that we definitely need to go up North and look at the foliage.
And every year we miss it.

Life gets busy and time goes too fast.

And suddenly the leaves are off the trees.

I swore that this year we would go!

Still, I waited a bit too long.

But I was determined to go anyway.

I saw the most amazing foliage on the drive up.
So gorgeous!
The best views happen on the freeway, where you can't really stop and take a picture
and if you do, you have ugly cars in it.
But the drive was just breathtaking.

I kept telling Frank and Carter to look
(since they were both engrossed by their electronic devices...Conference hadn't started yet)
But Frank kept saying,"I don't want to ruin it by looking now.  I'm waiting for the big reveal when we get there"
In the end, that plan did not serve him well since he missed the best stuff.
Goofball.

Once we arrived to our intended spot we realized that many of the red leaves had already dropped
But we still enjoyed some wonderful views!

Get ready for tons of pictures:

'My

Frank got some amazing shots with his phone.  Better than mine with my "real" camera.

Carter LOVES having his picture taken. I forced him to be in a couple.

It was an overcast day and even rained on us a bit at one point.
But it was oh-so-fun!