So this week started with me finishing up a
Public Safety Survey that I put together with two other active members of my community. I had to learn how to put the information together so anyone could read it...it took a lot of time but I learned a new skill and I think the information is extremely valuable for the community. It felt really good to have that done. I don't do well with things "hanging" over my head. I love a nice fat check mark next to things on my list. It felt great to not only help my community but check this off as done!
Then I had some graphic design work to do for the Park Advisory Council I volunteer on. I have been using these graphic design needs to challenge myself to do great work but in a limited amount of time. Both my husband and I can get lost in designing and while I love volunteering for my community I have started to realize I often put others first and I am trying to be more aware of that. I've been taking advantage of some Adobe Stock Credits to grab images which shortens my design time significantly. Below is the jpeg I whipped up for our April event for Earth Day!
I also have been working on the new website for the Chicago Horn Consort this week. It needed a refresh (hasn't been done in years) and we have a big performance coming up at the International Horn Symposium this summer. I did the logo years ago and I sat down this week and worked on a "wallpaper" for the site. In this case this is all original artwork. It was very calming and meditative to work on this this week. Especially with everyone still sick and working on getting over this crap. The full site should be up in a few weeks but here's a sneak peek at the "wallpaper" I created.
Then yesterday before rehearsal (actually a double rehearsal and show) I decided it was time to finally fix my horn case. Now this case has been "broke" for years. Essentially, my water key rubbed against the inside for the last 15 years or so, creating a small hole...which became a bigger hole..which lost all it's padding...and got larger...and then every time I took my horn out of the case my water key was stuck in the open position. If you're not a musician basically it made the instrument have a small air leak...not ideal. With my recital approaching next week I thought I should tackle it...It should have been a 45 minute thing... it definitely took longer but the results are awesome.
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| My green baby washcloth that hides my little secret! |
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| The water key that caused all the problems. |
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| This started as a dime size hole...should have fixed it sooner. |
The first thing I did was grab some batting I had laying around the craft studio. I put quite a bit in because I know it will eventually compact down. Then I
ladder stitched the opening. I didn't pull it all the way closed though because I didn't want to stress the other fabric around the tear. I basically just wanted to hold the gap as closed as possible as I sewed the patch on.
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| Adding the batting into the hole. |
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| All ready to be stitched up! |
Then I used this awesome upholstery needle (which I have had in my stash for probably
years and never used until now!) to sew a tiny patch of like material over the hole. A fellow horn colleague who owns his own business making prosthetic body parts gave me the patch which was the exact match to the fabric inside the case. This was cumbersome (especially nearer the side of the case) but not nearly as bad as the next step.
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| The fabric matches so well you almost can't even see it here! |
The fabric patch barely covered the hole so I decided to place an even larger patch of leather over the whole thing. I know that the leather will hold up to years of abuse. I traced the bottom of my favorite (and largest) coffee mug and when to work...but sewing through leather is hard! I finally realized I would have to "pre punch" the needle the leather. So I went around painstakingly using a small sharp needle poking holes about 1/8th inch apart and about 1/8th from the edge. I thought that would do the trick, but leather sort of, self heals...and by the time I had worked my way around the disc the holes had started to shrink up and disappear!
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| My first go around with punching the leather. |
Finally I got smart and got the fattest needle I have. I use it when I want to tie a quilt instead of quilt it. It's a good 1/8 thick and I went around the disc once more making the holes huge! I was worried that they would stretch and it would just be too but but it worked perfectly. Then it was just getting into the groove of using the curved upholstery needle.
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| Isn't that needle cool? |
Man was it work. But the case looks great. I can lose the bright green rag I had been using to cover the hole (my water key kept getting caught as I would take my horn out of the case). It actually looks like it was an original feature to the case. I will definitely stay on top of things like this in the future. But I get to put a big ole fatty check mark next to that on my mental to do list.
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| All done! After taking all these photos I have realized that now I need to add CLEAN my case to my list! |
Do you put off projects you know you should just take care of? Why don't we just take care of somethings? I wonder what it IS about certain tasks that make us just push them off and off until we can't any longer?
Next week is my recital! I can't wait to play some great music for Horn and Organ and I am looking forward to making a new top for the occasion! See you then.
AWESOME!!!!
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