It rained! It really, ....

really rained!  I don't know the totals, and there wasn't much by way of hard rain, but it kept going long enough to make the world feel different this morning!  Yeah RAIN!

When it rains, it pours....

Unless you live in central Arizona, in which case rain may simply mean the sky spitting on your windshield.  We're hoping for more than that this afternoon, but we're not holding our breath.

When it comes to this blog, well, see the post title, above.  A drought of posts, and then two or three in a day.

Over the weekend, the bug to finish old projects bit, but in a different direction from the quilt.  Back when my youngest was in elementary school, probably about 3rd grade, I'd found the fabrics for my bedroom.  The main bed cover got finished a while back (see older posts) but nothing more than that.  As the picture from the pattern showed, this project was to include the bed cover, window treatments, bed skirt, table cover and a lot of pillows.

As part of getting ready to re-enter the full-time workforce, I have been getting my closet and dressing area cleaned up.  That is an ugly story in itself, but for now...the dressing table.  When we first bought this house, I was determined to use the previous owner's color schemes as much as possible, so that I could avoid painting for as many years as possible.  The master bedroom was a decent shade of strong peach, so I coped.  I had added some seafoam green and mauve, through prints that contained all three colors and was fine with that.  But those pieces: comforter, dressing table skirt got old and rather worn, so I let them go away.  That left me with pretty much nothing but odds and ends.  We haven't had a decent window treatment in years, and my dressing table has been completely naked!  Oh-no! 


I had hoped that once the main bedcover was finished, the rest would follow right along, but that has not been the case.  Just too many other things going on, I guess.  But during the big clean-up, I decided that I'd have enough of the bare wood table top under glass, and the naked iron hairpin legs.  The table top is semi-kidney-bean-shaped, much like one that I had as a child.  I snuck the glass out from under all of the stuff and headed for the studio.  I'm about 1/2 way through assembling the skirt - no pattern, just the top plus some rectangles to gather in for the sides.  It will have 4 full widths of fabric in the skirt portion.  Three are seamed together and cover the side fronts, sides and back.  The 4th panel will be hemmed and separate from the others, filling in the center front, but making for easy access to the storage beneath the table - a 3-drawer unit from which I am constantly pulling hair accessories and such.


Probably an hour or so of pinning the gathered panels to the top and adjusting the gathers all around, before it all gets sewn together, and that seam finished.  Then a hem and it will be done.

I really have to wonder sometimes, why do I wait so long to tackle these things when they turn out to take so little time to get done?

Pictures will follow, ASAP!

The next long, dry spell...but it ended in a big way!

Well, summer is not my strong suit, and my blog is sure evidence of that!  Between not working, and being home with kids all day, every day, I don't cope well.  I get frustrated and cranky and so very unproductive.

I should NOT ALLOW summer to do that to me!  It is up to me, yet I just have not found my way to a healthy, productive summer attitude.  I guess the positive thing is that I'll get to try again next year!  Of course, the boys are getting older fast, so in another summer or two, summers won't bother me so much.

The other BIG fix for my summer problem would be for me to be working full-time, year 'round, and that's on the agenda.  We've just gotten to a point where me being off all summer is not good for the budget.  Since the boys are old enough, it's time for Mom to re-enter the full-time workforce.

Sadly, I do live in an area where there's not much that I can do in my field, and with my BFA in Fashion Design.  I'm going to have to rely on the office skills that I've developed or kept honed during the 17 years that I've been teaching and making costumes, to snag myself an office job and a hopefully decent paycheck.

Well, that's a long ways off from the intent of my blog in general, or the post that I thought I was going to write! 

I did finish a REALLY OLD PROJECT!  We're talking about something that I started in California, between '87 and '91.  Hehehehehe.

I had signed up for a quilt-making class, my first ever.  I was young, well, not exactly 'young' but much younger than I am now, and young enough to think that everything that I knew would be enough to cover every situation!  Silly me!

I knew about fabric grain and tearing fabric as part of getting fabric on grain.  When the instructor (poor woman) said no, no tearing of the fabric to get an accurate grainline on each piece, Idiot Me got all upset at the idea of ignoring the grainline and left the class!  I sure have had some moronic moments in my past!

I had spent about $125 on the fabrics for this quilt...to sort of match the master bedroom in the house that we owned in CA.  I didn't finish the class, and we left CA.  There isn't a color in those fabrics that goes anywhere in my house here!

But once we got settle in here, sometime around 93-96, I decided that I'd better do something with that fabric.  I'd fallen in love with the Quillow concept, and with Eleanor Burns' Trip-Around-The-World, in her Quilt-in-a-Day series.  I had gotten through some other fabric-piecing class, in the years between the grainline issue, and the moment that I got back to this fabric, so I was actually ready.  I had enough fabric to easily cut strips for 3 quillow-sized, Trip/World tops and that's what I did.  Got them all cut, the strips joined, re-cut into pieced strips, and assembled into 3 quilt tops.

Then I got distracted by babies and teaching and life, and just had to let them sit for a while.  But it wasn't too long.  I was ready to finish them as quillows, but with the couple of years that had passed, my perspective had changed.  I laid two of the tops on the floor together and had an A-HA moment!  By removing just one row from one top, I could join the two, and get what I call my DOUBLE TRIP AROUND THE WORLD quilt...which is probably about a queen size!  And it's GORGEOUS!

I loved it so much that I got it assembled fast, then found someone to quilt it professionally, a husband-wife time with a business called Turkey Tracks.  She was reasonable and she certainly did a nice job on it.  I didn't want to pay her to hand stitch the binding, so I got it back from her.....and there it sat for possibly 10 years!  All it needed was the binding!

Well, heck...last winter I knew I had to get it finished, so one weekend afternoon, I bit the bullet and took it to the machine with some plain old, wide, double-fold bias, the packaged stuff.  Got it sewn on to the right side and wanted to do the rest by hand.  Took it up to my bedroom, along with thread, needles & scissors, and set myself up to work on it in bits and pieces, where I had a good TV and movie access, so I could get it done.  Had 3 sides finished before the weather just got too warm to bother.  All summer it's been sitting there waiting for the 4 side to get done....TODAY.

The weather isn't all that much cooler, some but not like it was when last I touched the silly thing.  But I worked on it last night, until someone came in and turned out the overhead lighting...guess he didn't want to sleep with the lights on.  Figured if I didn't want a repeat of that tonight, then I should grab some time this afternoon and go for it.  Took two episodes of SMARTER THAN A 5th GRADER, plus 2/3 of an episode of Dr. Oz, including time to take notes from his nutrition section.

IT IS DONE!!!!  YIPPEE!!!!!

It doesn't go with any of my color schemes, but it's done.  Now I'm debating whether to list it on Etsy, or store it until one of my boys is ready for it, like say after he's married.  Hmmmm....

Well, it's hard to photograph around here, without getting background stuff, but there you have it - a finished, Double Trip-Around-The-World quilt, only 20+ years in the making.

Now what I'm I going to do with that third piece?  hehehe

Garb-ish stuff...

Cleaning up the studio a bit more.  Trying to get the notebooks full of garb articles into some sort of useful order.  The Garb Planning & Inventory notebook is starting to look pretty good, as I've gotten quite a bit done this last year.

Wow, about 1 1/3 years since I started building garb for Highlands War last year.  I do have quite a few pieces now, though I'm still struggling to get complete outfits put together.  Accessories seem to be my downfall.  I started logging my garb pieces on my A&S 50 Challenge page, on this blog.  In just over a year, I've made 46 pieces - ok, so some aren't quite finished, but I'm definitely going to meet the deadline for the Challenge!  If I finish my outfit for Middle East Feast (Labor Day weekend), I'll probably have my 50.

Some of what's on my list isn't all that spectacular, so I think I'll keep going on the Challenge, after the 50 are done, and see how many pieces I really have at the end.  Then I can count the 50 best for the Challenge and do a blog post with pictures of all.  That would be fun.

Ok, time to go back to the notebooks and piles of papers.

And as for the great stash reduction...

...phase one is complete.  Approximately 144 pieces of fabric found new homes amongst my fellow SCA'ers, and in a children's theater costume shop.  Thank heavens for costume shops!  Fabrics that had me wondering how insane I had gone to have bought them in the first place - no problem - they'll fill some need or other and look great on stage.

Can't help but feel that I still need to cull almost as many pieces again, but it's harder now.  The pieces now gone were pieces that either I actually disliked, or pieces that I sort of liked but knew would not be sewing until a lot of other pieces had been used first.  What's left is ALL stuff that I do like and can envision wearing eventually.  I guess the dilemma is to decide which pieces are likely to be the last ones that I want to sew, even though I like them all.  That's not easy.  So much depends on the inspirations of the moment.

Oh well.  I still feel that a fabric stash is a marvelous source of inspiration in its own right, and a therapeutic tool that calms and relaxes when too much else is stressful and hectic.  I can stare at my stash and see new combinations amongst fabrics that have been there for a long time.  Re-arranging the folded pieces, every now and then, seems to re-charge the stash potential and bring to my mind new possibilities.

Will I miss any of the pieces that are gone...NOPE.  Many I've already forgotten and am not likely to recall.  Maybe I'll go visit a few of them when they're on stage, during a show.  Otherwise, I'm moving forward and those fabrics are definitely behind me.

Have camera...will shoot! (LONG)

Yes, finally have a working camera once more.  Gave up on finding the old battery charger and ordered a new one.  Of course, that just about guarantees that the old one WILL now show up!

And so, I can catch up on photographing garb to show, good, bad or otherwise.  I'll also be posting pictures of some past projects, as well as some things that are going to be leaving my studio in search of new homes.  My camera and I will be busy this week!

For now, my most current project - a Persian coat in the works.  I'm debating how to finish it and thinking that a partial lining - facings really - in a blue/green silk will be the way to go.

No, the pictures don't do justice to the shape of the coat, but I'll figure out a better way to photograph garb eventually.  Here is the full length of the coat.  The two shots below show the lining/facing fabric stuck into the front.  I feel that the contrast lining/facings are necessary as the printed fabric is white on the back and not attractive at all.  The facings will be on the front, around the neck, and around the hem, with the hem facings deep enough that the white won't be noticeable in most wearing situations.  Sleeves will get hem facings too.


The fabric that I used for this coat was on a sale table, quite cheap, and I was using it to test the pattern for this coat.  I got in a bit of trouble over that as some people felt that it was too nice to use for pattern testing!  The pattern turned out so well though, thanks to Lady Adelicia, that I can absolutely finish it!  Even though I was cutting without regards for pattern matching, I ended up with some surprising matches!

Once this coat is done, I'll be cutting the fabric that I considered to be the 'good' fabric for this project.  It's a home dec fabric - more upholstery than drapery, so a bit heavy and warm for Arizona, but I'm sure that I'll get some opportunities to wear it, like in January maybe!

 




Back side of fabric

Recently completed is the corset that I started at Costume College 2010.  A bit less than two weeks ago, I was looking for some hand-stitching with which to wind down for the day.  There were no projects ready for hand work, at least none that I felt like working on.  It was probably 9 in the evening when I walked over to the drawer where the unfinished corset was waiting.  It needed all of about 4 rows of boning channel stitching before I could machine stitch the bias to the edges and have it ready for the hand-stitching to finish the bias on the inside.  I gave it about an hour that evening, and finished it by lunchtime the next day, after 11 1/2 months of avoiding it!

Within 2-3 days after that, I got an e-mail from Marcia, my carpool partner and roommate from CoCo last year.  She wanted to know if I would be interested in buying a CoCo membership, as her roommate had cancelled just 2 weeks before CoCo is happening.  I had decided months ago that I would not be going this year - budget issues - but when this happened, how could I resist!  So, just 2 weeks before CoCo this year, my project from last year got finished!  Good timing.

The corset fits me better than my dressform.  The dress form is smaller than me, so the bust area is gaping, and the foam is not compressible, so the waist can't be laced in any smaller.  Still, it doesn't look too bad on her and it does fit me.  That's the importing thing - it fits me.  I can fit other people, but I can't fit myself, so getting this fitted in a class setting was a necessity.

I was so excited about getting the corset finished that I immediately cut another one from remnants saved just for this purpose.  The fabric was just a synthetic brocade from JoAnn's.  But the pattern was so pretty, I loved it in spite of the polyester content.  I had originally bought it to line a coat from a Donna Karan pattern, the coat that has been in the works for about 20 years!  hehehe

It's a cocoon-type coat, with dolman sleeves.  The sleeves were originally cut so low in the underarm that it just made me look even shorter and dumpier than normal, so I scooped the underarm/side seams upwards some.  Once I did that, I like the coat well enough to want to finish it, but did not like the way the interior was looking.  The fabric is 'ribbon' fabric, with 1/8 ribbon woven to form loops on the surface.  The pattern did not call for a lining, but the inside looked so bad that I knew I had to add a lining.  The pink brocade was my choice - a perfect match for the ribbon fabric and such a wonderful pattern. 

The coat is still awaiting a last bit of finishing - hand-tacking the sleeve hems, and coming up with a really wonderful closure.  Then I just have to wait for the weather in which to wear it.

 

The rest of the fabric from the lining will make a scruptious corset, lined in a cotton-candy pink faille that I found in my stash.  There won't be much left in the way of scraps!

Hmmm...Coco Chanel lined jackets in fabric to match the blouses for the suits.  So a corset to match the lining of the coat - following in some impressive footsteps, hehe.

Progress, slow, painful but progress...and some big leaps too...

Well, maybe the painful part is an exaggeration, but yes, things have been slow.  Finally however, some things are coming together.

I should have a replacement battery charger and a new battery for the good digital camera, so I'm going to be able to start taking pictures again, lots of pictures!  Then I can share the things I've been making, and the plans for future projects.  I can also get pictures of things that I'm going to be putting on E-bay, so that my studio can have some open space and room to maneuver!  Yippee!

Which leads to today's big project, though that requires going backwards just a little bit first.  A few weeks ago, I decided to really cull the pattern collection, with the intention of inviting a vintage pattern dealer to look through the discards and then selling the rest on line.  Right now, there are two grocery bags (plastic) full of pattern envelopes - no content - just envelopes.  Not sure how many, but those will be going to that dealer, or online very soon.  I'll probably cull a few more patterns before I'm done.  The pattern collection has truly gotten absurd and it's time to reduce it in a major way.

Well, if I can do that with patterns, I can probably do it in other areas too.  I'd read an e-mail on one of the sewing groups, about a woman who'd found a major load of stress gone after she donated a majority of her fabric collection.  It felt as if I might actually be at that point, ready for that kind of a change too.  So, week before last, I pulled 200 +/- books from my studio library.  It almost seemed as though I hadn't pulled any...the shelves were so overflowing.  Those are going to go away either via e-bay or more likely, via a used book dealer who will come to the house and pick them all up, or so I hope.

TODAY...I looked at the fabric and felt something give way...and set the goal of pulling 100 pieces of fabric that I no longer love, and sending them on to new homes.  I've got 76 pulled and bagged, 24 to go, and that will have been so very easy.  Unfortunately, I don't think I've pulled enough.  If I can get through all of it, I can probably double the number of pieces, the number of bags.

Yes I'm using numbers like 100, 76, 200...I am truly a fabriholic, a sewing supply addict.  It's time for a change.  When one walks into one's studio or sewing room, and feels nothing but the stress of pending projects hanging over one's head, maybe there's something wrong.  Maybe it's time for a change.  Maybe I do not need to be a fabric pack rat, or a pattern collector.  Maybe I don't need hundreds of books to which I seldom refer, either in my own sewing, or in my teaching and class preps.  I want to walk into my studio and see enough fabric to give me inspiration, but not so much that there is no chance of my ever using even a portion of it in my lifetime.  I want to have enough space to work comfortably, even when I've got multiple projects going on all at once.

And today was productive in other ways too.  Actually, 2 nights ago I was looking for some handwork to do while watching a little TV before bed.  I didn't find anything ready for handwork that suited my mood.  However, my mood must have been a little strange because I ended up pulling a project from a year ago, diving in and getting ready to GET IT FINISHED!  I'd taken a Victorian corset class at CoCo last year.  It should have been finished that same day, but I just did not quite get there.  It needed about 6 more rows of stitching for the bone channels, the boning inserted, and the binding put on.  I just had not been in the mood to deal with it for most of the 11 months since CoCo.  I don't know if I just didn't care about it, or if I really thought that I didn't know how to finish.  At any rate, I sat down at the machine, buzzed in those channels, inserted the boning, machine-stitched the edge of the bias to the edges of the coutil, and started folding and pinning the bias for the hand-stitching on the inside.  With the help of a few episodes of Charmed, finally available on Netflix Instant View, I got the bias all stitched in place and it is finished!  YEAH!  Why did I wait so long?

That project being done really did fire me up to get back into the studio and get sewing, which is why I was out there today, in place to have the lightbulb moments that led to the Great Fabric Reduction!  I also cut out a new corset, using scraps from an old project - the lining fabric from my ribbon fabric Donna Karan coat, a project that goes back at least 17-18 years, and STILL needs a fastener!  The lining fabric was a Joann's brocade.  Yes, sadly, it's a poly, but those brocades did/do come in some really pretty patterns and colors and this one went so well with the ribbon fabric for the coat.  I had just enough left to cut the corset.  While weeding out fabrics, I stumbled across a perfect fabric for the lining for the corset too!

I've also set aside the fabrics for the next two corsets - one in a blue-on-blue jacquard, and one in a faux tooled leather.  Getting that corset from CoCo finished, really got me fired up, even though it wasn't my first finished corset! 

Yup, as soon as the battery charger gets here, I'll get set up and start taking lots of pictures.  I'm ready to start enjoying my studio and my fabrics and projects again, and I'm ready to share the fun!

Oh my....

I finally forced myself to take a serious look at the book collection.  This is just the books in my studio, not anything from the rest of the house!  It's scary.  The shelves have been over-flowing for a long, long time.  Too many times, I've managed to acquire duplicates.  My interests have changed, yet books have not moved on when they no longer suited my activities.  It's time for a change!

Getting rid of books is not easy, if one is not willing to drop them at the local thrift store.  I can't do that, not with this many books, many of which are brand new, unread and still, really wonderful!

Listing them in e-bay is a pain in the neck.  Likewise for Etsy.  For now, I'm just listing them on a page on this blog, in a table format with prices.  It will be interesting to see if any of them move!  In a couple of months, I'll look at going back to the e-bay store arrangement, if necessary. 

I just really want my shelves to be neat and orderly again, or at least to have room for all that I need them to hold.  Once the books are under control, next will probably be the sewing patterns.  I think I've reached my breaking point, being tired of being overwhelmed every time I set foot in my studio.  Time to say enough already.  This has got to end!

And so it continues!

Down again this morning.  No, I don't want this blog to be about my weight-loss trials and tribulations, but I'm feeling to good not to share this here.  I really did pass the 2nd of the 'zero' numbers and it looks like it will stick - I won't be going back and forth across it for a few days at all.  Yeah!

Stepping stones

I've been using very small stepping stones to keep myself on track with the whole diet thing.  Some days are better than others.  My goals are based on numbers ending in zeros and number that are in increments of 10 from where I started.  So my first goal was to get from a number ending in four to a number ending in 0; second was to get from that number ending in zero, to the first lower number ending in four.  Does that make sense in writing?  I don't know.  I just know that it works in the everyday world.  It's nice having small goals, so I'm not so over-focused on the big goal.  That can get discouraging.

Anyway, this morning, after a few days of living as if I'd never even heard the word diet, I figured I'd better step on the scale.  I had crossed the first zero number several weeks back, and had snuck up on the first of the 'four' numbers just a few days ago.  To my surprise, this morning, the scale told me that I've crossed the second of the zero numbers, so I'm down 15 pounds!  Yeah Me!

I should say that I am trying to do this deliberately  slowly.  I know that I lost the 60 pounds way too fast back in 2002, and never did complete the maintenance portion of the program.  This time, I'm working in bits of maintenance as I go.  The plan is to lose for a month - 5-8 pounds - then just maintain for a month.  It may take a full year this time, instead of 6 months, to lose 60 pounds, but I feel much better about this.  In 2.5 months I've lost 15 pounds.  That is a wonderfully sensible 6 pounds per month, with built in maintenance and a really strong sense of being able to see this through to completion.  I haven't had that at any time in the previous 3-4 years.  I can do this and it feels really good.

The only downside to all of this, just happens to also be an upside.  I'm going to end up needing smaller garb!  Luckily, much of the period stuff is rather neutral in sizing, so it will see me through quite a few pounds.  I'm a little leary of sewing anything really fitted for a while, like say a Tudor kirtle, but there are other things that I can work on while I head towards my healthier future.

Photos...well a couple anyway...

I'd hoped to have more photos by now, but the camera crisis continues, and I haven't had time to borrow a digital with an actual working flash, so for now it's tent pics.

On the Sunday before our intended Wednesday departure for Highlands War, I finally came to understand what my son intended when he told me he wanted to build his own tent - maybe something like a tee-pee.  He had figured out, like I had, that modern dome tents are just not that comfortable.  This has to be especially true when it is his 6' plus self getting in and out of a very low-to-the-ground, one-man tent.  He wanted something more comfortable!


I spent the rest of Sunday (or so it seemed) researching medieval tent options.  I showed him pictures of Saxon getelds, a type of wedge tent.  They're pretty simple to build and easy to put up, at least for the two of us.

Monday morning, I visited my only local option for canvas-in-a-hurry, Phoenix Tent & Awning.  The untreated cotton canvas was much more affordable than Sunforger, the ideal option.  I went with the untreated canvas, since this was all an experiment.  Next time, if there is such, I'll go with the good stuff, and I'll order it on-line, ahead of time.  I calculated 11 yards, rounded up to 12, took the extra yard that was left for 13 yards. 

I layed out this monstrous chunk of fabric on the living room floor and started measuring and marking.  Gee, I was short about 2 yards.  Oops.  Miscalculated.  Back to Phx Tent & Awning, then back home to finish cutting.  I started sewing late Monday afternoon, and only had to sew the hem and attach the tent stake loops on Tuesday morning.  The fabric part was finished.

We arrived at Highlands War with the canvas, a 6' 2x4, and 2-8' long poles plus some hardware to join the sections.  I figured that the poles needed to be shortened one foot, and figured on doing that at the campsite, but of course forgot the saw.  As it turned out, the poles needed to be shortened 2 feet, and the tent is not as tall as I had intended it to be.

The instructions that I had followed were from this site:  http://www.ydalir.co.uk/crafts/tent/pattern.htm.  While the instructions were reasonably simple and clear, the information on yardage required was rather vague, as they themselves pointed out. 

Now I know a little better how to measure, so I could definitely see making another one someday, enough taller that the poles could be 7 or 8 feet and there'd still be plenty of spread to make for nice interior space for the camper and all his stuff.  I can even see fixing the first one, just by removing the stake loops, adding a 1-2 foot extension all around, in sections to match the original, and reattaching the loops.  A bit of work yes, but it would enhance the usability of the tent in both head-room and floor space, so probably worth it!

Barely visible in the background is the tent that I build back in Jan.-Feb., a carport cover that gave me fits and almost killed a sewing machine.  Yes, it really made it to an event and I really did use it!  However, it has some problems.  In addition to the roof being totally NOT waterproof, the walls are too long around the frame, and tall enough that I need to get taller poles.  If I can raise the walls up a little higher, I'll be able to stake them more tightly and still get nice slope for better wind and water resistance and floor space.  I also need to pleat out some of the excess around the frame, either top to bottom or just as pleats at the top.  If I leave them at the top, but make them near the corners, they'll help with the corner shaping.

I also need to replace the ties, at the top of the walls, with something easier to fasten and unfasten.  I saw people using ball bungees on shade pavilions and could try those, but would have to install a lot of grommets, the large ones that my setter won't do.  Lots of time with the hammer that way.  Urgh.  I'm still thinking about this one.  Another suggestion was toggles and loops, so I have options to consider.

I've built some additional garb, but am still not able to take indoor pictures, so maybe one of these days...

And it's done!

Yup, Chris' new tent is finished!  I'm pretty much blown away and he is just thrilled.  He's going to enjoy, so very much, having a tent in which he can stand up and maybe even walk around a little bit!

I knew the wedge-type tent would be much easier than what I did in January/February, back when I swore I'd NEVER make another tent, but this was just delightfully easy, even if 15 yards of canvas is a lot to have in one's lap, all at once.  I could maybe even see doing one like this again someday, if a need arose.  It was just cool.  Hmmm....maybe in a striped fabric - something with really wide strips!

Back to packing for Highlands War.  Pictures of all tents and garb and everything from the last few months of sewing to follow!

Oh, no way!

I'm going to take a stab at another tent, last minute, right before Highlands War.  Yup.

Chris had indicated that he'd like to have a plain, simple tent; even that he'd like to make it - something along the lines of a tee-pee.  I had him look at a few pictures in the Panther Primitives catalog and he seemed to like the Anglo-Saxon geteld best of everything that he saw.  Of all of the wedge-type tents, it does seem to be the simplest.  An hour or so browsing Google results gave me diagrams and patterns for variations on the idea.  I'm going to Phoenix Tent & Awning early Monday morning to buy the canvas.  Hoping to cut it out and get it mostly sewn that same day. 

We'll need Tuesday for last minute details and for emptying and loading my van.  We're due at Mormon Lake on Wednesday, as early as we can manage, to help set up the site for Highlands War. 

We might even have both of our new tents!

Yeah!  I hope.