In the interest of maybe trying to enter a pair in the round-up this year, and get myself somewhere MUCH less cold in October; Ive gone directly down the cowboy boot rabbit hole.
Pair #1 is Black antiba goat for the tops, and sunflower cxl cavalier for the foot.
Ive gained a new respect for talented top-stitchers, as I am seriously going to need more time at my machine to get something resembling a quality topstitching pattern.
Definitely a change in my thought process, going away from adding curves with seams, but I’m excited to keep trucking away at these.
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Glad to see you going for it! I rather like the quilted pattern.
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Thanks! I blame @thenewreligion for encouraging the fascination. 
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You did really nice with the quilt! That pattern will betray any unevenness from a mile away
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Little bit of a project update -
We’ve got em sideseamed, and lasted.
Definitely have make some changes to my skiving thickness around the counter, as I have a bump in there that im probably going to have to re-wet, and hammer flat. I found out the hard way, that beading construction, and sidewelt are two very different things, as my machine really wanted to wander around on the sideseam where the walking foot stepped on the cord I had run through the sidewelt.
The @Customboots Its A Boot Life cowboy boot lasting video really was invaluable for these, it was really neat to be able to follow along and have a good idea of how to make it look right.
Insole prep was a breeze this time; I found a video of a Japanese maker in my random Instagram scrolling, that has begun to use a feathering knife for the feather side of the holdfast, and cutting the inside with a combination of knife/channel opener, and following the groove with a welt knife, I found it MUCH easier to prep that way. I made a ~12min or so video on it, just to find out that my camera was out of focus.
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Wow, that’s some progress! Now that you’re off the computer, things are going quick. 
You mentioned skiving heel counters, which brought to mind this diagram from an old Soviet manual for making pull-on officers’ boots that I found:
I’m always grousing about loose talk of dimensions, allowances, and the like in shoe books, but this one had me thinking maybe engineering types could take things too far the other way, too. Still, it’s hard not to appreciate the clarity. All this was to be done by hand, skiving on the flap, to boot.
Fun to compare Bill Bird’s sketch:
In Bill’s video, he mentions adding a “Ferragamo dip” of 2–3 mm at the top, around where it crosses the back line. Create a receiving cradle, rather than a point, for the Achilles.
Conversely, the point on the “figured” Soviet plan looks nice, but doesn’t seem like a good idea.
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I skived much more in line with the soviet diagram there, but what I didnt account for, was trimming 3/8” off both sides of my hard counter before side-seaming. I had assumed that it would be fine.
It was not.
I asked a couple questions of jake houston about it, and got some basic measurement questions regarding skiving. It seems that he usually skives the counter to a feather about 1” from the sideseam line.
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I’d love to see the Soviet officer boot manual!
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The Russian title is:
Пошивка офицерских сапог
Literally: “Sewing of Officers’ Boots”
I’m not sure if it’s out of copyright. Soviet military publication. 1947.
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Little project update, ignore my absolutely filthy shop.
Boots are welted, shanks covers are cemented on and pegged, and We’ve got one sole on.
First time doing a leather toebox, and found put after lasting the toe on the first boot, that i needed to feather my transitions more heavily, and it went significantly better on the 2nd boot.
Welting with the premade waxed ends from Lisa’s shop was a breeze, maybe its lazy, but not having to make my own really sped the process up.
Definitely gonna see about cutting a holdfast for the heel seat in the coming pairs, as whip stitching went okay, but I’ve always struggled getting even stitches and tension
I belive it was either Pascal, or lee miller that i saw using scrap cream cow as void filler for the forefoot, but i gave that a shot, and i can say that it worked fabulously.
I certainly didnt temper the first sole as well as i should have, as i was able to peg just about right away. I was going to leave the soles entirely natural on this pair, but I slipped with an objectively scary sharp knife cutting my blind stitch, and I figured a dyed shank and heel seat would be more appealing than one that looks like a grisly modern art piece. Gotta do a little more layout and tape the forefoot on the sole to sand the shank area and smooth my heel base; But otherwise, im very happy with how these have gone so far.
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No shame in that!
I snapped a Dick Anderson number 3 awl once, plunging in and out of uncarved heel seat leather. I’ve always cut a channel on the inside since.
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Big share! Can I ask who the maker is?
No idea tried the cowboy makers groups. Somebody midwestern sounded like. Juicy mystery for you! I got these as VHS tapes from another maker (Stephanie Ferguson) who didn’t remember where she got them. Bought a VCR to digitize them
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Ya know, I had totally forgotten you posted these. I had totally been flying by the seat of my pants and a couple of Lisa’s videos on these.
I think I just enjoy the struggle at this point.
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I feel like I get a lot more out of any educational material by trying first. It’s like your brain now has a list of the problems to solve and the video or book is a list of potential solutions rather than a firehose of words
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Definitely!
The semi-YOLO approach is how I tend to learn best, and then following that up with questions and reading material now that I have a grasp of it.
Got the last slipped, and a heel built on one boot.
Very, Very messy looking; but it’s been an excellent learning experience.
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I’ve been watching through the cowboy boot making videos you digitized. Thanks again for sharing.
So far, I’ve heard the presenters call each other Dennis and Doug. Doug is the heavier set. Dennis wears the glasses.
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