Mini-Makeover

You might find it hard to believe that for most of my married life, I have not had a quilt on our bed. Instead, we have had a couple of bedding sets we bought. When our cat got sick on the last bedspread, I took it to be cleaned and decided that I was done with that bedspread. I put a quilt on our bed, and have not regretted it in the least. However, I still had the shams from the bedding set, and this week I have replaced them.

Today, I will just talk about the square pillow. The two pillows behind have a bit of a special feature which I will talk about soon in an upcoming post.

I had a pattern from Moda  for a 22" square table topper called Starburst. I think it is something that is meant to be for Christmas, and it was made for using those little 2.5" packs called Moda Candy, I think.

Anyway, as I was organizing patterns last month, when I came across this pattern I knew it would work for this pillow. I only needed to add a small outer border for my 24" square pillow, but it was just easy as 1-2-3. I also used larger pieces for the solid areas, instead of 2.5" squares. I mean why make more work, right?

The quilt on the bed is made with 2.5" squares, and the pillow, while it isn't an exact match to the quilt, does just fine to fit in with its random blues. The fabrics used in our new pillow sham are all from my stash, most of which are quite old. I did not overthink any of the choices, and just trusted that the combination of blues would result in a happily scrappy blue "family."

I am a happy camper with my new look.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Many Irons in the Fire

One of the wonders of being retired is that one can do as much or as little as one wants. I seem to be of the "let's do more" philosophy lately, thus my title - I've currently got several irons in the fire.

I will begin today's post by showing you my newly finished chair. I picked up some upholstery tacks - copper, no less! - and put the necessary pieces back together with DH's help. I am very pleased with the results.

And now for the new iron in the fire. In March, when I taught beginning quilting at the local art space called Spark!, I was approached by some ladies who for whatever reason could not attend. They were interested in learning the basics, and wanted me to offer another class. Well, instead of doing it through Spark!, I am doing it here at my home. I will offer seating for 5 or 6;  students will bring their sewing machines and we will sew all day together. The goal will be to learn some basics of sewing and quilting, and also go home with a finished project. The first class will be next week, and we will be making a pillow.

I am still working out details and making samples. Here is a pillow front for an 18"pillow.

And below is a pillow front for a 14" pillow. I want to show them several different sizes and color combinations. I may do one more that would yield a 16" pillow, maybe in Christmas fabrics, just for diversity.

Never a dull moment! I am planning 5 classes, and each one will result in a different project. Several expressed interest in making bags or purses; others wanted to try a wall hanging or table runner. So we have lots of fun in store. It's exciting!!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

A Makeover

The chair at my sewing machine is old. It used to be part of a kitchen table set - those vintage 50's styles with metal legs, laminate tables and plastic seats. We never owned the entire set; maybe one other chair, now long gone. How we came to own this chair, I don't even recall. I know that we've had it for most of our marriage, which is 36 years as of last week. And it was definitely used when it came to us. Maybe we bought it at an auction or a yard sale. Not really important for this post, however. It was originally a red chair, as evidenced by the tips (one of which is missing); DH and I covered it in this brown a l-o-n-g time ago.

I decided a month or so back that this chair was ugly and needed a makeover. Also, I was tired of "sticking" to the plastic seat.

I took it out to DH's workbench to sand off the rust, which was plentiful.

After wiping the dust off, I headed out to the driveway to spray everything with primer. I repeated with a spray of paint in a copper color.

I have finished the seat. I added a layer of fresh batting along with this leafy Westminster fabric from my stash. The seat is attached, thanks to DH's handy staple gun skills. Now I must go to the hardware store to finish the back. I need some pretty upholstery tacks. I am very eager to finish this chair and return it to my sewing room.

Now, if you want to check my list from Monday, this is item # 11.

My previous post about the Snowbird Triangles is item # 9.

Proof that if I have a list I am more focused on finishing things.

Happy Quilting, Friends!