Comforter turned chair

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it, but Boy and I have been doing a lot around the home to repair, maintain, and update all sorts of things, which partly explains my long absence here. I’m nearly all moved in to my new craft space, with mostly just a little cabinetry work to go, the counter tops, and new carpet. We do it ourselves (and mostly Boy, really), so it’s slow work, but rewarding (and cost saving!), and tiring and messy so I haven’t been making any art. I like tidy spaces, you understand.

That said, my office chair that I had recovered in 2014 with some cheap cotton had definitely seen better days and likely needed to be changed years ago. I had an old comforter that has nice machine crewel embroidery on it, so I opted to give it a go and repurpose it as upholstery. It’s not really meant to take the abuse of a chair, I’m certain, but I will enjoy it while it lasts. And if the chair needs a change again, I’ll happily find something new. The way it changes the space is fun.

To think this 80$ chair has lasted about 20 years is pretty awesome, if you ask me. I didn’t realize it would fall into the BIFL category more than the toss-it-shortly one, but hey! Can’t say I’m complaining. And, since my younger self had thought that price tag was an expense almost impossible to swallow, I know she’d be thrilled to see it still in use today. Oh, wait, she is! That’s me!

The original was a dark blue. The fact that most chairs are still dark blue, black, or dark brown confounds me. Where are the women designers? Don’t give me that garbage that it hides stains – have you seen the plethora of couch colors?

Here’s my late heartsong Sasha after I had refinished it with the cotton in 2014:

I did not take a photo of it just before this new reupholstery. It was worn thin and had many tears along the seat edge. In total, it didn’t look as bad as I would have guessed though. It never took a stain, and except for the two areas of tears, it looked almost like new.

For now, this is the best pic you’ll get of today’s celebration, though. The process was exactly the same as the 2014 version, sans interfacing. We repaired the (now larger) crack with JB Weld this time. I have plenty of the comforter left and am thinking about perhaps making a curtain for the window that now is part of my office study space. (It’s just a fancy name for office, to match my new craft room studio, mostly completed new bedroom sanctuary, and still-on-the-list bathroom spa;)

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Comforter turned chair

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it, but Boy and I have been doing a lot around the home to repair, maintain, and update all sorts of things, which partly explains my long absence here. I’m nearly all moved in to my new craft space, with mostly just a little cabinetry work to go, the counter tops, and new carpet. We do it ourselves (and mostly Boy, really), so it’s slow work, but rewarding (and cost saving!), and tiring and messy so I haven’t been making any art. I like tidy spaces, you understand.

That said, my office chair that I had recovered in 2014 with some cheap cotton had definitely seen better days and likely needed to be changed years ago. I had an old comforter that has nice machine crewel embroidery on it, so I opted to give it a go and repurpose it as upholstery. It’s not really meant to take the abuse of a chair, I’m certain, but I will enjoy it while it lasts. And if the chair needs a change again, I’ll happily find something new. The way it changes the space is fun.

To think this 80$ chair has lasted about 20 years is pretty awesome, if you ask me. I didn’t realize it would fall into the BIFL category more than the toss-it-shortly one, but hey! Can’t say I’m complaining. And, since my younger self had thought that price tag was an expense almost impossible to swallow, I know she’d be thrilled to see it still in use today. Oh, wait, she is! That’s me!

The original was a dark blue. The fact that most chairs are still dark blue, black, or dark brown confounds me. Where are the women designers? Don’t give me that garbage that it hides stains – have you seen the plethora of couch colors?

Here’s my late heartsong Sasha after I had refinished it with the cotton in 2014:

I did not take a photo of it just before this new reupholstery. It was worn thin and had many tears along the seat edge. In total, it didn’t look as bad as I would have guessed though. It never took a stain, and except for the two areas of tears, it looked almost like new.

For now, this is the best pic you’ll get of today’s celebration, though. The process was exactly the same as the 2014 version, sans interfacing. We repaired the (now larger) crack with JB Weld this time. I have plenty of the comforter left and am thinking about perhaps making a curtain for the window that now is part of my office study space. (It’s just a fancy name for office, to match my new craft room studio, mostly completed new bedroom sanctuary, and still-on-the-list bathroom spa;)

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I worked up Nina Stajner’s swan coloring page from the Lake app in a (mostly) single solitary stitch: the stem stitch.

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read more
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Oliver Bliss lead a TextileArtist.org’s Stitch Club recently centered on color blocking, and I was inspired to stitch up a skull with flowers.

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I worked up Nina Stajner’s swan coloring page from the Lake app in a (mostly) single solitary stitch: the stem stitch.

read more
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As part of TextileArtist.org’s Stitch Club, Ruth Norbury tasked us with making a textural mixed media peice and I chose Hubert Robert’s La Fontaine painting as my subject.

read more
Stitch Club: Steel-Jessop

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As part of TextileArtist.org’s Stitch Club, I made a map of Guy Gavriel Kay’s Sarantium (by Martin Springett) following Bridget Steel-Jessop’s workshop.

read more
Kintsugi stones

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I used a kintsugi kit by Jack Richardson to meld two broken stones back together.

read more
Painting Miniatures

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I tested my painting skills in a challenge with Boy: who could paint the best D&D miniature?

read more
Hexie Dreams 16

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I have a total of 107 flowers ready for my fussy-cut EPP Hexie Dreams quilt and am moving on to planning how to arrange them.

read more
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You can stop here if you don’t wish to read anything sad today. It’s already bad enough with Roe v. Wade, war, and such, I know.

read more
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As part of TextileArtist.org’s Stitch Club, I followed Valerie S. Goodwin’s workshop to create a map of one of my favorite places.

read more
Hexie Dreams 15

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For my fussy-cut EPP Hexie Dreams quilt, I’ve so far stitched together fifty seven flowers.

read more
Ukrainian Whitework

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In 2020, my embroidery guild offered a class on Ukrainian whitework: the Summer Lace pattern in all white by Terri Bay. Of course, this was well before the war occurring now. My friend, then, had recently gone to Ukraine to meet her father's side of the family for the...

read more
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I’ve begun sewing the hexies together for my fussy-cut EPP Hexie Dreams quilt.

read more
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All the hexies are prepped now for my Hexie Dreams fussy-cut English Paper Piecing quilt.

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Thirty more hexies have been prepped for my Hexie Dreams fussy-cut English paper piecing quilt. I’m either ready to start piecing them together, or just a few more to go – time will tell what I decide!

read more