Road to Oklahoma quilt

Hello!

I had made a personal commitment to make a blog post once a week. I had to replace my laptop and couldn't find my way back to my blog. I feel so silly. Thankfully I found a really old email that had a link and managed to work my way back. Wahoo!!

I have started on a new quilt. My husband drove me around the state this past summer on a quilt shop hop. We had the best time hanging out together. I picked up several block patterns and plenty of fabric.

I planned ahead for this shop hop and saved money. That way when I requested the free block pattern, I could also buy a yard or two of fabric. I wanted to support the wonderful local shops that participated. And wow talk about fun! I had given myself permission to pet the fabrics and take some home!

This years theme was Road to Oklahoma. There were special batik fabrics with Oklahoma symbols. I love them! Each block finishes at 12 inches. And since each shop designs their own block, this is basically a sampler quilt.

Have you ever made a sampler quilt? I had not. I am frustrated that I don't have a long range plan for cutting or sewing. It stresses me to look at the fabric I have available and wonder if I will have enough. On the flip side, I am really enjoying the variety of blocks. If this was just a scrappy quilt it would probably be easier. However I chose the added stress by limiting myself to the Oklahoma fabrics. I'm a goofball :)

My goal is a generous lap quilt. I do not have enough patterns as there were only 23 shops in the hop and I did not make it to them all. So I have gone offroad with a few blocks. We'll see how it goes :)

Recovering Dining Chair Seat Cushions

Hello!
Today I am working on recovering my dining room chair seat cushions. Work in progress :)
It's a simple project. EVERYBODY seems to have done it. Except me.

See how the pleather is peeling. Ugh!

We have an awesome big dining table. It easily seats 8 people on big comfy chairs. It was bought in 2011, so it is only 7 years old. However the chairs are upholstered in .... pleather? They looked like leather. Fake! The top layer of the 'fabric' is peeling. Our oldest granddaughter loves to sit and peel during dinner. So the chairs look pretty bad.

Staples to remove dust cover

Upholstery fabrics are insanely priced! They were starting about $45 a yard! That does not fit in my budget. I considered denim but it didn't fit with the style of the table. I finally found some acceptable sale fabric online.

I checked a couple of tutorials and dug in.
First step removed the cushion from the chair. Hubby had one off of a chair that broke a leg. I will learn on this 1 cushion.
Second step, remove the staples. All 4 gazillion. Each layer removed showed more staples on the layer underneath. Oh my ....

The cambric dust fabric is free.

The piping is removed.

I started on the staples to remove the atrocious pleather and my hubby said to leave it on to put 1 more layer of something between us and the foam. It felt smooth enough so I agreed. Plus it is less work. There are so very many staples holding the fabric down.

I measured and cut a piece of fabric. Centered the cushion on it. Pulled up the edge, put the staple gun against the surface, squeeze.
Nothing.
Check that the electric stapler is turned on.
Squeeze. Nothing.
Check that the power strip is on.
Squeeze. Nothing.
Now I'm flipping switches like a crazy person.
Check the pressure do hickey on the stapler. Check the cord, power strip and on/off button again.
Squeeze. Bing! Success!
One staple down!
What can I say, I'm gifted, LOL.

I stapled in the center of each side as instructed.
Stapled more moving out to the corner.
Tried to follow the directions to make a smooth corner.

The corners are not smooth

Totally mucked that up, LOL.
It's staying as is for now. If I get the technique learned I will come back, pull the staples and redo it. Otherwise it will be fine. We're sitting on these cushions not showing them off to strangers.

TaDa!

Here is the mostly finished cushion. I did not trim the excess fabric from the back yet. I am sure I will learn to do this better as I do more cushions. Just in case I want to 'fix' this one, I want all the excess fabric available to me.

Edited ...
I pulled out some black broadcloth I had from another project and used it to make the 'dust' layer on the bottom of the chairs. I considered buying cambric but the shipping was going to take over a week. I wanted this project wrapped up.

One day I will have to learn how to redo the backs

The cushions are done!! I'm doing a happy dance. I love how they look and tonight my hubby reattached 2 cushions to the chairs, so we ate dinner in comfort. Wahoo!