Thursday, July 16, 2015

Summer Break (update)



My daughter and family arrived at their beach house today and she sent me a photo of the stool covers....



She said they were easy to put on and added much needed color to the bar areas.  If you look closely, the matching table mat is on the counter to the right.




Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Summer Break 2015



I survived the school year and am now enjoying my summer break...  aka: July!  The first project I wanted to tackle was stool covers for my daughter's bar stools using THIS TUTORIAL (link).


After discussing her fabric choices with my DD, I found this fabric and ribbon on a road trip to Asheboro, NC.



I marked the 1" thick foam seat cushions...


...and cut those out (using electric knife) before beginning to cut the fabric.


The tutorial was easy to follow...


 

...and I even pinned the edges down before sewing the first seat cushion. 


It was easy sewing down the edges with and without the pins so I stopped pinning after the first one.




The bodkin I have isn't as scary as the one the tutorial lady has and has worked well for over 40 years!


I cut a small slit in the inside edge and threaded that ribbon through each seat cover.


After evening up the ends of the ribbon (2 yds of ribbon per seat cover), I stitched through the ribbon opposite the small slit to hold the ribbon in the channel so it won't be pulled out by accident or come out during washing.


I "assembled" the seat cushions so that my DD could see what they are supposed to look like and showed her the easiest way to get them on the bar stools.

I also gave her 4 squares of the rubberized shelf liner to put on the foam before putting the stool on top to tighten the ribbon.  These will help with the slipping-and-sliding factor of the foam on the wooden seat.


My DD is pleased with the seat covers and also with the coordinating quilted table mat (square place mat kinda thing) and fabric tray that I made for her with leftover fabric.  No photos, sorry...


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I use my summer break for all the things that need doing when I'm not working... exciting things like:  getting the car serviced, mammogram, dentist, etc.   I decided to have a portable project for those times when I'm sitting and waiting....  and also for these hot summer afternoons when I pop a movie in the DVD player and hold the sofa down.

These will be face/wash cloths to replace some that are worn and not so pretty anymore.  At $1 each, these are way cheaper than buying wash cloths in the store, even with a 20% coupon!



No quilting going on right now... and I am going to visit my son and family this weekend.   However, I do want to finish quilting the current project.... hopefully, it will be finished before July is over!