Sunday Sewday!

It feels SO good to be back in my sewing room - - - or in my new sewing room. 

I am making a t-shirt quilt for the Grandkids school fundraiser and it's always fun to make additional auction items from the leftover shirts.

These burp cloths will accompany a tote/diaper t-shirt bag.  Pre-folded diapers make such a nice soft base for the babies tender face to rest upon (or burp upon). 

My sewing rocker

Several years ago, I bought a little rocker with no seat. Formerly there had been a caned seat that someone had removed. 

This is not my chair but mine is very similar.

This antique rocking chair identifies as a ladies sewing rocker and is also known as a nursing rocker.  Common in the late 1800s and early1900s these chairs had two main characteristics:

• Built lower to the ground to fit a women’s stature
• Contained no armrests. 

This allowed the space for a woman to rock and nurse babies, or to sew, knit, etc…

But I digress - - At the time of purchase, my plan was to put it outside with a potted plant in the seat. By the time I got it home however, I decided it was too nice to put outside.  

SO it became a shop prop for many years with quilts hanging over it.  When needed, we put a 15" square ruler over the seat hole.

Now that I'm retired, I decided to look into a seat for this little chair. A link from Pinterest led me to step by step instructions for making a replacement seat from tooled faux leather (fiber board).

It comes unfinished in a 14" square. I stained it, made a template and trimmed it and then I applied a coat of  polyurethane.  

Again, these first few pictures are from Pinterest as I did not think to take pictures as I was working on this project.

This step was not easy but, as the instruction say, take it slow.

The last step is to use an awl to punch nail holes in the seat and then apply it to the chair with upholstery tacks. I completed this task with just one Band Aid and one bruise when I missed the tack with my rubber mallet.

This last picture is actually my finished project. Just as in quilting, I took my time, doing it one step at a time, and it worked out great - well, great if I am the judge.

Winter in Chicago

Phyl (left) shares her favorite view with visiting cousin from Texas. That's a radiator below them which adds to the ambience of the spot.

 

Temperature Quilt Blocks

I've been posting the temps and corresponding colors for the past couple months but had gotten behind on the actual stitching.  So, on this snowy January day in Iowa, I got caught up.

I plan to continue to make blocks for each month this year and then determine if it's time for a quilt or for another year of blocks. That's kinda how you define retirement, right?

Nooooopen Sew

 It saddens me to say but, we have decided to postpone Open Sew at the Adel Library indefinitely.  Maybe somewhere down the road, we will all feel comfortable gathering to stitch and chat again.  

Big sigh!!!

Let the fun begin - - -