Patchwork Dining Chairs

Do you know what's awesome?  Patchwork dining room chairs, that's what.  Or me, possibly?  I've been feeling pretty awesome...

I started these chair covers last Monday, somehow under the impression that I could whip them out in one day.  Laugh.  So, 21-inch patchwork blocks, each made up of (49) 3" finished squares... yeah, those take a while, even when strip-piecing.  Especially when you need eight.

And then I quilted them too, so I pretty much made a throw quilt last week and them stapled it to my dining room chairs.

Free motion quilting on the Juki!  I do love making those dogwoods.  It was such fun to go all-out with my favorite fabrics for this project.  What better place to constantly enjoy them?

At last minute, I attached some twill-like selvedge trimmings around the edges of the patchwork squares to reinforce the outer seams and give the staples something strong to attach through.  Not sure if that was necessary, but I had been saving those white twill selvedges for something.

After ripping out old staples, trashing the old covers, painstakingly cleaning all wood and reattaching the spanking new covers, we sat down to a late dinner on Saturday night and I beamed the whole way through. 

Or maybe not the whole way.  There was that part when Liam spilled milk on them...

That's ok, he made up for it by being awesome himself.  Loved the way I found his feet crossed just so.  He's always creating with paper and pens and colored pencils and sharpies and anything else. We got Faber Castell art sets for the kids for Christmas.  Mmm... all those pretty colors set in wood.  I could almost frame it!

So, in other house makeover news, I spray-painted some frames yesterday for the Big Blank Wall over the buffet.  We're going to take down those shelves and put up a photo collection there.

Also, I did remove two pieces of furniture from the living room (thanks Craigslist!) and reorganize.  Loving it!

My creative friend, Heather, who has been cheering me on and even pressing patchwork seems, helped me redecorate a niche in my kitchen.

From "blah" and cluttered and not-working picture frames.

To clean and organized and check out those hanging mugs!

Heather and I randomly started redecorating this niche on Saturday night.  Miraculously I had hanging hooks stashed away in the laundry room that worked perfectly. When does that happen?

What a weekend!  I'm feeling giddy and a wee bit surprised to see so. much. progress.  That's like 3 and 1/2 things from my list!  And I even completed another project completely non-house related.  Wuahhat? Crossing fingers I can ride this momentum through to my next project!