And the Quilting Adventures Continue

I've been such a neglectful blogger lately.  My bad.  Instead of boring y'all with my lame excuses, let me catch you up with all my quilting (and crafting) adventures.

So, where do I begin?  Hard to recap the past 4 months in a single post but in a nutshell, I have:

1.  Tried by hand at re-upholstering furniture  
2.  Attended an embroidery retreat at Crabapple Hill
3.  Started cross stitching
4.  Taken a beginning crochet class with my work friend
5.  Finished applique-ing all the blocks for my Abundance quilt
6.  Been addicted to Pinterest!

Let me start with the first item on my list.  There are so many instructions on Pinterest for DIY and upcycling projects.  So, I decided I was going to give my sewing chair a make-over.  

Here is the "Before" photo.

I don't know how old this chair is.  But it is a hand-me-down and I've owned it for at least 5 years now.  It used to belong to Patty.  She then gave it to Lynn.  Lynn then gave it to me.  So, the chair must be at least 7 years old.  It's still in pretty good shape.

What I love most about this chair is the storage underneath.  I keep my bobbins, sewing machine oil, etc. in the drawers.  But it needed a little bit of a face lift so I decided to change the cushion, repaint the wood and change the drawer handles.  

After watching a few YouTube videos, I was ready to go.

First, the chair had to be taken apart and given a very good and thorough cleaning.  

I took off the cushion and used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in French Linen to paint all the wooden areas of the chair.  The paint is quite pricey so I bought a small tester pot.  The nice thing about the paint is that it is so user friendly.  No need to sand and prime the surface.  Just slap on the paint and let it dry.  The paint dried really quickly and I bought a small jar of wax to slather on top of the painted piece.

Next came the cushion.  It was heavily stapled and glued underneath so ripping out the cushion cover took a bit more effort.

The foam was glued down to the wood and I had to tear and scrape it off.  Bits and pieces of foam was flying everywhere.  Not too fun.  

I chose a light pink decorator fabric with the Eiffel Tower on it and voila!

I don't think this is a very good photo but I think you get the general idea.  Pink + French theme = LOVE!  I stapled that fabric and cushion down to death and I know I didn't do a perfect job but I it really was a lot harder than I thought it would be.  It was difficult not to get pleats in the corners and for the height of the cushion to stay consistent.  But I'm very happy with the overall result.

And here are the new drawer handles.

Isn't she just gorgeous?  I just love my "new" chair.

It is sort of inspired by THIS chair, which I love!

And here's a peek of my sewing table and space.

It's a little bit of a mess so I'll give you a tour once I straighten up a bit.  

I still have some fabric left over so I think I will be replacing those cafe curtains with the new pink Paris fabric.  Do you think it will be too matchy-matchy?

It's a miracle what a fresh coat of paint can do!