Finishing Friday

Taking a page from another blog I read (was it Elizabeth's from Studio E or another - I can't remember), I've designated Friday as "finish day". No new projects allowed! So each Friday I will try to finish something I've already started. It may not always be possible to finish up an old project in just one sitting but, at least I'll give it the old college try!

So- I finished the little shabby chic chair today. I decided I couldn't use the stitching I had first done because it was too close to the edge to wrap the cushion. I did receive an excellent suggestion from Scrapbooking Butterfly to use the first stitching to make a fire screen. I'm going to give it some thought. In the meantime, I chose a second design and started stitching again. I actually like it much better because the design is a little smaller so looks more in proportion to the chair seat. Here are the two stitch patterns together.

The new one I'm going to use is on the left.

Then I painted and dry-brushed the old chair and I like it much better than the original as well. With the seat cushion glued in, I may now have to find a little scene to put this in. Once again I'm showing the original chair and the new version next to it. I hope you like it. I do.
Now I have some time to check out my favourite blogs and see what they're up to. Have you checked out Marijke H.'s lately? She has made the most amazing St. John's Wort plant. I'm not sure I've ever seen a miniature plant turn out so realistic-looking. It was a tremendous effort but man, did she ever do a nice job. Hop over and have a look and be sure to click on the finish picture so you can see it better. I really want to be her when I grow up!!! See you on Monday! TTFN!!

Take a seat...

...but not this one - it took too long to stitch it to give it up now. Okay - it really didn't take that much time. I just like to complain. But one thing I certainly can't complain about is that there are 3 new followers on board this evening. Welcome Narina, Grandmommy and Kat! I hope you enjoy your visit.

Back to the chair revamp - I have a really bad picture of the finished stitching for you to see. It's evening and the lighting isn't that great but you can at least get a feel for it. You can probably see where my next concern lies - I stitched the design too close to the edge so it won't be easy to cover the seat properly as you can see the original seat size next to the stitched piece.

I will, of course, persevere, in my usual non-complaining, non- whiny, selfless way as I , once again, sacrifice my peace of mind (maybe that should be "piece of mind" given my often miniscule amount of brain-power) and my delicate fingers, for the greater good! That is the "mini" way, isn't it? ;D.

On Thursdays I teach traditional Irish dance and Irish language at one of our local elementary schools so I probably won't have anything done to show you. I'll have the chair finished for posting on Friday and perhaps some work done on the greenhouse. See you then! TTFN!

A Cinderella Story

Welcome Rosa and aandaferley (sorry, I don't know your name). I hope you enjoy your time on this blog as much as I enjoy having you visit!

This is a short post today. After posting pictures yesterday that included a little armchair I put in the greenhouse so you could get a sense of proportion, I took a good look at this little chair. It's an old, inexpensive piece of furniture that was probably one of the first pieces I picked up many, many years ago. I have never used it in any scene I have ever done or even contemplated and I had to ask myself why. Well, it really is very basic, and not very pretty with its dark, high gloss stain and finish, and its little gingham seat cushion. However, like Cinderella, a little cleaning up and dressing up could actually make it pretty enough to fit in with several of my future projects.

So, I ripped off the old cushion then painted the chair a blue colour. When completely dry, I'm going to cover over the blue with white, sand off different areas for a "shabby chic" look, and make a new seat cushion for it. I'm praying that it will err on the side of chic and not on the shabby side.

Below is how the old chair looked - very dated and definitely more on the shabby side. On the right is after I painted it blue - very uneven painting which is exactly what I was going for. Tomorrow I'll start dry-brushing white over it and decide where it should be sanded.
I thought a nice embroidered seat cushion would look good on a shabby chic chair so I went searching the net and found what I was looking for. On the project portion of Open House Miniatures, there are several free patterns for mini-needlework. I have chosen one of them to make a seat cushion for the chair. The pattern is in colour and is very clear and easy to follow. I hope it won't end up too large for my chair seat. I think the piece of leftover cloth I am using is 28 ct. but it could be 26. Hopefully that means the finished piece should be no more than one and a quarter inches square - just barely fits! If it turns out any bigger, I'll be in trouble! Keep your fingers crossed for me! Below you can see the beginning of it. The cloth looks like a really large count but you can tell by the floss cards next to it that it's actually quite tiny. I'll let you know how it turns out. TTFN!