I'm Done!

Remember that tease last week? The one with the Bear Paw block?  Well that project is finished, and I am oh so glad. Karen commented and then emailed me a couple of times with her guess. It started as a trivet cover, but I kept telling her to think bigger. The last guess was a surfboard cover!!!  Well, it was about the right size but we live in Colorado, and it's so far from any kind of water you could surf on, that I don't own a surfboard!  Great guess though Karen,  I sure got a big laugh out of  it!!

Here it is.... my secret project!

I have no idea just what I was thinking, when I decided that I was going to recover furniture, especially when it comes to piecing quilt blocks for furniture. Not to mention that there are 2 couches and 2 chairs along with a coffee table thing, that has 2 cushions on it also.  Yes count them, 18 cushions in all...YIKES!!  The next time I come up with one of these goofy ideas, I hope somebody knocks me into tomorrow!

This idea has actually been on the drawing board for about 5 years now. I bought the fabrics that long ago, and lost interest in actually doing the project shortly afterwards. Is this were I confess that I had to tear up the place to figure out where I had even stashed the tapestry fabric???  Now that my basement remodel is about complete, there seemed like no better time than now, to dig in and just get it done.

This is what the old cushions looked like.  YUCK!  I have always hated em, but my hubby thought they were just wonderful. Well, maybe 30 years ago when we bought this stuff, it might have been ok, but after that long I am so sick of the color, that I could hardly stand to look at em anymore. Sorry hubby!

I took apart a cushion and used the old pieces as patterns for the new cushions. I recovered the cording and reused it along with the zipper from each one, also. This of course, like any other project wasn't without it's share of issues. OR as I refer to them ARRRRRGH   moments!  :-)  My serger died in the middle of all this. Thank goodness, Patrick at my sew and vac shop got it back up and running in 2 days for me. I had the normal - sewing the wrong seams together moments! But the real cranker for me, was when I was about done with piecing it all, and I managed to get my iron too hot and melted one of the bear paw blocks...

Now that's enough to make anyone say a few choice things! Don't think I didn't consider leaving it and pretending it didn't happen, but my conscience got the best of me and I fixed it. I knew it would irritate me every day if I didn't.                       Let's see, then we dealt with the zipper pull, that came off a zipper as I was sewing things together, there were not stops at either end of the darn things.  A search online yielded a great tip for that issue. You can click HERE for that help, should you ever need it. It worked like a charm.

One of the best things I did, was to fuse Decor-Bond to the back of each piece. It stabilized things so they didn't stretch and shift as I sewed them together.   It also made it very easy to slide the new covers over the foam cushions, which was worth the price of admission in itself!

Note: I pieced the bear paw block and put the entire panel together before I fused the Decor Bond to it. I was afraid that there would be too much bulk otherwise.

Then, just 1 cushion away from wrapping up this entire adventure, I managed to rotary cut my finger trimming a piece of cording!!!!!!!  I am very lucky thank goodness that it isn't too bad. I have seem much worse, but it sure was another one of them ARRRGH moments again.

So, there you have it. Next week, after my carpet gets installed and my room gets put back together, you will find me relaxing with a big ole Strawberry (cause their in season) Margarita on my new couch. With my luck I better Scotchguard everything now, before spill on the darn new thing!

:-)