Superior Quilts

historic Magma Hotel vintage bar

We made a field trip to Superior for an annual end of summer festival - Prickly Pear Days. 

We found some unique quilt art. But not all of them are actual quilts. See what I mean?

Apologies for the blur - I'm learning new phone/camera settings.
The black and white border is bugle beads in-the-ditch. And the binding is variegated crewel yarn whip-stitch. I like how the quote stitching crosses the background and first border.

There was a series of these mug-rugsized  arts, each with the hound's-tooth check background path. 

Did I mention my new camera issues? Sorry I can't show you the complete series.

These heart triptych fabric boxes are the same mug-rug artist, now with broderie-perse and stuffed hearts. I couldn't tell how they constructed the fabric boxes - sew clever!

This Town Hall quilt is painted blocks of local historic places.

I have to make special mention of the smokestack - it came down (video) 9 months ago. A landmark for 100-ish years, all gone. But commemorated in quilting and plenty more local arts :)

I just really liked this local artist painting of cow-girl with coyotes, so I wanted you to see it tool:0.

Thanks for sharing our trip!

Quilt my Chairs

Pinterest convinced me I could do this. Time to refinish ye 'ol dinning room chairs.

Yes, this is my dining room chair. I know, yikes, right?

"Chair, meet Drill."

This soft sanding attachment was less than a $1 at the hardware store.

[Why aren't quilty tools always that cheap? Just sayin'.]

You could use sandpaper instead. But, hey, if you have a drill...

 

You'll also need:

screwdriver (ask your chair what kind)

mallet (optional)

old towel

old quilt :)

staple gun

3 spraypaints: primer, dark blue, black

 



Looks better already right? Here's how it goes:

• take seat off chair w/ screwdriver.
• sand chair (but don't sand cane back - I learned)
• dust with old dishtowel
• spray with primer
• spray with blue spraypaint
• spray with black spraypaint

It's VERY dry here, so I only waited 15 minutes between spray coats.

You may want to let them dry longer. 

• Wrap quilt remnant right over old seat cover (pretend you're wrapping a present) and staple in place.

• Fit chair onto seat. Mallet is handy for making alignments.
• Screw chair to seat. [I found screws went right through old quilt, no need to pre-drill holes.]

 

Seat is covered with more of the old Northern Star remnant.

I takes two coats of spraypaint to cover primer. Blue undercoat gives a nice glow and keeps new black paint from being too stark with old quilt, don't you think?

 

But wait there's more -

I painted blue roses on top of chair back.

{Did I ever tell you how I learned to paint? Didn't think I would survive Alex's first day of kindergarten, so I invited all the Mom's on the street for a Donna Dewberry painting party to keep me busy until school was out. Hired a craft teacher for the party and we all learned to paint.}