Round and Round

Remember this piano stool?

I got it so I could have an adjustable seat when I'm sewing. Well, now it looks like this:

My husband, aka Eldin the painter (more about that here), painted it to match some other things in the sewing room, and I set out to make a new cover for the cushion. Awhile back I saw one of those videos that was making the rounds on the internet of a person drawing a design with repeated straight lines that turned into curves. What do you call that design? I was thinking of Spirograph or Magic Designer (remember those old drawing toys?) but it's not really made like those, and it's not really like Zentangle either, although it could be used as part of one. Anyway, I decided I wanted to do it in quilting with my walking foot. 

Here's my work near the beginning of the quilting:

First, I drew a hexagon with a protractor on a piece of fabric, layered the piece with batting and a backing, and sewed one line of stitching along the hexagon. Then I "drew" a few lines at a time with a ruler and followed them with my walking foot. If you look closely, you can see one of the lines on the left side of the hexagon in the middle. I was going to use my hera marker to draw, but it's kind of wearing out and doesn't make a sharp line anymore, so I used a bamboo skewer instead. It worked great!

Here's the order of stitching (please excuse really bad drawing): 

And I just kept going round and round until I reached the middle. My hexagon turned into a pentagon at the end, but I don't mind. Then, to fill out the rest of the space I quilted some scallops around the hexagon, and because I couldn't leave well enough alone, I added a wonky FMQ flower in the middle and some better FMQ flowers around the scallop. I trimmed the piece into a big circle, stitched the edges into a casing, and threaded a scrap piece of elastic through. Voila! Slipcover all done!

And it's even reversible to a kind of yellowish green on the back, although the bobbin thread is thinner and not as nice.

This whole project cost nothing (except for the old stool). All the materials were in my stash. I love that. I sat on the stool while I was treadling, and it was so comfortable having my elbows up to the right height. Fun to spin the stool round and round, too!

Speaking of before and after, remember this "before?"

Now my closet looks like this!!

I'm not quite done, but what a difference. And--true confession--I haven't sorted and tossed out/donated any fabrics yet. Maybe I won't need to. There's plenty of room in those bins. I'll show more pictures when I'm all done so you can see the left and right sides of the closet, too. Those bins were quite a find. They are a little smaller than the ones you usually find for cube storage so they fit just right on the bookcases. They came in lots of bright colors, but these golden yellow ones were cheaper than some of the other colors. They look great with my green carpet and with the decor of the bedroom (with some sunflower themed stuff from years gone by). The paint on the shorter bookcase and a little chest that you can't see here is leftover from our living room in our old house. It was still in good condition (after probably 25 years!) and a yummy "country cream" color that I'm thinking I'll need to match in new paint for the walls in the bedroom sometime. (Eldin hears me calling him for another paint project!) It's the kind of color that makes me think of butter mints that used to come in nut cups at weddings years ago. Yum!

Well, time to get back to work. I have a quilt top to finish. But I just have to leave you with a couple of spring pictures. Our ancient tulips are still coming up--and blooming!

I'm linking up today with Freemotion by the River for Linky Tuesday (yeah, I know I'm a day late) and with Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social. Click the links to their websites or click on their buttons on the right.

Have a good week and enjoy your befores and afters.