Every Nine Years - Upholstery!

Honestly I hesitate to call it upholstery - this project is so simple! However, handling upholstery fabric is very different from the fabrics I usually manipulate. It's heavy. It's stiff. It does not want to ease. It barely fits on my sewing table.

But, evidently, every so often, I get a bug to do a simple home improvement project. I'm planning a little party in a few weeks so I found myself motivated.

version 1

These wicker love seats are maybe 25 years old. They sit in the sunroom and do not see a lot of action. The last time I recovered them was 9 years ago. I covered them with Home Depot drop cloths. 

version 2.

The previous covers were so dark and dreary that I went a little wild and chose white. And that worked out great until 3 years ago when we adopted 2 black cats.

Since the arrival of our sweet kitties, I have kept them mostly covered with old white sheets. From time to time, I wash and dry the sheets to remove the cat hair. And, then, when guests are on their way, I whip off the sheets and pretend we keep perfectly white seats despite our black cats.

version 3.

This time around I chose a more practical fabric. I hope. It is probably some kind of polyester. I find that most upholstery fabric is polyester and I did not want to make this a hugely researched project, so I just popped over to the local big box store and found a roll of pretty upholstery fabric.

Because I bought everything they had, it was a bit nerve wracking to cut the cushions. And they had 1/2 yard less than I actually needed. As I've mentioned, I am the queen of buying-too-little fabric. And I got lucky again! Though most upholstery fabric is about 56" wide, this one was closer to 60" wide, including the selvedge.

I cannot believe how many times I measured and plotted on graph paper. I even got outside counsel from Mr. Now Sewing on the final cuts. It should be simple. The project is basically composed of 8 box-shaped cushion covers.

When I finally finished the last boxed corner, I was thrilled! And ready to move on to more satisfying sewing, like the on-going k3n weekly project. All in all, it took me about 3 days. So, really not bad.

And I am quite pleased with the final result. Now that I've taken pictures, I will replace the sheets until the party guests start to show up. Or maybe not.

Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane

Each year, for about the last ten, I have participated in a Lenten practice, creating one of the Stations of the Cross. 

Stations of the Cross are a series of 14 (or more) pictures of Jesus' journey, as represented in Holy Week prior to Easter. Just ahead of Lent, a member of my church puts out a call for volunteers to create the stations, the only restriction being the 24" x 30" size. The series is hung in the church nave during Holy Week and they remain in place until the next year's call for art goes out the the church members.

Various media are used - collage, acrylic paint, oil paint, other inks and paints, photographs, and small scuptural pieces that will fit on a 24x30 frame. With one exception, mine have been fabric pieces, sort of small quilts, though none of mine really fit the strict definition of a quilt. I sew the piece onto a painted canvas.

In progress, after the hollowing out.

Each year, it is a struggle. Yet each year, I sign up again and begin the struggle. I believe this is an important Lenten journey for me, the struggle, the goofs, the final piece.

a test

This year I chose Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, an event that appears in all four of the New Testament Gospels. I began with the scriptural stories and also recalled my own visit to the Garden of Gethsemane. I imagined. I sketched. I sewed. I unsewed.

Before he was hollowed out.

Materials: 

During fall 2023, I took an intensive online course from Jane Dunnewold. The title was Color Mastery: from White to Wow. I used unbleached silk noil and Pro MX fiber reactive dyes. I am also working my way through 2024 with a YouTuber, k3n Cloth Tales. I had some eco-prints and dyes inspired by her work.

Process:

I started with the background in three segments - sky, Jerusalem skyline, and the garden itself in the foreground. The sky is raw-edge applique with an invisible stitch, to start. I really like raw-edge work because it avoids the lumps caused by seams. On the other hand, I wanted the *lumps* on standard needle-turn applique for the Jerusalem skyline, in order to articulate buildings. And the ground for the garden is also (mostly) needle-turned applique.

another test.

Creating the foreground was the most challenging for me. The story is complex so there were many ways to go. I tried out pictures of sleeping figures.

Yet another test.

I created a super-sized figure that I placed over the background, a Jesus-figure. After I appliqued the figure on and added decorative embroidery to the edge, I decided it was all wrong. So I next cut out the center. Church friend, Margaret, pointed out that, in the story, Jesus was hallowed out by his anguish. Thank you, Margaret.

Background

Then I created some bias tubes and began to form the olive branch vines and leaves. Gethsame literally translates Olive Press. And today's garden is full of olive trees.

Building up the background on cotton flannel

After that, I added embroidery to highlight and support various aspects of the piece. For example, I outlined the buildings to give them a bit of depth, adding a few details.

I was hand-stitching almost non-stop in the lead-up to Holy Week. It was such a relief to finish and be completely ready for Holy Week. The church held a *Starving Artists* dinner of soup and bread. Each artist described their journey in creating their art piece. It was a beautiful event.

St Patrick's publishes a nice pamphlet with write-ups on each station. Here is a photo of three. The one on the far right is by my wonderful granddaughter, H. This is their second year on this Lenten journey.

If you celebrate, then Happy Easter! Happy spring and Happy sewing!