another stool sample

{Sorry, I love that pun}.

So, a couple of weeks ago I was standing at my sink doing the washing-up. It was a Monday morning, quite early, and everyone was putting their rubbish bins out on the pavement because Monday’s the day the rubbish men come to Rosebank. I see the woman from the house across the road dumping her black bags and then she chucks out a piece of furniture!!! I was in my flip-flops and over the road before you could say “Other people’s junk”.

Turns out that it was a stool – was originally once a chair but the back disappeared – that had been in her great grand-mother’s house back on the farm.  I don’t which farm, or where, nor am I particularly good pals with this neighbour, but I do know that I can’t bring myself to relieve somebody of something that reminds them of their family history. No, not even me. Are you sure? Yes. Sigh.

         

That’s what it looked like. I said I would clean and sand it down and maybe give it another coat of paint. I also decided to make a round cushion for it. Now it looks like this:

      

As you can see, I got two free models – Jessie, and part of Alex.

I did give it another coat of paint, and tidied it up very nicely underneath, but I like the distressed look so I sanded it down all over again.  For the cushion, I couldn’t decide which fabric looked nicer so I used both! The orange is a shweshwe cotton that I love, and that you can get in all different colours now. The cushion also gave me the opportunity to try something I’ve had on the back burner in my head: crocheting an edge on something fabric. It’s hardly original, you’ve probably all been doing it for years, but Janette’s post about her apron (here) and the useful tip about working a row of chain stitch first  (here) via Ellen, finally got me going. My crocheted shells ended up being a bit tight, which is why they’ve flipped up and stayed flipped, but I still like the effect.

Liesl was getting rid of it because she said it was cluttering up their garage so perhaps it means less to her than it would to someone else (me!), but I said I’d do it for her and I have. Now all I have to do is take it back across the road. But what’s the rush? Maybe later — I’ve gotten quite fond of it.

To be continued…

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Before and after

A few months ago I found this table at a Moving-On sale in Goodwood.
I’d gone to the sale hoping to pick up a mannequin but my entry number was one of the last ones called, so there were only unwanted dregs left for me. Peeved, I thought I should at least justify the trip by purchasing something, and lit on this. R50 = score!

Mosaiced and sprayed and socked, it is now this:

And I don’t mind telling you that everyone who saw it on Saturday laughed themselves silly at the crocheted socks. But I don’t care. I think socks are going to be the Next Big Thing for furniture. Am I alone in this, or does anyone agree with me?

To be continued…

Still on about stools

Whaddaya know, it’s a two-blog day.

In response to a suggestion that I make a cover for the stool for added comfort    (although my own posterior is plenty well-padded and certainly needs nothing further), I shall show you these: for weeks I have been playing around with variations on crocheted covers for footstools, and, as it happens, the first one (knitted) was unsuccessful. It is, however, PERFECT for the stool.

And here are the crocheted covers. As much as I like the shell edge, I find it’s better to do a border that tightens up because it sits better on the foam.  Can’t show you any actual footstools… they are in the wings awaiting paint.

Incidentally, it was through Tamara that I found a tutorial for a granny rectangle.  Thanks again for that :-)

To be continued…