Friday, August 26, 2011

Broken Dishes Lazy Boy Chair Cover

Yippee!  Another finished project.  I finished the Broken Dishes Quiltalong project that I just started last week.  I can't believe it is done.  I loved the Broken Dishes pattern with Ariane Quilts at

I chain pieced all the half square triangles and then chain pieced all of the halfs and then all of the blocks.  I used fabrics from my stash that rapidly grew after some cheap garage sale finds this summer.  Here it is with my little helper modeling it:
See the chair next to it?  That's what our chair covers used to look like (just a sheet that gets washed over and over)  I may sew the top of this quilted chair cover so that it stays in place.  I'm not sure if it will rip out from us plopping down on the chair yet.  I will let it stay as is on the chair for a while to see how it goes.

You can also see that I haven't put my sewing machine away (in background on kitchen table).  It is so much easier to quilt something out there instead of trying to do it on my cabinet.  I have learned from others blogs that it is so much easier to quilt when the weight of the quilt is on the kitchen table instead of my lap or rolled up in rolls.  Leah Day has soooooo many good tips for FMQ. 

The "little helper" was excited to see a new cover on "his" chair.  He immediately had to initiate it by eating butterscotch pudding (see that spot on the left side already above the red blocks?)  It came out easily with just a wet towel.

That's okay.  Protecting the chair is why I made it.  This photo also shows my second attempt at FMQ.  It's not even.  It's not great.  But it works.  I rather practice on something like this and see results.  Doing the same pattern over and over freehanded showed that I could improve after just a few blocks.  It's not a fancy quilt... it's a cover made with garage sale finds!  And really, it's not that bad.
Here's the back of the cover.  I have no idea where I would use this fabric when I purchased it at a garage sale for a dollar for three yards.  The yardage was perfect.  But to me, onions, apples, pears, and other miscellaneous fruit just don't go well together.  But it worked for this backing just great.
The dimensions for the quilt are as follows:
41" wide
72" long
for the armrests it is 52" wide for 24"  I used the broken dishes blocks on the underside of the armrests.

It took 79 broken dish blocks to make this cover.  Finished block size is 8" square.

I'm going to need the above details.  There's another lazyboy chair sitting next to this one that needs a cover.  No, it won't be the same as this one at all.  I am out of those scraps.  This was a great scrap buster project combined with my JoAnn's $1/yd muslin.  I was also able to use all of my scraps of Warm and Natural batting from my last two quilt projects with the help of Heat Press Batting Together iron-on tape.  Ahhhh! I just love something functional at a cheap price from things that I have AND I get to learn new techniques and continue my hobby.  Whohoo!


Broken Dishes

For a great giveaway of a Promonade fat quarter bundle sponsored by Julie at Intrepid Thread, visit
Adventures of a Cross Stitch Drama Queen at

5 comments:

Melissa ;-) said...

It turned out great! Glad it cleans well. That's a lot of work for something MEANT to catch messes!!

Ariane said...

I love how it turned out. I might just have to make one for my chairs. I love it!! It's such a great idea!! I would have never known that you bought that fabric at yard sales. You did a great job with it. Thanks for sharing it with us. Hugs Ariane

Marg said...

It turned out so well, and lucky it cleans up really well.

Beth said...

I love the pattern you used, and the colors are very pretty. How wonderful to be able to make something so useful from bargains.

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