Upholstery 101

I was raised by an idealist, do-it-yourself kind of mother. I don't think she ever met a project she was afraid to tackle. Mama doesn't believe in paying someone else to do what you can do yourself and she has a pretty firm belief that if they can do it, we can do it. She's also not a perfectionist and a firm believer in teaching your children to be hard workers. My brother, Benjamin, says that that's the attitude that made us painters. Painting was probably one of the first life skills we learned. In fact, I think we were almost grown before it dawned upon us that not everyone painted their house themselves. We've been known to paint rooms on the spur of the moment (see Mom's bedroom in a previous post) and we've gotten pretty fast at it. When we painted our living room (it was a dining room at the time) we did it all in one day; I'm talking having the pictures hung back on the wall before we went to bed. But, painting is not what this post is about. I bring it up merely to illustrate the fact that Mama has instilled in all of us children a firm belief that we can "do-it-ourself."

Learning to upholster has been on our to-do list for quite some time; Mama and I have talked about it for years. Then, we started talking about it with our friends, the Boatrights; that was about two years ago. About three weeks ago, out of the blue we decided to stop talking about it and actually do it. We set the date on Sunday at church, and on Friday morning, bright and early, Caroline and Mrs. Jane showed up at our house and we got started on our very first upholstery project. Or, maybe I should say, Molly Elizabeth, Caroline, and I got started; Mama and Mrs. Jane got side tracked.

We decided to do a wing chair that had belonged to my Grandmother. It was still in pretty good shape, but it's mauve-faded-to-pink color didn't really match our decor. Using the basic upholstery directions that Mom found on-line, and with the confidence born of many years of do-it-yourself projects, we set to work ripping the fabric off of a perfectly good chair.

When you are taking it apart you always start with the back.

You take the fabric off of the chair in the reverse order that it was put on. So, you start with the back and work towards the front. Keep each piece as intact as possible, because you'll use it for your pattern piece to cut out your new fabric. Also, take pictures as you go along so that you can refer to them if you have questions about how to put it back together.

These metal strips run down the sides of the back piece and are what attach the fabric to the chair. Make sure to save them; just straighten them out with your pliers and use them again!

Use a flat head screwdriver along with needle nose pliers to remove all of the staples. I recommend working with a sheet under the chair, because there are a LOT of staples to remove, and it would make clean up easier (we're still finding staples). Also, make sure to save the piping that you take off; you can reuse it.

Make sure to mark each piece so that you know where it goes and which way is up.

Leave the stuffing in place as much as possible. This front piece is the last one to come off and the first one you put back on.

Lay your old pieces down on your new fabric and cut out the new pieces. The fabric we used was a reversible fabric (creamy white on one side and pink on the other) that Mom had picked up on clearance a while back. She bought the whole bolt for $15 so we weren't really worried about messing it up. I don't think I would pick any really expensive fabric for your first project. Make sure to take note of where any sewing was done. For instance, we had to make darts on the very front piece and we had to hand sew in the half circle-ish piece that goes over the arm.

These darts were sewn on the machine.

For the first piece, we hand sewed it to the seat of the chair and then pulled it tight and stapled.

Mama taught Caroline how to make piping. Reuse the old piping and it will be exactly the right length!

Some of the pieces slide all the way through to the back of the chair to staple.

You need two pairs of hands to upholster: one to pull it tight, and one to staple.

If we look tired it's because it was late!

When we ran into a problem with the back piece at 1:00 a.m., we had to call it a day. We finished all but the back piece and the cushion. I finished those the next day. I had to hand sew the back piece across the curve at the top, because we couldn't get the staple gun in close enough with the curve. We've since discovered they make a metal strip called curve-ease to go around such curves. It has little teeth that you push the fabric into and simply hammer it shut; we'll have some of that next time!

Our finished project!

I must say that Caroline and I were pretty pleased (almost ecstatic) with the way our first project turned out. In fact we're already planning our next one!

Upholstering really isn't that difficult, and I think next time it will go much faster since we now know more about what we're doing. Remember the first rule of being a do-it-yourselfer: if they can do it, we can do it. If we can do it, you can do it.

Happy Upholstering!

Susan Liana

Free Pears

Now, that is a sign that would grab most anyone's attention. It certainly caught ours.

So, yesterday, Mama, Clay, and I decided to go pick some. We made a bee line to those pears like bees to a honey pot and asked the man outside if we could pick. He told us where to go, so around the corner we went to the pear-laden tree. It didn't take us long to pick about 40 pears, a good basket full. Well, let me back up, we didn't pick them all. Most of them were laying on the ground, perfectly ripe, so that all we had to do was pick them up! However, the yellow jackets were swarming about all of the luscious, fermented pears on the ground; I wasn't about to fight the yellow jackets for their mushy nest around the base of the tree! I guess that is why I only had 7 pears in my bag, while Mama's and Clay's bags were bursting their seams. Just know that it is faster to pick pears than strawberries, peanuts, or other small edible items. You should go pick pears sometime; it is very satisfying =).

Dangerous Game

Back in July we had about 16 kids over for the filming of Dangerous Game, Clay's latest movie. It took us 4 days to film the movie. Everyone was so excited and very supportive of his latest endeavor.

Clay had learned so much since filming Due North a year ago and he was anxious to put it into practice. He transformed our home during bright daylight hours into a nighttime party scene. While the sun was shining brightly outside with not a cloud in sight, he filmed a rain scene. He made us think that the plaster was falling from our ceiling along with the hail of bullets and the shooting scenes were so believable that Mama jumped every time she watched them. The actors all worked so well together and helped make his film a great success.

Last Monday, we had a party for the cast and their families to watch this 11 minute movie. We even had a special guest... Granddaddy, who came to spend the week with us. For such a last minute party there was a great turnout. We ate grilled hamburgers, watched the movie, and Clay gave out Dangerous Game DVDs and t-shirts to the cast. We had lots of fun! Thanks everyone for your hard work, your support, and your enthusiasm. The movie couldn't have happened without you.

You can see Clay's movie here:

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Mama's turn...

Even if we didn't have time, we made time to redecorate last week. Since we moved here in '05 to now, Mama's room has been on the back burner, so to speak, and has not made it to the top of the "things to do" list. Poor room (or should I say poor Daddy and Mama), it hasn't had a new design since Clay was born 16 years ago! Things have definitely changed. Wednesday, right after lunch, Mama's new bedding from Williamsburg arrived in the mail. That inspired us to paint so Mama rushed off to Lowe's and by 4:30 p.m. Mama, Susan Liana & I were painting up a storm. Benjamin joined the painting party when he got home from work, but there wasn't room for the rest of the guys to join us. By 4:00 p.m. the next day we had pulled the room apart, taped, painted, and put it back together. We finished really decorating that night. So we were done with it all in a little over 24 hours (we slept in between though). You can still smell the paint, but every time you walk in the room you get a sense of satisfaction. It is a beautiful, peaceful haven for Mama & Daddy.

Survival...a week of fun.

Much to my great surprise I actually enjoyed Survival South East. Up until the week before we left I had been dreading this trip. You all know me, I am very much a "girly girl" and so surviving out in the wild wasn't exactly my idea of fun...so I thought. Everyone had been telling me I would have fun, but to be honest I didn't really believe them. They all said that since I was such a "social butterfly" I would make lots of friends...well, I didn't really believe that either. In the end I did make lots of friends. I guess it helps when you go on an event like this to have other friends who are going with you; I had 6; Clay, Anna & Kevin Heritage, Lillie Hobson, Catherine Mullins, & Abby Shackelford.

We drove up with the Heritages, a fun 5 hour drive. In Barnesville we stopped for lunch at a local little pizza place. OH MY GOODNESS! it was the best pizza I think we had ever had! If we go through Barnesville again we know where to stop. We planned on going to the camp a few hours before check-in time just to look around, but our pizza excursion made us just on time, not early. It was alright because once we got there we realized there really wasn't a whole lot to explore. We met up with the Hobsons there, checked in, then the moms went to everyone's cabin to drop off our luggage and we headed to the gym. We played a few games of "Four Square" and met a couple people. Then it was time for the moms to go. When they left I kind of got that lonely feeling. It was different; I had never been off like that without Mom. It was a good thing Clay was there.

That week was definitely Thermally Oppressive (we weren't allowed to say "hot"). They divided us up into our teams and then the first activity was to make our flag and come up with a chant. The Yellow team's (my team) chant was definitely not worth repeating, but Clay's chant (the Orange team) was awesome. I will just go ahead and tell you that my team won at the end of the week with 2200 points!! I was excited.

I will tell you some of the activities: seeing how many people your team could get over the wall, seeing how many people you could get over a beam, getting your whole team on a 2'x2' box, and lots more. My favorite thing I believe was the beam. We also would sit in on 30 minute sessions and learn about fire building, shelter building, primitive fishing, etc.. The last day they sent us off into the woods for a few hours and told us what we had to do. It was a simulated survival experience. We had to build a waterproof shelter, build a trap, make a water still, do some plant identification, & build a fire. Later they came along and graded our work. Free time was also something we had a lot of. Generally during free time you would go tho the gym and hang-out or play sports. Dodge ball was my favorite. Some people went to their cabins and took naps which most days sounded really good to me, but I was too afraid I wouldn't wake up. Talking at night in the cabins was always a lot of fun.

Over all I had a very good time. It might have been Thermally Oppressive, but the cabins had A.C.! I believe I would like to go back next year, which is a good sign that I had fun.

Me going over the wall.
A teammate getting the rope.
The spider web.
Trying to get the whole team on the box.
Our team and our Teepee.

First off the vine!

This is our first Cantaloupe off the vine this year! I went out to check on its progress yesterday, only to find that it had already fallen off the plant, yellow and ready to eat. I think it is going to be enjoyed for supper tonight.

From Seed To...

This.

Here are just a few pictures of our abundantly green little square foot gardens.

We are growing:

• Cantaloupe
• Squash
• Zucchini
• Cucumbers
• Peas
• Beans
• Okra
• Basil
• Thyme
• Apple Mint
• Sage

We are growing the Cantaloupe up a trellis and it is doing well. Already their are 3 Cantaloupe the size of a soft ball (or bigger) and one almost ready to pick, and of course lots of tiny ones. We are excited.

A side view of our garden.

Just about half of this bed is filled with Cayenne peppers.

It had just rained and so I couldn't resist taking a picture of the watering can.

This is one of our four Basil plants.

Garlic Chives and Beans.

Our Butter Beans (you can see the Cantaloupe in the background) .

This is what our little garden produced Saturday!

The Cantaloupe plants.

Daddy just recently hung up this pretty little Hummingbird feeder in the corner of our garden. We have seen one green Hummingbird coming pretty often, not just to the feeder, but to the Cantaloupe as well.

Our Zucchini plant is getting so big that this leaf had to pop through the pickets to get sun.