UPHOLSTERY FABRIC

Do you have a lot of friends that keep you in mind when an odd item or two comes their way?  Well, I do.  I have had rusty nuts and bolts, drier lint and upholstery fabric samples given to me in the past few months.  I guess that I ask for it as I try to use unusual things in my art.  

I had to take the day off work so that I could take my car in to the body shop (yes, I was rear-ended the other day - no one hurt).  The appointment took all of two seconds to assess the damage so I had the balance of the day free.  As chance would have it, I was standing in the middle of my messy studio (so where else would I be?) thinking of what I could do, other than clean up.  I found some of those upholstery fabrics and started cutting.  Each piece had this little eyelet thing on the corner and it had to come off.  Over 100 pieces were trimmed down to a uniform 6" square.

Now what to do?  I thought that all those squares should be stitched into a traditional quilt but each piece was stiff and heavy and didn't lend themselves to that use.  Last year my husband asked me to cover an old bench that sits outside our back door every summer.  The cover was well worn and was looking worse with each year.  It was one of those jobs that you get around to eventually.  Well, "eventually" happened today.  I stitched those 6" squares together to create a new bench cover.  I know that some of the fabrics are pretty wild and don't match each other, but I think they look great together!