The cross stitched chair

Proving once again that with a needle and thread, you can transform just about anything, check out my first completed Kiwi project: a cross stitched chair. Yup. You read that right. I cross stitched a chair. I'm not even the first person to do it (if you can believe it). I got the idea from a tutorial over on My Poppet.

A few years ago my aunt gave me this classic, cane-seat chair (the same aunt who gave me my vintage sewing box and found me my first set of Pyrex bowls). She had it stripped and the caning redone before she passed it on, but it was kind of dull, don't you agree? Because of the intricate weaving of the cane seat, I couldn't imagine ever painting it, so I've been waiting ages for a better idea.

I am in love with the finished results. Though my colours look like I copied the original tutorial, they were actually inspired by Abner's Numbers blanket (which was made with Alexander Henry's Countdown fabric). The pattern is simply meant to look like random patchwork ('cause it all comes back to quilting in the end).

Just look at those neat little x's! With all their crosses going the same direction and all.

Abner helped me use up some of the remaining bits to pretty up the spindles on the chair back. Turns out, tapestry wool frays like nobody's business and doesn't like to stay knotted, so I dabbed a wee bit of clear nail polish on each knot to keep it from coming unraveled. Worked like a charm.

Since caning is rather more see-through than regular cross stitch fabric, the back had to be rather neat, to say the least. This is my attempt at neat. No knots. Just weaving in ends and dabbing on nail polish.

Now that mommy is done making her pose with her chair, Abner is loving the newest addition to her bedroom.