Oh the things we learn...

A long time ago, when I took my very first quilt class, I met some great people.  I'm not telling you quilters out there anything you don't already know.  And you know we are all eccentric to some point, too, right?  Yeah, whatever...  Deep down, you know it's true...

Anyhow.  I met a lady in the class that could do just about anything.  Over time (and I can't remember how or when or why it came up), she taught me how to "rush" a chair.  This isn't like rushing to the grocery store, or rushing a sorority.  It's an old form of creating a seat on a wooden chair.  She taught me how to do this on an old rocking chair that  has long been gone.

Where am I going with this?  

Every Sunday morning, my roomie and I go to her mother's house for breakfast, and the family gathers.  The chairs were taking a beating.  To the point where cheeks were falling through...  One day, I mentioned that I had learned how to re-do these kind of seats years before.  Maybe I could take one home and give it a shot.

So one at a time, over the last year or so, I've brought them home.  Here is how many of them looked.

I removed the old seats.  Sometimes, the rush had been glued down, and it was a mess under there.  But back to the basics, and the chairs were still good and solid.

It requires a good amount of strength, so there have been times over the past year I couldn't muster it, but I'm slowly getting them done.

 One of the biggest problems, is once I get it done, I forget to take an "after" picture. So I have a TON of before and during pictures, and only these two of a finished chair.  One chair.  Out of 5 done so far.

And I can tell you from Sunday morning experience, that while these may not look like they were professionally done, they sit VERY well.

Do you have any "hidden talents"?

AMW