Dreaming About Chairs

After being off for a week, my first day back at the shop was fabulous! Designer and teacher Alethea Ballard was in the shop for a day of instruction on her Dream Chair Quilts. She is a delightful person and the students had a great time in her class. I had a blast watching each project unfold.


Since Alethea's home is in California, she wasn't able to bring all of her finished quilts, but she was able to show lots of examples on her computer. All of the students were able to complete most of their design in class. Here are their works in progress:


One of the great features in her pattern is that each project comes in two sizes, so you can make a big statement with a single chair, a small statement, or put together several small chairs into a group. I'm sure there are hundreds of other combinations, but I love it that the multiple sizes are there without having to use your copier to create a larger or smaller version.






After seeing all these great examples, I have started thinking about making one. I think it would be fun to make two chairs side by side. One is reality...in my case, there would be a dog toy and stray army men underneath, a blanket draped over the back, and probably a book laying in the seat. The other is fantasy...I'm going to have to think about that a bit. Would it be a rocker on a porch, a luxurious chaise lounge, or a chair and ottoman? It's so great to be freshly inspired.