The Stitching Chair

What is your favorite seating arrangement while stitching? Here’s what I’ve tried:

• An Old Lazy Boy – We had a couple of older Lazy Boys in the downstairs family room and I started out sitting in one of those. It seemed very comfortable until I sat in it for a few hours. Mostly I had just sat in it for a few minutes a time. I told Vince . . I think this recliner needs more stuffing. He sat in it and he said “Oh, my . . your butt about ends up on the floor.
• An Electric Swivel Rocking Recliner – I bought an electric, swivel, recliner for the sewing room so I could sit and stitch with Boots. I told Vince . . I spend more time in the family room . . let’s swap those recliners so we brought the electric, swivel, rocking recliner into the living room. With Oscar sitting with me, every move he made, the chair either swiveled or rocked or made some movement. Even the smallest amount of movement made it very difficult to hit the hole in the linen while stitching so that didn’t work.
• A Loveseat with an Ottoman – Then I thought maybe a loveseat with an ottoman might work. There would be room for Oscar to sit with me. I could prop my feet on the ottoman. We went to the furniture store and looked at loveseats, found one, sat it in for 10 seconds, thought it was great, bought it. My legs are short and the seat part of the loveseat is too long so it hits me about two inches below my knee so it’s very uncomforable to sit in. And, the ottoman moves. Every move I make, it gets a bit farther from my feet.

While at my uncle’s last spring, I sat and stitched in a little chair he has and it was so comfortable. I loved it for stitching. I had no idea what it was called. He sits in that chair to read and he reads a lot. Had it been a chair he never uses, I would have begged him for it. I’ve kinda been looking for one since then. I keep looking online, at the local furniture stores, can’t find one. One of the flea markets has decent used furniture and a lot of it is older. This morning Vince said “Let’s go down there and see what they have.” They have a room full of furniture so we looked. Nothing was exactly what I was looking for, though I did sit in about 20 different chairs. I felt like Goldilocks must have felt. One was too hard, one was too soft . . nothing was just right.

Vince wanted to go look in a booth that sells tools so I was walking around and came upon a chair almost exactly like my uncle’s.

I took that picture to his stepdaughter and asked her if that was similar to my uncle’s chair in the corner where he sits? She wrote back and said YES . . that’s just like his glider rocker. Ahhh . . a glider rocker . . now I know what I’m looking for.

Vince looked at the chair and ottoman. The seat pad and the pad on the ottoman are attached with Velcro. The back pad is attached with ties so I could easily buy new ones or make some. Vince was all ready to get it and I hesitated because Oscar likes to sit next to me when I sit and stitch or knit and I like for him to sit with me. In that chair, there’s no place for him to sit with me. I think, at least for now, he’s having to deal with Cooper and his sharp teeth and then if I move to where he can’t jump up and sit with me, or snuggle next to me and sleep . . I don’t want to do that to him and, I’d miss his little warm body next to me.

I think what we’re going to do is bring the reclining loveseat from the sewing room into the living room and put the new loveseat and ottoman in the sewing room. They have slipcovers so Boots can sit on them with me. The other recliner is still in there too.

The reclining loveseat is the one I bought for the apartment in Nevada. It has a “console” in the middle and two cupholders. When I bought it, Addie and I thought it would be great for sitting and eating popcorn and drinking milkshakes! I found the console kinda in the way but Addie loved it. When we bought this house, Addie wanted to know if we could put the love seat in the sewing room so we did.

At that time, I was stitching using the Lowery floor stand and it didn’t work well with the super wide, overstuffed arms of the recliner so that’s when I bought the electric recliner. Now that I’m using the lap stand, I think the recliner will be fine. The seats, even though separated by the console, are wide enough that Oscar can sit with me. If Cooper wants to sit with me too, it’s going to be a tight squeeze but one of them may end up wanting to sit on the big, wide warm or on the padded console. I’m also thinking that when I get up from stitching, I can tuck the chart, the floss, the needle book in the console and close it and that might keep little dogs out of it.

One thing for sure . . I HAVE to find an arrangement that works because Vince is not going to keep buying furniture that doesn’t work!