My friend Claire does not. She eagerly grabs the chair and takes it home. No thinking about it possible. She simply has no choice in the matter. Some people rescue cats. She rescues chairs. And who can blame her? Her husband and kids! It makes me giggle just thinking about it, because we always end up giggling about it, because, well, I am just as bad.

My problem is that I don't always keep up with the workload, some chairs invariably drop back to the back of the list and never get done. My super talented friend needs a confidence boost and a few pointers when it comes to upholstery located beneath the top cover, so her house is also populated with a 'few' chairs awaiting some TLC.

So, together, we came up with 'upholstery Tuesday'. She is to come to mine on Tuesdays with a chair in hand. We just had our first one today and it was simply brilliant! I loved having someone working next to me, it made a change from working on my own. It was also a joy to pass some of my knowledge onto such a gifted person (I must say she really made it easy!) and sharing that buzz one gets when seeing something come together was very satisfying.

Claire chose a dining chair with a drop-in seat. She removed the tacks the seat to go back to the bare frame, which is in great shape. Then, she tacked on jute webbing, base hessian (a sort of coarse jute fabric that will receive the stuffing) and inserted some bridle ties (a piece of string is knotted onto the hessian in the shape of an 'S' under which the hair will be secured), ready for stuffing next week.

I finally got to work on this lovely oak chair that was the first project I ever worked on. I can't believe how badly I had done it! Very glad it is going to find a new lease of life. Here it is with all the upholstery removed. What a great way to spend three hours. We even managed to squeeze in a coffee and biscuit break. This thing is going to catch on, you know...