I have been shooting about 60ft from my window to the bird feeder in the maple tree. Yesterday I got the crazy idea to take an old pipe garment rack I had and set it about 15ft outside my bedroom window, then hang a feeder on the rack. first I hung a simple tube type seed feeder, then I got the idea to also hang a tube type thistle feeder. While i was hanging the thistle feeder on one end of the rack two chickadees came down and landed on the rack about 3ft from me and as soon as I started to walk back in the house a Titmouse landed on the seed feeder to be my first customer. That Titmouse remained there long enough to allow me to get in the house and snap a picture. Within the first hour after I hung that feeder i had chickadee's, Titmouse, Nuthatches and a small female downy woodpecker who seems to have taken it over as her personal feeder.

You can piece together fabric in your tufts, and no-one will ever know that its pieced. Most leather tufting is pieced many times, especially headboards and sofa's. Headboards are easier to tuft in its not a solid piece of plywood, just build a frame and stretch a piece of heavy stiff fabric across to support the foam and button tufts. A button needle is essential for this method. Whether its diamond or square tufts, it all starts the same. Determine the size tuft you want, draw straight horizontal and vertical lines, centered and space the distance evenly on headboard. At the intersection of each horizontal and vertical lines is where you want your buttons. If you use 1 1/2" to 2" foam, bore about 1" holes in these same locations. Take you fabric and draw on the back side the same horizontal and vertical lines, but add about 1 1/4" vertical and 1" horizontal. Again mark the intersections, this is where your buttons will be placed on the fabric. Go ahead and place all the buttons: string your buttons, using a button needle, pull through the holes and tie off on the back side. Then its just matter of folding in the folds from button to button and pulling over and stapling on the back side.

Hi Gray, yes, for example I had a set of upholstered armed dining chairs with a print that had some color in it I did not like. So, I just painted over that color. It's monotonous work! However, six armchairs with front and back upper and lower upholstery would have cost me a bundle if I wanted to have them re-done. If you do it right and use good textile paint no one can tell. With the Jacquard brand you can use it on natural or synthetics. You are meant to run over it with a warm iron on the reverse side if you are using for clothing for a "set". I never used an iron but never used it on clothing. I think they just have that on the label to cover the Permanent*Washable/Drycleaning*Nonfading/Lightfast claims. If omitting a color with textile paint you can't rush it. You need some good quality paint brushes. I prefer oil brushes or a semi medium stiff real bristle brush. The size would depend on your project. A small 2.5 oz container covers a lot of ground as I like to water it down a bit, paint a light layer, dry and another light layer. That whole headboard took slightly over one 2.5 oz bottle, maybe just under a container and a half. You can put as many layers on as you like. By doing it that way it still feels like fabric when done, not painted fabric. You will also need a plate to swish your brush across after loading with paint to get the paint around equally within the brush as well as to remove excess and will also need a rag or paper towel if you need to blot. Or, a stencil if you are adding a pattern! I soft brush it all out when dry but some do it while still wet.

Wellington, Im glad to here your experiences and that you have more knowledge compared to most retailers. And you make some good points and some that are not correct. Example is the link to the Chesterfield sofa. First how to you think they attach the row of buttons thats along the front edge of the seat, thats the first row just above the top seat border? I direct you to your site here: http://www.wellingtonsleather.com/furniture-catalog/sofas-a-loveseats/ball-in-claw-leather-sofa-detail.html I can just about guarantee that this sofa does not have coil spring 8-way hand tied seat. Thus not every sofa has 8-way tied spring coil seating. You mentioned using metal rods instead of twine. Metal rods is not exactly the correct terminology, its metal prong buttons and when a manufacturer (McKinley Leather is one and a number of others) that pre-tuffs; they either use the metal prong buttons or a pre-tied twine in a loop to a length that matches the thickness of the poly and using a slited plastic washer to hook and hold in the button. You said you never heard of "pre-tufting a seat. Pre-tufting is where they glue a piece of FLW or propex to the bottom of the foam that is pre-bored for tufting. Then someone, not an upholster, lays on the material (fabric/leather) where the position of the buttons is already marked by the cutter. This person then locates this mark on the material, takes a prong metal button and pushes the button through the material, through the hole in the foam (this hole must align with the correct mark on the material, through the FLW and bends over the prongs to secure the button into the foam near the bottom, doing all the buttons this way is how you make a pre-tufted seat. This person also folds over each pleat to finish up. Then all the upholster has to do is place it over the springs and staples down along the edges. Saves quit a bit of time and labor costs. This is how most major upholstery manufacturers do their button tufting. As far as how good 8-way tied spring coil seating is, its only as good as they the manufacturer makes it. Please know that the springs are held together with twine. Twine being a string. String can break. It breaks much easier than metal. Thats just the laws of physics. I have seen 100 times more often repairs done on 8-way tied spring coils that are being reupholstered than repairs done on no-sag springs. No-sag springs that are 8 to 8.5 gauge will not ever break or sag. Thats been tested by many of furniture labs. The issue with no-sag springs is how their fastened and what their fastened to. I have seen many times where no-sag springs have either pulled loose from the frame or the frame that holds the no-sag spring is broken. But its never the spring itself. Their is no better seating than a 8-way hand tied coil seating with a spring-edge front. Its the most comfortable, evenly support across the seat and will go a long ways in helping seat cushions hold their front edge shape and increase their life. The problem is very few manufacturers still make a spring-edge front any more. To make a spring-edge front requires at least 3 times longer than a just tying the springs directly to the top edge of all the seat rails. The image you show is close to being correctly tied. The twine should be knot tied at every point, its not in the image, its just every other point on the spring is knot tied. Now they do drop down on the last ring of the coils along the outside edge, thats good. Also should never be less than 4 rows deep and have a slight crown in the center. And this is where now so many upholstery manufacturers, in their spring-up department have gotten away from tying correctly, the way it should be done. The tying it the quickest and easiest way possible, just so they can use the term "8-way hand tied coil seating ". In a nutshell your sitting on the string/twine and not the springs. A seat thats flat with no ride, meaning its so firm that it offers little comfort, so your just sitting on the cushions and the twine, until the twine finally gives out and breaks. My point is don't always buy into the 8-way hand tied coil seat advertising as thats all it is: advertising. Now my case in point for a button tufted seat using no-sag springs. The fabric, buttons with the twine, dacron fiber, poly (foam) and springs should move together as one unit. TOP TO BOTTOM. And that won't happen if you try to button tuft a hand tied coil spring seat. Because the coil springs at the bottom do not move. And thats where you tie off the buttons also, at the bottom, unless of course its a pre-tufted seat. I strongly suggest that you connect with the upholster on this and come and see him actually build a tufted seat. Maybe take some photos and post them here.