Slow Sunday Stitching - July 9, 2023

For the last several months, ever since I got the dining room table situation fixed, I have been waffling about how I am going to sew now.   I do not have a dedicated sewing room or even a sewing space.   I always set up my machine on the dining room table and the old table top was so scratched and marred that I didn't care if there was another scratch added by a random pin or dropped pair of scissors.   When the leg support on the table collapsed, the only other possible space was my work from home desk.  And with the laptop stand, large monitor, files etc, there was barely enough space for my sewing machine.  Plus I didn't want to ruin the finish on my desk.   Then the NEW dining room table top is also lovely and I do not want to ruin it either.  What to do???   So I haven't had my sewing machine out since.

Well, I was getting ready to take my order of furnace filters down to the basement, and it struck me - here's a huge horizontal space that needs to be protected and here's a huge expanse of very nice cardboard that is only going into the garden as mulch or into the recycling.   It's a match made for each other!

So here's my sewing set up.  One of the drop leaves is up and the cardboard is just about a quarter of an inch over the edge.  The weight of my machine is enough so that the cardboard doesn't move around and there's just a tiny triangle of space that isn't covered on the near side of the table.  (I think I'm going to put masking tape on both sides to fix that.)  My built in buffet in the back is counter height and just fits an 18 x 24 cutting mat perfectly.   And the ironing board is usually just where I'm standing, but I moved it out of the way temporarily.   I have one of those three tiered craft carts that you can find anywhere that are dupes of the IKEA Rashult for all my tools.    

The quilting bug has bit again and "It was the 80s" is now 2/3s of the way assembled.  I rebooted it back in December of 2017, which is a bit embarrassing because at that time I thought it would be a six month project LOL.  I got distracted by a couple of other quilts, including Lucy Boston, and I just do not sew all that much these days. Hoping for more time once I retire.  And now that I've figured out the set up, hopefully I'll do better.   

It takes me about five minutes to set up once everything is pulled out of the hall closet and about 15 to tear down, including sweeping the floor and putting away all the fabrics used.   I have another old cart that my mom had in her pantry that holds the thread box, the pattern and fabric for the current project, the cutting mat and the case for the machine.  Adding the carts to the mix has made it so that I can corral the tools and materials in a way that is both efficient and easy to work with.   I'm still tweaking the tool set up, but I can find everything. 

The machine, by the way, is "Bee" my mother's Singer 99 from 1955.   I use that one as my 'daily driver' because it has a bigger harp than my grandmother's Featherweight and a larger bobbin, which I appreciate when doing long seams.  "Alice", the Singer 221, is still my workshop machine and my favorite overall.  I learned to sew on that machine.

Posting to the SSS crew, who are probably amused by my glacial quilting progress!  Link to current round up.