Super Dooper Cutting Mat

I've been using 2 mats, small and smaller on my table, and not without frustration. My husband saw my troubles and told me to get a cutting mat to fit. I only found one place that had 2 foot by 4 foot mats Cutting Mats.net and so I put in an order last week. They are fairly expensive, but as soon as the box arrived today and I picked it up I knew it wasn't your usual cutting mat. The first picture is so you can see that it is very thick, I would estimate about 1/4 inch., the second picture is of the cutting mat on my table, I think it will be just fine when it learns to lay flat. I requested grids, and the third picture shows the grids. I didn't understand that they are a separate piece, but I think that it won't matter. It is either laminated poster board or plastic, not sure which.












This is a picture of my dirty little corner of the world. Underneath my 2 x 4 metal folding table are the risers that my brother made me to make it a less back breaking height. The boxes are files and the bucket is full of cherry pits waiting for me to make cherry pit bags, and then the step stool and wastebasket. My little folding table is leaning against my sewing machine cabinet, and the cabinet on the left is storing assorted stuff, and holds my TV. The last picture is my ironing setup. I just covered a wooden shelf about 14" by 4 feet from Ikea, and I take it on and off when needed. In back is my design board (an approximate 5 foot by 5 foot flannel), which like my ironing-cutting table is not full sized, but mostly does the job. Having an efficient sewing space is an ongoing project.
PS The little electric Drill-Driver stays there all the time, it occasionally comes in handy around the house, but is specifically for the hoops to my embroidery machine. My favorite embroidery tool of all time.

Light Bulb Went Off

I have been trying to get my sewing room efficient, comfortable and attractive, and since it is fairly small, and it also is my extra bedroom, guest room combination, it has been a challenge.
I had it down pretty much for the sewing part, but was feeling like I wished I could also cut and press in here, too. I have been going into the family room, where I have had my little 2'x4' table set up. Today, I thought, just because I have my sewing cabinet with my Bernina centered on the wall doesn't mean it has to be that way. So I measured, and there was enough room to move
it down and add the little table to that wall. If you notice the second picture,
you can see the wooden blocks to raise the table. My brother made those for me and they are very nice and sturdy.
The waste basket came today. I got it off ebay and think that it is very cute it is a Peterboro basket. I am going to go to Home Depot and get a piece of plywood and cover it for an ironing top that I can just remove to cut. I am thinking of removing the doors from the sewing cabinet in the first picture and leaving the sewing machine up, and perhaps getting some baskets for the other half. I don't use that machine very much due to the inconvenience of getting the machine in and out, when it is so convenient to just sew on my Janome Jem. Does anyone have an opinion of how that would work out? I am hoping to do some quilting on my machine, and that would perhaps just be more convenient.
I had mentioned my brother making the leg extenders for me, and he is also working on a small desk to hold my laptop in my sewing room. It will only be about 20"x30" about like a school room desk. I am just enclosing a couple of pictues of tables he has made. The little end table in the third picture he made for my mother, and the dropleaf table in the last picture he made for me. He makes it from just ugly old boards from scratch. I am very proud of the work he has done. He has only been doing it a couple of years, and taught himself.
We kind of feel a kinship, as both quilting and woodworking if you don't do something like that yourself, you cannot normally imagine what is involved in time and expense. I know he was kind of amazed when our niece wanted him to make her new kitchen cabinets, but it wasn't too much of a surprise to me, as most people have no idea what is involved in a quilt. Even my simple ones are an undertaking, and I can't even imagine what is involved in some of the beautiful, intricate quilts that I see on other blogs and groups.
I have had two lazy days and so nothing much to show for my time, except my little moment of enlightenment when the light bulb went off and I was able to fit my table in my sewing room.

Janome 6600 Demo and Sewing Room Bed

Today we got up, and they delivered my new sewing room bed first thing. The headboard is a little higher than the one I gave my daughter, and a little darker, and it seems to dominate the room, but I am getting used to it. As you can see, the quilt is a little small for the bed, but I like it anyway. The bedspreads that we had shrunk, so I am using them as bedskirts. They are queen sized, but with the shrinkage I didn't have to do any adjustments.

Next thing we did was go to a local store that was having a demo of the Janome 6600. I don't really need another machine, but I have been wondering about it because of the bigger quilting area, and wondering if I had one if I would do my own quilting instead of sending them off. I went away not too tempted due to the price, and due to they only wanted to give me a $200.00 trade-in for my Bernina 1130. I figure if and when I am ready, I would go maybe with a Juki and a frame instead and keep my Bernina. This is all just dreaming at this point, and if I did have the money I would have to find someplace where they actually had some to try. It's fun to dream, anyway. I don't have room or reason for a longarm, but the shortarm or midarm might be a possibility for the future.

Sewing Room

I've been busy working on my sewing room, and it is starting to look better, but at the cost of the rest of the house. The closet is almost organized, although I have a lot more scraps to cut up for my organization project than I thought. The picture with the bookcase is looking to the left from the hall door, and the gray cabinet has my embroidery machine, the closet door is in between the bookcase and my embroidery machine. The picture with the TV is looking in through the hall door to the right, and the cabinet has my bernina, which I was quite shocked to find paperwork and realize that it is 18 years old. The picture with the sewing machine on the tables between the 2 windows is my Janome Jem, which I usually use to sew because it is easier to just sit and sew and not have to put a machine away in a cabinet afterwards. The big space between the gray cabinet and the 2 little tables with my Jem is where the bed will go when it is delivered. I am hoping to have enough room on each side of the bed to kind of scoot into to get to the back of the machines. My husband is still not feeling well, so I waited until he was asleep and moved everything myself. My mother's recliner is still on it's side in the middle of the living room, but I haven't talked myself into pushing it the rest of the way into the family room yet.

I am trying to get things together because the Cyberquilters 4 C-Bee's is having a workshop for a Crazy Big Block on Saturday, which is supposed to be very easy, and I thought that I could probably get that top done on the week-end and then get back to the CC and OC. It was nice having quilts in reserve to give my SIL's when they had surgeries, and now I have none, so I thought this would be a good way to have one quickly.

Well, back to work. When I was younger I would have had this finished in a couple of days even though I was working, but now, I putter and then break, putter and then break some more. It's a good thing I'm retired.

Organizing

My house is still in a mess, i haven't been able to really get going too well. When my mother moved in with me, she moved into our second bedroom, which had been my sewing room, guest room. One of my best memories is the look of happiness she had when she first got here, and saw her room ready for her with her little sitting area with her recliner and bookcase and TV. She also had a big dresser with a mirror that my brother had brought down, and it looked nice and gave her some of the privacy that she wanted. I got a hug for that, and my mother was loving, but not in a physical way. I am in the process of trying to get things organized to move back, but now it just seems like "mother's room".
Part of me wanted to just have a sewing room, as I had given my queen sized bed to my daughter when my mother got her hospital bed, but then there are guests who we may have occasionally, who would be more comfortable in a bed, than on the couch. Also, there are times when my husband is ill, or is snoring too loudly, that I like to have a place to go.
I have ordered a new queen bed and headboard, and it should be 3 to 6 weeks, and I have 3 folding bookshelves to put in the walk-in closet for storage of fabric and misc. quilting and sewing items. I have acquired an embroidery machine since I moved out of my sewing room, so I'm not quite sure how I will fit that in. I guess that I need to go in there with a measuring tape and do some figuring. I am weird in that not only does it have to work and be efficient for my comfort, but also, it has to be attractive or I won't really like it. I wish that it could be all self contained, but I think that pressing and cutting may have to still be done in the family room, or dining room. I dream of having a short arm, but I don't know how I'd ever fit that in.
I have acquired another box of scraps too, and I am hoping to do some cutting and preparing of the fabrics ala Bonnie, and then have strips ready for future mysteries and possibly do some crumb blocks. I am kind of tired of the same old fabrics, and would like to have them used up. I don't have a big stash, but I can see how some people feel that the scraps are breeding behind our backs.
It will come together, and I will get back to my Carolina Straightaway, and my Orange Crush, soon I hope.

As you can see, I have a lot of work to do.