DH is a Genius!

How can one person be so lucky? I am the luckiest wife in the world. DH is the sweetest ever. He figured out a way to make a plastic insert in my sewing table so I have a smooth, continuous sewing surface. I know you can buy these, but this was much less expensive. That leaves more money available to buy fabric!

It looks really good, doesn't it? Even though he had planned to cut it himself, he found that his saw wouldn't cut the plastic. It melted it. So he took it to the same glass shop where we got the shelves for my upper cabinets made. They cut it for $25. He had to come up with a way for it to be supported at the level of the table top. Since the plastic is 3/16 of an inch thick and the table is 3/4 of an inch thick this took some thinking. He made thin strips of the plastic and sandwiched them together (2 added to the underside of the insert making three layers total). He attached these to the plastic insert at each spot where he thought it needed to be supported. He found some fasteners at Lowe's (similar to those on the backs of picture frames). He screwed those in place and adjusted them to fit the thickness of the plastic. Now when I want to raise the machine to use the free arm, I can take out the insert, swivel the fasteners out of the way, and raise the table.

This weekend's project is my design wall. See what I mean? I am the luckiest wife ever. Maybe he just wants me to be busy at my sewing machine so he is free to watch whatever he wants on TV.

The Agony and the Ecstacy

On one hand, I am extremely happy; on the other, I am really bummed. First, the bad part. You know the quilt closet that was the focus of my plan for my sewing studio? The one I have blah blah blahhed about for months? The one in which I would hang my quilts so they would no longer have to be folded up? Well, I hung a few quilts in it. It is not fitting the quilts the way I had imagined. The first one I hung is a twin size that my grandmother sewed for my daughter.

Do you see how the one in the back actually drags on the floor? That is the twin quilt. I didn't even hang it length wise. That is the width of the quilt. I hung several others that I have found so far, but I don't know what I am going to do with my king sized double wedding ring. It will drag on the floor no matter which way I hang it. Also, the width of fabric stretches, unlike the length of fabric. I might actually doing more damage to the quilts by hanging them than I would by having them folded up. What do you think?

Here is my NEW machine! DH and I made several trips to Lexington, checking out several makes and several shops. After falling in love with the most expensive machine in the world (you know the brand) I knew we couldn't spend that much money, so we kept looking. I found this Husqvarna Viking Saphire 835 on sale. It has all of the features I wanted the most and the price was right.

We also got the table you see here. I can use it with the machine raised or lowered. DH is making a plexiglass (I don't know if that is what it actually is, but it is plastic and it is clear) insert so that I will have a flat sewing surface when the machine is lowered. We made a trip to Lowe's today to get the materials. I tried to be patient, but honestly, DH shops at Lowe's the way I shop at a quilt shop. He was actually shopping for me so I really had to be patient. I think he has a good plan figured out. It is now my job to make the template for him to use when he cuts the plexiglass. 

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