Quilting my way through life!

Last winter my friend, Susan, turned me onto EstateSales.net.

Heard of them?

If you go to their website you can see estate sale listings in your area.

If I were you I would stop there.

Whatever you do, DON’T,

I repeat DON’T,

sign up for their email notifications of sales in your area.

They’ll ask you to put in a number for the mileage radius you’re interested in.

If you do this, they keep nagging you about sales;

when they open, when they close, and they show photos too, sometimes in the hundreds!!!

Don’t look! Please, don’t look!

I’m warning you because I did this.

Two weeks ago I was minding my own business on a Thursday morning, just getting ready to get back to sewing after eating my breakfast and remembered that I had received a reminder of a sale less than 10 minutes from my house the day before. (They give you advance warning so you can plan your schedule around them.) Nothing piqued my interest in the photos so I wrote off going.

It was a dreary day & I didn’t feel like minding my own business…

I wasn’t going to go, I needed to get back to work,

but no one was here to tell me “get to work” so I went.

I found a few old treasures for my history-major son.

Who knew you could acquire flags that have been flown over your state capitol?

I didn’t think much about the specific dates this particular flag was flown until I gave it to my son, it came with an official document.

As we were discussing it, I was reminded that it was the summer we had moved when I was young …and the summer ELVIS DIED!

Too bad, it flew the week after he died. If you’re an Antique’s Roadshow fanatic like me, you’ll know if you have multiple interested groups in something the value automatically goes up, darn! Day late and a dollar short as my mom always says.

Well, it probably flew during his funeral. (lol…)

Blake will enjoy hanging it in his history classroom.

I took one more look in the garage that I walked through to get into the nice home and stumbled upon something I wasn’t in the market for.

It was labeled as a desk & I had no need for a desk.

As I looked a bit closer I knew it wasn’t a desk. It had cut-outs for sewing machines in two different tables that could be screwed together by a third corner piece, making an “L” shaped unit.

I thought a bit more…it was like new…

I debated for quite a while,

then, knowing I had the ability to haul it home,

I bought it!

 I keep old quilts in my van “just in case” I need packing material.

It was tough, but I waited for someone to come home to help me unload.

Nemo is a good companion & model, but not so much help at lending a hand…

& Dori, she was just busy exploring what else I might have brought home for her.

Well, that was the easy part, getting it home.

In case you don’t know me, I’m quite the creature of habit.

I like what I have, that’s why I have it.

I wasn’t looking for nor did I think I “needed” new sewing furniture,

but somehow I knew it was meant to be.

I wasn’t even in line at the sale when it opened for goodness sake.

It should have been gone by the time I got there since it was such a great find.

That evening was the big senior farewell orchestra concert so I had to let it be for the night.

The next day I emptied out my sewing room.

For those of you that have been to our house,

YES, this REALLY is my sewing room.

There is a wood floor in there!!!

 With a pretty green & pink floral rug.

Recognize the quilt on the wall?

Now you believe me, right?

It took me about an hour to get everything out of room

and 10 seconds later I was moving the pieces in.

Yeah, they’re on wheels!

I knew right away I was not going to use the corner computer table so it went to the basement for future configurations like when we move to the mansion and my sewing room is 50′ x 50′, ha,ha.

I actually contemplated moving to the basement, but it’s too cold down there.

I would hate it!

And I’m pretty sure my DH wouldn’t want to move my wonderful light.

I had fun moving the two tables and Betsy, my helper, around the room.

My sewing room has evolved over the years.

It’s actually our “dining room.”

You better not be caught eating in there!!!

When we built our house 24 years ago we didn’t have any dining room furniture so the dining room sat empty until our first child was born a month to the day after we moved in.

First I put the baby swing in there and then the playpen then as I started learning to quilt, my sewing machine went in there… eventually we didn’t need a swing or playpen

and the rest as they say “is history!”

It’s been perfect because I could watch the kids, cook and be in the middle of everything while I sewed because the room is open to the rest of the house.

This is where I “live” all day, every day

except when I’m cooking or doing other less useful things, or sleeping.

(or going to estate sales)

The drawer unit is actually a separate piece of furniture that slides under the top drawer that is part of the 5′ table, slick! I’m not used to drawers, so I’m still trying to decide what to put in them.

Soon I decided the 5′ cabinet was too big for the middle window.

 Since the 5′ cabinet has a fold out table, perhaps here?

 But, I send my quilts out for quilting so I probably would not use this feature.

That’s when I decided since the smaller table also has a machine cut-out I could sew on it

and use the 5′ table as my new cutting table.

I decided to face the drawer unit out, so I could access it easier.

I still needed an ironing table at my right

so I brought my little desk back in.

It’s white too so it matches perfectly.

 So, my machine is where it has been for the past however many years, but now it sits in a pretty white table.I have a little bit wider but shorter cutting table with “real” storage underneath.

Plus the ability for a friend to come & sew with me if I move the cutting mat.

(But you better come quick. I don’t know how long it will last before I start filling it so full it won’t be easily evacuated by all my sewing junk good stuff!)

The only thing left was to order a new filler so the openings will fit my Bernina 930.

I hope to have that very soon, can’t wait…

I’m sewing anyway, it’s just a little inconvenient with the opening as it is.

Just keep sewing!

Susan