Kitchen Table Fun

As much as I try to contain my messes to the upstairs in my home, it seems that I have a deep need to sit at my kitchen table and play with stuff while listening to the NPR news shows. Recently I spent a few Morning Editions playing with a mailing box I received from Home of the Sampler. I decided that it would be the perfect size to hold all the extra stuff that came with the new sewing machine. During the three guide classes I attended, for the new machine, I discovered that there were too many places for the bits and pieces to hide. There was the front accessory drawer, the hidden compartment below that, the back bobbin case, the white plastic pocket, the little clear plastic bags and numerous loose pieces that made for a huge mess when I went looking for something.

This first picture shows an original Sampler Box wih the new, recovered box next to it. I used scrap batting and some wonderful fabric in my stash from fabric.com. I have no idea why I needed to purchase yardage of pink hearts on a brown background but it worked very well for this project. I still have tons of this fabric left ( at least a couple of yards) so I better get on my thinking cap to discover what I intended to do with it. Old age can be such a pain!

Below is a picture the interior fo the new box. It closes with Velcro and is lined with some neat adhesive backed fabric sheets I got from the Red Velvet Kit Club to use in one of their projects. Yes, those are colored paper clips on the edge of the lid. I sometimes use paper clips rather than pins to hold fabric together when sewing and I can never keep track of them. I hope their new home helps me keep track of them. The well of the box contains, from the bottom right, a bobbin holder and tomato style pin cushion. I used E-9000 to adhere them to the interior so I shouldn't be tempted to hide them in the rest of the sewing room clutter. Around the bobbin holder are other bits and pieces like an additional bobbin case, two addtional bobbin case covers and a couple of other thread related bits and pieces. To the left of the bobbin holder is the bottom of a chip board box, painted with pink Tulip puffy fabric paint and lined on the bottom with batting and more fabric. (why do I have pink Tulip puffy fabric paint???) This area holds all the presser feet I now have to organize. The upper left hand corner holds screw drivers, marking tools and other useful bits. The upper right hand corner holds another box trimmed out of another chip board box and holds the cable that connects the sewing machine to my laptop and the labels I sometimes sew into those things I make. All in all I think this took me about a week to complete working sporadically at my kitchen table.

Now I have to get all the remaining stuff back to where it belongs upstairs... which may take another week.:-)