SEWING ROOM BARGAIN

A few years ago I took up quilting. I love it! Combining fabrics into something that is beautiful is addictive to me! I love looking at patterns,  touching fabrics and creating quilts. I came up with an idea to display my fabrics when I found this shelf at a local furniture store. It was on sale for $50. No kidding! I found a new dining room set at the same store for 1/2 price so I used my old dining room table for the base of this sewing center. The table was a dark brown oak so to match it to the shelf I took a piece of it to the paint store and had them match the color in a paint that would ahere to formica (the table top was formica). Then I just painted the table and put the shelf on top. I loaded it with my fabrics and now I can look at them and be inspired by them all of the time. The dining room table makes the perfect place to cut fabrics and to set up my sewing machine. The large surface is great for sewing quilts. I can leave my sewing machine up all of the time and sew a seam here and a seam there when I have a moment.  I found this darling chair at the same store (Eldredge Interiors). When I first saw it the price tag was way out of my price range. It was around $400. I just kept my eye on it and finally was able to purchase it for $80. It is the perfect height and compliment to my sewing table.

This is one of my favorite quilts. I used fabrics that I collected over time. I love the way it turned out!

Fabric buying tip: I always purchase fabrics on sale (have you seen the price of fabric lately? $10 a yard and up for cotton, crazy*#!) a local fabric store, Elaine's Quilt Block, has $3 yard fabric sales that are fabulous. I am a fabric snob (why would I want to spend all of the time and effort to make a gorgeous quilt out of inferior fabric) so I am picky about the fabrics that I purchase and these sale fabrics are the best. I buy what I love and combine them to make quilts that I love. I never purchase the entire line of a fabric to make a quilt I always pick fabrics from my shelf and combine them.  I promised myself that I would never buy more fabric than would fit into this shelf or I could really be overun by fabrics not to mention the money I would waste buying fabrics that I would never have the time to use.