Dream Cutting Table!

Here it is in REAL LIFE and ready for action!!

My handyman friend brought over the base and the top yesterday morning and it didn't take him long to attach the IKEA Expedit units I'd put together on Friday. We used THIS tutorial from IKEA Hackers as our guide. I had asked him to make the base smaller so I wouldn't trip over the edges and he took it a step further by angling the edges which I love!

He suggested using melamine instead of plywood for the base and top which was an easy sell - such a durable surface, easy to wipe clean and no painting required. He also added the edge trim so it's nice and smooth and won't snag any fabric. It's on casters so I can move it around - the top is 4' x 6' and the table is 30" (counter height) tall.

I'm going to use the open middle section for batting for starters. So far I have my book collection in magazine holders on the back side occupying 3 cubes and 5 to fill up. I will be moving a few things around in the room today so I can access both sides easily.

The red cubes are 13" x 13" x 13" and were purchased at IKEA. I have one holding scraps from recent projects and 3 empty ones.

And four empty drawers also purchased at IKEA. I have several bins to sort through and decide what to put where.

But what I really want to do is baste/sandwich some quilts... check out "Come Sail Away" which doesn't even hang over the edge! One of the reasons I wanted the full 4' table width is because most of my Project Linus quilts are 48" by 60" or smaller. Perfect basting surface right? And, since this is my least favorite part of quilting this should make it MUCH less of a chore.

I am going to be adding some storage at the ends of the table once I've decided what I want where. I've got some IKEA towel bars and S hooks for my ruler collection and other tools. I've got a small pegboard unit and some magnetic strips too. My head is spinning with ideas... but those things will have to wait until I've had a chance to "settle in". I'm ready for a week of sewing and putting my dream table to good use!

A few stash enhancements to round out the post that I haven't shown you yet - I needed some aqua and orange to round out my rainbow stash and found the 5 fabrics on the right side at my LQS. The dotted fabrics came from The Fat Quarter Shop - the large dots on white have a cool ombre effect and the black, grey and yellow are for a future project (I've fallen in love with grey & yellow!).

I'm linking up to Sunday Stash@Finding Fifth and Sew Darn Crafty@Sew Many Ways.