lin

I used to have to sew in my dining room too live2teach, and I even had my design wall up in the dining area so from the minute you came in my house you knew I was a quilter! LOL Thankfully I was able to convert one of the kids' rooms into a sewing room when they grew up and moved out. It was the first time I'd ever sewn anywhere that wasn't out in the open. And I tend to be very messy when I'm involved in a project, so I'm glad I can finally shut the door on it all! :D

I still use my dining room table to hand baste my quilts so what I do is put two blocks under each table leg to lift it up to a better height so I don't hurt my back so much. I think it would be better to have it up a bit for cutting too. I feel I have more control when the table isn't so low.

Lizard

I don't have my own room either, I have to use the dinning room table and put it away when I'm done. I refuse to start cutting unless I know I'm going to finish though, and maybe dinner will be buffet style and eaten in the livingroom that night. lol I dream of my own room, even have plans for it already.

live2teach

Luckily, we have a little breakfast table in the kitchen, this is where we eat our meals. The dining room is only used for family gatherings, Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc. I sew so much every day that there is no way I could put it away when I am finished. If I did put it away everytime, i would spend my whole day running back and forth, lol.

blahel

soooooo... I am not the only one having problems with my ruler slipping...I thought it was just my skills slipping!!hehehhe and being new to quilting my last little wallhanging took me...drum roll... 3 months to make! :roll: I would start by getting my fabric ready which took ages, lining up my ruler to get it perfectly straight which took ages and starting to cut and then it would slip then i would have to start the process all over again, it was so exhausting and time consuming that i would never get much done each time, hence why it took so long to make, but hey i can only improve :!:
I dont have a sewing room either i just share the office space with my husband and my lovely Bernina has to sit on an old school desk which wobbles and when i sew everything slides of the side and i am forever looking for my unpickers etc.. but am hoping that i have been good enough for Santa to bring me a horn quilters sewing cabinet..and oneday when one of the kids moves out i could even have my own sewing area or if my carpenter husband builds me a sewing room if the kids decide to stay home but better not be greedy and ask for too much at once...

patricej

BE GREEDY. :wink:

seriously, though, don't wait for Christmas to replace that desk. if it wobbles enough to cause things to fall off, you're risking damage to your sewing machine. compare the price of your Bernina to the cost of a more stable table. could carpenter hubby turn his skills toward fixing that desk while you wait for the horn? whatcha think?

i also let the ruler slip if i get in too big a hurry when i cut. all the other suggestions about the little grippers on ruler bottoms are good ones but - as an individual - i don't like the idea of anything that might make it harder to move the ruler around on the fabric when i want it to. the only thing that works for me is to (1) take my time; (2) pay attention to where i position my noncutting hand on the ruler to hold it down. the closer to the far edge of the fabric i place my hand to hold down the ruler, the less likely it is to slip.

i have a lovely collection of wonky strips because i often forget #1. :shock: :lol:

lin

blahel, I've been quilting for nearly 16 years now and my ruler slips at least once a day. Like Patrice, I sometimes get in a hurry and don't pay attention to how I'm holding the ruler under my hand and...whoops!...there is goes. I've gotten pretty good at recognizing when it happens though. I used to just cut it so fast I didn't realize it had slipped and then I'd wasted a strip of fabric. I'm more careful to be mindful of how the ruler is acting now. I could probably make a bed-sized scrap quilt from all the strips I've screwed up over the years! :lol:

Joan

i have a lovely collection of wonky strips because i often forget #1.



glad I'm not the only one with a collection of "wonky strips"---taking your time is the best advice (one that I sometimes forget when I am "over eager")

Celeste

OOOh! This just happened to me and believe me, I didn't like it at all! I really thought I was being so careful!

Thanks for sharing your stories and tips! Sometimes I get discouraged too easily. :oops: :cry:

bj

A tip sent in to Fons and Porter (don't know which show or year originally, but it replayed the other day) was to put a little rubber cement on the backs of your rulers. It isn't very thick and keeps ruler from slipping. It just peels up when you want to remove it. Be sure it's dry before you use the ruler :)

Shadow Dancer

I ran into the problem of my ruler slipping, tried the little rubber sticky things on the back, didn't like them. I used to do all my cutting on the island in my kitchen, but it was too high for me, I'm vertically challenged. :D

When I finally had my sewing room it was great except I had nothing to use to cut on, so my husband built a cutting table and an extra wide, six foot long ironing table the perfect height for me. I was thrilled, then my 6' 3" son informed me that people get shorter when they get old. lol This would be the same son who asked me if he poured miracle grow on me would I grow taller.... lol :)