Thread: sewing tables
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Old 01-23-2009, 08:01 PM
  #5  
Prism99
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Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Western Wisconsin
Posts: 12,930
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You mean a table for your sewing machine, right?

I got a cabinet style at a quilt show quite a few years ago. A young couple was making them, and they were quite reasonably priced. I like white formica because light bounces off it, and having a well-lit area helps me work. (My husband is very sensitive to light, so his office is like a cave!)

If I had it to do over, though, I would copy something I saw years ago online. This quilter bought a large table from Ikea, sawed out the area for her sewing machine, dropped that down with a couple of clamps to hold her sewing machine even with the table, and added some formica-like edging tape around the sawn edges. I think that, prior to sawing out the piece from the table, she had bought a clear plastic form to fit around her sewing machine so she would have a smooth, flat area around her needle. (She might have instead taken a paper pattern to the hardware store and had them cut the form for her out of plexiglass.)

Anyway, I know that sounds like a lot of work, but she posted pictures online of her doing it herself, with explanations. What I particularly liked about this was that she was able to set her machine to the right side of the table (leaving plenty of space to support a quilt to the left), and she was able to place the machine further back from the front of the table. Some experienced quilters had told her this makes piecing and machine quilting easier, and it's easier on the shoulders; afterwards, she said she was really glad she had followed this advice.

I much prefer machine quilting standing up -- I don't get nearly as tired and can quilt much longer this way -- so I would love to make a table like this at standup height. It could double as a cutting table when I'm not machine quilting.

I think the biggest problem with tables instead of cabinets is that tables tend to vibrate. Certain machines vibrate more than others. I tried to use a table for one of my older machines and I had to give it up; the machine actually moved around too much from all the vibration.

Mary
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