MJP, what a precious mom! I love that she has your quilt to touch for luck right there!

Janice -- I use my kitchen table so I'm useless with regards to a permanent piece of furniture for a cutting surface. I build up and break down daily. Keeps that area neat but sometimes I have to track down where I put a certain piece of fabric, lol. Good luck in your quest for the perfect permanent cutting surface.

I ordered my mat from Rhino. If you Google extra large cutting mat their web site comes right up. You can custom order any size, with or without the grid lines, to fit the space you want. It is a self healing mat and I like it just as well as the Olfa, etc. It's probably 5 to 6 years old and still like new. I have a piece of 3/4" plywood, 4'x8' that fits on top of a pool table. My mat is 35"x71", green in color and with grid lines and I love it. You might check it out Janice and see if it would work for you.

Janice my cutting table is also in a corner. First I would say make sure cabinet is correct height for you. Mine is a work table from my old job, dh adjusted the legs so the height was great. Then we bought a thick fatigue mat to lay in front, making the table that much to short. The top has 2 cutting mats butted up to each other, not the prettiest of arrangements but works great.

MJP, so glad your Mom bounced back and is in a facility you are happy with. My sister lived 2 blocks from Mom’s assisted living and I lived 4 hours away, I was the nice one. Always felt bad for my sister.

My cutting table is a twin bed with a plywood board top my husband made for it on top. I ordered the largest Martelli cutting mat for it and have plenty of room for all my cutting needs. I can easily cut yardage and there is room for my accuquilt and rulers etc. around the edges of the mat.

Here are my 2 blocks for Cheesehead and Irish Mom. Hope they are what you like.

-- A Christmas Tree!!!! That background fabric is perfect with the green fabric! Thank you so so much!

That's a very pretty block you made AnnT59, but that block is for Suzisew. My fabric was little pink roses.

Cheese

Beautiful blocks, AnnT! I love the tree! The realbark trunk and the background fabric are great with the tree.

mjpEncinitas, I'm sorry to hear about your mother but you seem to have it under as much control as is possible. She's not ready to quit life yet. You are welcome to take the entire time period for the blocks. :) Zozee, your comment is right on. I had been thinking I needed to cover the whole surface but this isn't necessary. I will be using one end of it for my portable machine. (This new set up will be in the cabin. I have a loft to work in but it does double, triple, quadruple duty depending upon the weekend.) The table will be movable to a corner when not in use but the idea of simply being able to walk completely around the table to cut larger pieces, not terribly big at 60x25, is thrilling. It's narrow at 25 so I may keep looking but even at that, the length is good. Jaba, I'll check out Rhino. I tried breaking down my sewing area in the beginning of piecing, but it was pretty much a catastrophe for me daily. It stopped me from working at all a lot of the time. Even if the area isn't huge, it will be dedicated to quilting. This too chest is quite similar to the piece DH wants me to try: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-56...BKXD/309192705 I'm not wedded to this but his efforts have certainly started the ideas flowing.
Cheesehead, thanks for the head's up. :)