Lots of gluing

 Having finished cutting out (hopefully) all the pieces for my Double Wedding Ring, I turned my attention to my sewing table renovation project.  You may remember that it came like this:

Then I stripped it back to this:

An audit of the pieces that came with it revealed that I was missing about 8 small partitions, and a corner lid.  I found some scrap wood that was the same thickness as the existing partitions, and cut out 6 new pieces.  I decided that it would be more useful to have a longer, non-partitioned tray for tools so I am omitting two partitions.  The audit was also the time to reverse engineer how the top tray had been constructed and papered.  It was clear that most of the pieces were slightly different sizes even when they were the same type - I think everything had been hand-cut to go in a specific place.  I have of course lost the original order due to the poor state it arrived in followed by my stripping of the old paper.  I decided not to worry about it and just play it by eye as I went.

So this week I started carefully cutting my lovely Italian paper and covering all the main partitions.

The next big job was to cover the interior of the hanging workbasket which is in a trilobed shape with a flat front and back, so that was tricky and required lots of pattern making with scrap paper.  It was also a chance to get to know how the new Italian paper was going to behave: very well actually. It's strong enough that it doesn't tear easily even when wet with glue.  I'm using cartonnage techniques and the same PVA glue that I use for making boxes.  I don't seem to have taken any photos of the table at this point.  I also covered the base of the top tray.

Once all that was dry, I could start gluing in the partitions, starting with the outer walls and using the inner frame walls to judge where the partitions should be glued.

Then it was time for the corner partitions, then the inner beveled frame, and then finally the internal corners.  It's turned out pretty well, I quite pleased with it so far.

Next I need to install the lid supports - there are covered sections in all four corners, centre front and back, and of course the workbasket cover in the middle.  I need to cut out a replacement lid for the missing one, and the existing lids may need tweaking if my newly created compartments aren't quite the same size as the old ones.  All the lids need recovering: the lids are padded fabric on top and papered underneath.

So all of this gluing and cutting has been taking up most of my sewing room surfaces, but I did shove things to one side to finish off the Hatched and Patched Pincushion pattern that I bought in New Zealand and worked on at the last retreat back in January.  I've stuffed it with crushed walnut shells, it's quite large so it's like a fabric hockey puck.

I've been trying to put in some time on the longarm project every day, quilting the Australian BOM.  I'm on the last lap now, adding quilting to each individual block, which requires a lot of concentration so is quite tiring.  Plus the anxiety of not wanting to ruin it at this stage.

The border is a pantograph in the background, and ruler quilting in the scallops

A different narrow panto of rosebuds in the wider sashing segments

On individual blocks, I am stitching carefully around all 

the elements and then adding quilting to the background as it needs it.

In the evenings, I am finally working the final house in my Little Houses cross stitch sampler.  This has spent so much time parked at the sidelines while I work on other things, it will be good to finish it.

While I was looking for some autumnal quilts to hang up downstairs, I came across this old cushion cover that I made for my son about 15 years ago.  I used templates from a book of applique quilt designs and styled them to look like our two cats that we owned at the time.  Sadly both cats died from various health issues within a few years so this cushion turned into a sad reminder that had to be hidden away.  Now I'm wondering if DS might like it for his new house, if enough time has passed for it to just be a cute cat cushion.  I'll take it over there and see what he says.