My Favorite Birthday Present

Ta da!!!!!!!! Here it is - my favorite birthday present - my finished cabinets and counter top space!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love it!

On Monday after a very busy weekend, I got in there and organized it all to look like this. Don't you love it? It is my little corner of quilting heaven.

I told Brian a while back that all I wanted for my birthday was a finished quilting counter top. The cabinets have been there since soon after we moved in almost six months ago, but we just hadn't gotten around to finishing it all. Now, mind you that hasn't kept me from quilting! Oh, no. But my open top cabinets were collecting piles and I was cramped for space - poor me. I didn't want to put anything in the cabinets because I knew Brian was going to have to move them when he did set it all up.

So, on my birthday evening, one of my presents was the lovely 48"piece of precut formica counter top I had been coveting at Lowes. I was thrilled. Again, like the Matt Maher CD, how did he know???

To make the gift even better, he finished setting it all up for me over the weekend. I am thrilled and I am oh, so thankful for my wonderful husband who loves me so very much. I am also very thankful to my dear sister and brother-in-law. They gave us the cabinets (two years ago) as they were remodeling the kitchen. They would have ended up in a dump I suppose. We had them all in the garage at the other house for Brian's work area and storage. When we moved we brought them with us and Brian so lovingly allowed me to take 48"worth for my quilting area. What love!

So here's a walk through my pretty little quilting corner.

Que the music.

This is my finished workspace. I love the formica and my cutting mat fits perfectly. Nothing is better than cutting at counter top height. I was managing, but this is so much more comfortable. We have had this lovely finished shelf for quite a while and it has had many locations and uses over the years. It wasn't being used right now and I knew it would be perfect for the wall over my counter. It holds a couple of cute little quilting tins. The one on the right contains the selvages I save. I can store my rulers and rotary cutter of reach of the children but so convenient to me. I have my pins up there too. Hanging under the shelf is a sweet Longaberger basket for cuttings that need to be thrown away (my system is to collect cuttings/threads in smaller containers and when full, then empty those to the main trash can across the room).



To the left of the counters is the white shelf I have been using. I was able to rearrange it and give myself more room for fabric since some things were finally able to be moved to the bottom cabinets. Also, I was able to unload three boxes of scrapbooks and photo albums that have been taking up space in the gameroom closet. I stored them on the lower shelves that I don't really use anyway.

And the DRAWERS!

The far left drawer is closest to where I sit at my machine. I can even reach it while sitting. In here I organized scissors, bobbins, safety pins and other odds and ends I use all the time.

The middle drawer holds all my threads. My favorites from Connecting Threads are in the recycled box lid (thanks Brian for teaching me things like that) and the rejects are over to the side. :)

This right hand drawer holds miscellaneous small stuff - notions and hardly ever used little tools, buttons, etc.

Now the CABINETS!!!!!

The left hand door holds magazines of different types and quilting books and an empty quilting travel box

In the middle section I put two boxes (recycled) - one with embellishments like ribbons and appliques and one with leftover fleece. I also put in another empty travel box. The roomy bottom shelf holds my big folded bunch of batting yardage and fusible fleece yardage. At this time there is a finished quilt sitting there as well.

And the last little cabinet with the missing shelf holds batting scraps, stuffing and a few larger fabric pieces for special purposes (like the red one on the left is for a skirt and the red one on the right is for a one block wonder quilt)

And last, but not least, I have my cute little bucket of scraps down on the floor next to my cabinets. That way I can just toss things in as I go.

I love it all and I love you Brian. Thank you for my happy birthday!