Tidying up my sewing table

For a very long time, my battered sewing table looked like this...

Everything I needed was close to hand, but in an awkward way.  The sewing machine was on a couple of chunky crochet mats, a pair of scissors and a seam ripper were normally hanging about nearby,  there was a tin of pins, a pincushion  and an old preserving jar in which to put all the cut threads.  Oh and my self-covered, Cath Kidston radio - don't forget the radio! (The hazardous making of which you can read about here and here.)

But everything was sort-of on the wrong side for me, a right-handed person, and also I kept scooting things off the table as the fabric passed through the sewing machine.  

It was time to create something to serve my purposes better!

First I created some random patchwork.    I made three strips, each of which measured 36" by 4", made up of  2" squares, 4" squares, 4 x 2" rectangles and 6 x 4" rectangles.  I was able to use up lots of scraps I had around the place - quite a lot was Tilda leftovers from another project, but I added in some other favourites, as it was going to be nice way to preserve them!

To make my runner, I cut 

24          2 1/2"    squares

18          4 1/2"    by   2 1/2" rectangles

6            4 1/2"    by   6 1/2" rectangles

3            4 1/2"    squares

I divided those up to make three strips which I arranged differently so each strip was unique, then sewed the strips together to make my 36" by 12" strip.

I found a suitable sized piece of backing fabric (part of a pretty, old, cotton duvet cover) and a remnant of batting.  I quilted the piece with horizontal and vertical lines in a sort-of random way, then bound it with a super long length of 2 1/2" strips which I had sewn together simply (not joined diagonally as you would normally do) and used folded in half.

Then I set about making some pockets to attach to the right hand end, that was going to dangle over the side of the table.

One was to be a thread bin (I hoped fabric would be better for this than the glass had been as threads 'stick' to my rough fingertips - I reckoned I could swipe the threads on the fabric).  This was a lined pocket with a channel sewn at the top and some 'boning' threaded through to keep it open.  Having no actual boning to hand, I used a section cut from the top of a family-size yogurt pot!  Worked a treat!

The other pocket was for small scissors and a seam-ripper.  

These were simply sewn onto the finished runner and embellished with buttons.

My final addition to the runner was a  built in pincushion.  I selected an area about four inch square in the central patchwork strip to the right of where the sewing machine would be.  I made sure this had been quilted all the way round, then cut a small slit in the backing and lightly stuffed the square.  I also squeezed in two small, super-strong magnets (salvaged from old computers) before whip-stitching the slit and placing a neat patch over it.  

This created an area where I can stab my pins, and two corners where I can place safety pins and needles and know they won't end up on the floor (and from thence into my foot!)

My desk looks much more swish now!