One of my prized possessions is a gift my husband gave me one year for Mother’s Day: a sewing cutting table. I had wanted one for a long time, before they went on clearance at my local Walmart and my husband bought it for me. These things generally aren’t cheap – so it was a luxury I thought I’d never have. However, I’m very thankful for it and discovered that sewing cutting tables aren’t just for sewing!

Aside from the obvious use to layout fabric and cut patterns, or quilt squares; I have used mine for crafting as well.  I’ve used it for painting, gluing and just about any other imaginable crafty project you can imagine. Thus my sewing cutting table becomes my craft table.

Now that alone is awesome. It being on wheels allows me to move the table where I need it. But I’ve discovered perhaps one of the most useful purposes of all: a laundry folding table! Yep, I wheel this baby into the living room, brings out the clothes and the children and I can watch TV while we have a laundry folding party. It’s perfect if you have a dismally small laundry room like I do without a folding table or room to put one.  Up until I saw my sewing cutting/craft table in a new light, I was folding laundry either on my bed or the dining room table. Since the dining room table is now our school room table, and my husband works nights and is sleeping in our bed until nearly noon every day – I really needed a better solution.

Just wanted to share my ‘discovery’. So if you have been at all hesitant about getting a sewing cutting table, look at it as multi-purpose tool that’s well worth the cost. It would make a really nice Christmas gift.

Sullivan’s 12570 Home Hobby Cutting & Craft Table HHT 36 x 60″ RTA Ready to Assemble Sewing Furniture Sullivans: $99.00

I’ve heard the rumors.  I know it’s been happening all across the country.  But the other day I went to my local Walmart to search for a pattern:  and they are GONE!  Never again to be found in my Walmart.  *sigh*  We still have fabric – for now; but I have a feeling that too will be gone soon, as the available fabric stock is dwindling.  I’m not a happy camper.

Now I’m not sure where else I can go locally to find fabric and patterns.  St Louis has fabric stores, but that’s at least an hour away from me, and with gas prices being what they are – it’s not like I’m going to hop in the car for a ’short’ jaunt to the St Louis fabric stores.

I know I can order online; and I’ve done that, but sometimes you want to go see things – put your hands on them, for the feel of the fabric – before you actually buy it.  So I got out the local phone book and found a couple (as in TWO) stores that stated they carried fabric.  These were sewing machine shops and they usually do not have a great fabric selection; but it’s better than nothing – however, many sewing shops don’t carry patterns at all.

I am really not a happy camper. 

Has your local Walmart stopped selling fabric and patterns?  I don’t know what Walmart is thinking – but someone needs to remind them that people do still sew, quilt and do crafts!  Hundreds of thousands of people!!

Where do you buy your fabric and patterns?  Do you have a local fabric shop close to you?  Do you order online?  Do you take road-trips to find fabric stores, driving an hour (or more), like I may have to?