American Junk

One aspect of life in the US that I was most excited about prior to coming here was the second hand shopping. I am embarrassed, but willing, to admit that I used to peruse the Craigslists of various American cities, a sickly hue of green (envy) washing over me as I would salivate over sock machines and spinning wheels that could be had for very little money, if only I lived in Spokane, or wherever else.
Now, as many of you know, Brian, with the help of my lovely mother in law, bought me a killer sewing machine last winter. I wanted to have a place to set it up so I could put it to good use. I almost bought a card table from Target (similar to Zellers) which would have been okay, but would have hogged more space than was ideal. Then I thought to check Craigslist. And for $15, I picked up this old sewing cabinet:

I saw on the underside that the production date was 1965. Does that make it an antique? Does anyone know what age a piece should be in order to earn the designation "antique?" At any rate, it was perfect because of how little floor space it takes up, while still providing an ample surface, via the fold-out feature, when I need it:

Oh, but *gasp* is there hole in the table?

Why yes, yes there is a hole in the table! This would have been one of those cabinets that came with a machine built into it. These ensembles typically had a mechanism that would hold the machine at the surface when you were using it, and would allow you to drop the machine beneath the surface when you wanted to put it away and fold the table up. Theoretically, I might have been able to replace the mechanism, but I didn't want to tamper with my machine much; I just wanted to have a surface to use it on. So, I made an excursion to Home Depot. I must admit: hardware stores are very exciting places for me. They're as exciting for me as visits to a yarn store, but a hundred times more intimidating. I like hardware stores because they feed my illusions of being able to fix absolutely any aspect of my dwelling place that I wish. Anyway, I did a bit of hacking, and this is what I came up with:

I fit a piece of plywood into the opening, and supported it underneath with a network of more plywood pieces. I covered the surface plank with floral fabric because I thought it looked more patch-worky and fun. How did my design hold up to the weight of the machine?

I think it fared quite well! From this angle, only St. Anthony has a view of my shoddy construction. The timing of this project was just right too: this past Sunday, we went to church at St. Timothy's. The service was excellent, and afterwards, our friend Kat took us around the ministry fair, where representatives from each of the church's various ministries had an information booth set up. Kat steered me straight towards the quilting station, and got me signed up for the quilting ministry. Our first meeting will be this Saturday. I was told I'll be working on a patchwork quilt to start, like what Claudine was working on before we left. I can't wait!