Office Upgrade

I was interested last week when Gail asked if I would rearrange the studio into a different configuration. I did not, as I was happy with the layout I had been working with for the last eleven years. If something isn't working, I don't just put up with it, I figure out WHY it isn't working and set about fixing it. I wrote about this more than once, but you can read that whole story here.

Over the years I have figured out that I hate stopping in the middle of sewing to wind a bobbin, so I wind 20 bobbins at a time, so it's just faster. I've arranged my tools so I don't have to reach far to get anything and I have duplicates of the tools I use the most often so if I drop a seam ripper and can't find it, I don't have to tear the room apart looking. (That's another story you can read here.)

I have a "thing" about rulers. I love them. I love them as objects. I have some very pretty very specialized rulers that I don't USE at all, but I keep them because I like them. Everybody has something like this. (For my son it's flashlights.)

But I digress.

When I worked as a professional picture framer I got good at LOOKING at something and estimating the dimension of it.  It's a handy skill to have, but sometimes if I'm rummaging around the scrap bins or through the stash I want to know EXACTLY how big something is, I have to go across the room to where the rulers hang on the wall. (Read: Waste of time and steps.)

This is not very efficient. In the "old" studio I had a stick-on measuring tape that I applied to the end of my sewing table. Problem was the print wore off so it stopped being useful. I took advantage of the studio's downtime to remove the cutting mats from my worktables and reattach them with double sided tape (they were coming unstuck and stuff was getting caught on the loose edges.)

While at the hardware store to buy paint for the long shelf, I stopped at the tool section and asked if there were any stick on measuring tapes. Answer = No. The gal with the orange apron suggested I use a regular tape measure and stick that to the table. 

That was kind of a good idea, but those tapes have metal ends and would not have lain flat on the table. I thought some more about it and it occurred to me that the easiest thing to do was to simply attach a normal 24" long metal ruler to the end of my table with double sided tape, so that is what I did. Easy peasy, lemon squeezey and any time I need to measure something quickly I can just lean over and use that ruler.

I arranged it the way I did because I did NOT need the dimensions in 1/16ths. 

Yup. That works!