My light table

This is my wondrous light table. OK it isn't a pukka light table, it's bigger and better. It my sewing table too. In reality it's a glass garden table (see the hole for the parasol?). I could have found one without the struts across but these had bars along the sides to strengthen the structure and those would have got in the way of my knees whilst sewing. In this photo I have two lamps under it. One with an 18 watt low energy bulb (these are good because you can get higher light levels without the heat) on the floor and one clip on one with an 8 watt bulb to the bottom of the right of the photo.

These photos were taken with my phone so you might need to click on them to see more detail but you can see the feathers quite easily through the paper. They show up even more so when your hand is holding them down.

And an hour or so later, I'd copied it out so I have a full sized half pattern. I laid the wonderful satin I'd bought at the Festival of Quilts over it to see if it would trace through easily and it does!
Yay.

But, it turns out although the satin is supposed to be 60" wide, it's more like 58" and has very wide selvedges so probably has about 54" of usable width. This design is just a little too wide. So I shall go with plan a and use cotton sateen.
Sort of boo but it will look good anyway!

Ruler storage and cutting table come light box

Just thought I'd share this nifty little ruler storage idea I had. It's a plate drainer I picked up from T K Max (T J Max in the USA) but I'm sure if you keep your eyes open you could find a similar one. It had drainer written large across the front but a quick go with a sharpie pencil soon got rid of that.
And this is my cutting table. It's all from Ikea. Two of their wooden trestles (a friend tried the metal ones but they are a little wobbly for our purposes) with one of their strengthened glass table tops. I have two cutting mats on it, One is 23" X 35" and I have that sideways on at one end, it overlaps a little as the table top is 31½" wide. And then length ways on I have a 24" X 36" .

The height is adjustable but not something you can do without a helper as the glass is very heavy. I have mine set at the highest.
Then when I want a light box I remove the cutting mat and place a spot light with a low energy bulb underneath. Low energy bulbs are good because they don't generate much heat so there is less risk of fire. I tend to use the 23watt ones which give off the equivalent of 150watt of light. I generally just prop it on one of the sewing machines stored underneath but you could use a clip on one on a trestle.
I use masking tape to stop the design I'm tracing from moving about and with a small quilt I would use masking tape to hold the fabric in place. For a large quilt I use these clips which are made to hold tablecloths down outside in summer (are there really people on the same planet as me who use tablecloths in the garden?).
Pegs work as well as the glass isn't too thick.

Should Ikea give me commission? (grin)