The only thing constant is change!

I have caught the quilting bug.  I love to make quilt patterns and I love to make those into quilts.  It makes my mind happy.  It makes my soul happy.  It makes our checking account unhappy but oh well.  Here are some of the latest-

I don't know why this keeps turning sideways

I love them.  I especially love the flag quilt.  It's called a bargello pattern.  It's pretty good for my first try.  I will machine quilt these myself.  That still is a bit scary for me.? 

So since I have this new adventure I have struggled with making my sewing room useful and organized.  I read a quote that made me smile.

So I have been looking for a long time ideas that would make my sewing room work.  I have a friend Nancy who has given me ideas and thoughts.  The honey do list for Mike just keeps growing.  :-)

But I'm finally getting around to what this post is all about.  Before I was born my dad and his cabinet making friend built this set of chest of drawers.  This set of chest of drawers has quite the history.  It held many clothes and was pulled open and pushed shut to many times to count.  It was built so strong and sturdy that one could hid inside and a bomb could do off and I'm sure not one hair would come off your head. This chest of drawers went through me and my siblings and our children.  The drawers were sometimes hard to push in and pull out due to the metal tracks.  We would rub soap on them to make them slide easier.

So the kids grew and left home.  The big chest of drawers stayed and was always huge and in the way!  I had looked on Pinterest about how to better make this sewing room work.  I talked to my friends.  I loved this idea here Idea #1   
I even looked into taking out the shelves and putting in shelves like this idea #2

These are the times I really miss my dad.  He would know what to do and how to do it.  I sent ideas and furniture ideas to Mike and he would say I'm not sure how to do that.  Then I was sitting at my sewing table looking at the chest of drawers and it came to me.  "Take the top off and saw it in half then put the top back on the bottom part." Okay that would work and I could use it to cut fabric and to do other stuff.  So I talked to Mike and he told me that before my dad died he made Mike promise that he would never ruin any of the furniture he had made.  I just looked at him and said nice try. 

So here is what we did.  I come home from the gym and was feeling quite strong and into making this happen.  I took all the drawers out and moved the chest to one side of the room.  Mike came home and I was sitting by him on the couch.  I thought no more sitting it's action time.   I got up and found a hammer walked through the room Mike was sitting and into the room I went.  I banged the top of the chest some and the top was coming off nicely.  Mike thought it would break.  Oh silly Mike, it was after all built by my dad.  He took the hammer and started to hit his side.  At this point he said it's nailed on.  I said ya it is.. keep hitting it.  Mike finally said we are committed to this now.  No going back.  I said whoo hooo!  We got the top off and carried the chest out to the garage.  We marked the cutting line with tape.  And off we went.  We laid the chest on each side as we would cut.  We were finally left with two boards that needed to be cut but couldn't be with the skill saw.  Mike found his jig saw and the deed was done. 
 

The lower portion of the chest.

The top tipped on it's side. 

Mike pulling out the nails from the top. 

The next part was to remove the nails from the top.  The outside has a veneer on it that was pretty thick.  So instead of cutting the nails off he was able to use his might strength and pull the nails all the way through the board.  We took my new pride and joy back into the sewing room and here you have it!  I'm so thrilled by how it all turned out. 

The chest back in the room. 

So there you have it.  The interesting part of the story is a little personal.  When I walked into the room with the hammer I said a prayer and asked Heavenly Father if He would allow my dad to come and help me/us do this so it would turn out.  In my head I saw how to do it.  The steps were laid out.  As I talked to Mike he would say this is how I think we need to do this- and he would tell me the steps exactly in the order that they were laid out in my head.  As we cut the chest down it went perfect.  Is the cut perfect no but does it work.  YES!  I truly believe we had divine help that night.  And now my sewing room has a new table and cutting board and fabric holder and quilt holder-upper!  It was a fun night for me.  I knew it was possible and to have this experience enlightened my understanding of asking for help and knowing it comes.  I posted this on Facebook after we were done working- 

"What do you call someone who doesn't think your ideas are crazy or at least doesn't say you are but jumps into the idea boat and begins to paddle with you?? A hero whose name is Mike Ladle! We had an adventure tonight and it turned out just as I had thought and envisioned! Whoop whoop!"