Getting organized

About a week ago, after knocking my seam ripper off my sewing machine table for the third time and then taking ten minutes to find my chalk wheel that I had put down somewhere on my way to answer the phone, I decided I needed to get organized.  Not my whole life--or even, God forbid, my fabric, but just that small space to the right of my sewing machine, the only space where the long tail of a large wall hanging does not sweep errant scissors and spools of thread to the floor and the place where I pile my necessary gadgets and periodically knock them off with my elbow.  

I got the idea of hanging my tools from the edge of the table and went about quilting some fabric, folding it up to form custom-sized pockets for my seam ripper, scissors, ruler, and so on.  Now the only problem was attaching it to the table.  Since I liked none of the options I came up with, I put it aside--in one of my many disorganized piles.

Today, housebound by a beautiful snowfall, I picked it up again.  My ever ingenious husband, home on a Thursday since even the university was closed, suggested first Velcro, which I had already dismissed since I didn't want to put gummy glue on the my table, and then suggested I try to find something thin to slide between the front support and the table top and then find a way to attach it to the pockets.  I knew I had some very thin acrylic sheets I had used for templates at one time.  I cut two to the proper size since I wanted it to turn the corner, sewed them to the back of the quilted pockets, Tom removed a couple of screws, we slid the plastic in, screwed through the plastic to hold it in place and there it was:

Now I just have to remember to put things back in their pockets when I use them.  But I am savoring the feeling of having a small portion of my world under control, at least for a little while.