The Family Table.

 At the end of another month, lol.

I said I would talk about the tablecloth I hemmed...first, I have to talk about the table.

I went looking through some pics and apparently I don't have a handy photo of the table in its full extension, but here's a picture from Christmas 2007, with The Flute Player and her Grandpa sitting at the table.

The extension leaves would have been in it...there are four chairs there, counting the ones they are sitting in, but the drop leaves were down.  With both those leaves extended, and the extension leaves in place, 12 people could easily sit around the table.

I'm not sure how old it was; My Sweet Babboo says they had that table as long as he can remember; it's likely at least 65 years old.  They wore out one set of table pads and got a second set, that's probably the reason it's in as good as shape as it is.

As my hubs is the only sibling to have more than 2 kids, the table has come to us in the cleanout of the house.  With 12 chairs.  And the table pads.  And the table linens.

But we had to make room for it, as the actual dining room in the house is in use as a home office.  At first, I thought we'd put it in our sunroom, which historically has gotten heavy use as a dining room when everyone is over.  We had a 56" round patio table out there, and we could JUST BARELY squeeze everyone around it, when the grand kids were off to the side in a high chair.  As they have progressed to regular seats...we outgrew it. 

However..as I considered, I found myself reluctant to put the antique table in the sunroom. There are skylights, and, while we seem to have gotten things sealed up now, we have had problems in the past with leaks in heavy rain.  I didn't want to risk water damage.

So we decided to put the dropleaf table in the dinette area and move the actual (rather cheap) oak dinette table and chairs that we have had since 1996 to the sunroom  Which meant we had to find another place for the round table that was there, and an old table that had come to me from my folks shortly after we were married that was used mostly as a Holder of Stuff in the sunroom as well.  The old table went to Florida, and the Actor and the Little Red Haired girl are using it now.  The round table is now in the dinette bay in the house of the Artist, and he has hung the lamp that used to hang over the round table on his grandparent's sunroom over it.

I made several tablecloths for that table...including the one in the picture.   I had another piece of fabric, a green and cream check pattern,  in the stash that was intended to be  another round table cloth, but I didn't get around to it.  It was a good length, because I had to piece it on the sides to get enough width. I sent all the round tablecloths with the table, but I kept the checked fabric.  Figured it would be repurposed.

So, once we had enough room in the sunroom, we moved the oak dinette set out there and took all the moving wrappings off the drop leaf table, which had just been sitting bundled up in the family room since it had arrived from Indiana (my house has been in various stages of 'just moved in' looking...now it's just the living room at this point) and set it up in the dinette area.

We had to put one of the leaves in it to be able to use the table pads; there wasn't a set of pads that suited the smallest  configuration.  I pulled one of my mother-in-law's table runners out and put on it.

And, I confess, I had a moment, looking at that table in my house.  It felt wrong.  We had so many memories of dinners...holidays and vacations...around that table.  I didn't feel worthy of it, in a way.  It would fit much better in the sunroom...but I keep telling myself it is safer where it is.

Except we have young grandsons who do like to be rowdy.  And I wanted something that would cover those dropped leaves to keep them from getting inadvertently banged up by too much enthusiastic play.

And I remembered that checked fabric that was supposed to be a tablecloth.  I measured the table from one edge of the dropped leaf, across the top, to the other edge of the dropped leaf.  

Just a fuzz under 2 1/2 yards.

I had 2 3/4 yards of the check.  I straightened the ends (super easy to do with a woven in check, lol), hemmed the cut edges and left the selvedges.  

Some of the easiest home dec sewing I've ever done, lol.

Now, this was *supposed* to be home dec cotton canvas fabric.  My previous experience with home dec canvas is that it has a stain resistant finish.  This. Does. Not.  I've learned if it gets a spill it needs to be treated and washed right away...and there are some rather shadowy spots on it that didn't come out already.  But it's a good everyday protector of the table, which is what I needed.  I will use my Mother-in-law's tablecloths for fancier dinners.

And ...the table looks a little more like it is comfortable here with the new tablecloth.  Maybe by the time I need to pull out the holiday linens that we also brought home it will have settled in and I won't feel quite so inadequate setting my dishes on it... maybe....

And I suppose it is possible that, when we actually expand it and put everyone around it, we'll decide that, skylights or no, it will need to be in the sunroom where there's more space.  We'll see.