Category: Storage

Acrylic Bobbins
Floss · Storage

Acrylic Bobbins

My Time Stitching4 Comments

A couple of months ago I saw a post in a Facebook group about Acrylic Bobbins. Wow! I loved how sleek and smooth they looked. Someone was making them and selling them on Etsy. This same seller was selling a complete set of vinyl labels with all the DMC #’s. I am a sucker for reorganizing and storage. So I had to go check it out. After chatting with the Seller, I had to order! I couldn’t wait for them to arrive. And when they did, I went right to work. I added the labels to the new acrylic bobbins and spent 2 days unwinding my flosses from the paper and cardboard bobbins and winding them onto the new bobbins.

New Acrylic Bobbins

Just at look at how awesome those bobbins are looking! It was so fun and relaxing winding a skein of each of the colors that are not being used and putting them in the perfect box. When I received my set of bobbins, they arrived in this case:

Full set of Acrylic Bobbins

I was able to find more of these boxes at a local Menards store. I believe that they are available on Amazon. But isn’t everything? LOL. I think that my entire set will fill 3 of these boxes. I tried to leave adequate room for the empty bobbins, but I could end up using a 4th box.

My New Bobbin Storage

I love how these bobbins look in their boxes and they will look even better some day when I can get the empty bobbins filled. I have 11 or 12 projects in the works with floss in each of them that will eventually make their way onto the empty bobbins. I went back and forth trying to decide if I wanted to wind new flosses onto the empty bobbins, or try to use the 150 floss that are already in projects. I decided to eventually move the existing flosses over to the new bobbins. That means I have to get working on those WIP’s and get them done! Here is my small box of flosses I used for Mermaid Perfume.

Perfect Bobbins

I love that the numbers on the bobbins are at top of the bobbin rather than on the side as they were on my paper bobbins. The bobbins on the right have Caron Waterlilies on them. I even tried making my own labels with my brother printer. They will work for now, but the ink is not as crisp as with my purchased labels. If you are interested in these bobbins, the seller is GWStitchinDepot on Etsy. These bobbins are well made and look awesome! She has different quantities available and you can get the bobbins with the hole in the top or without. She also has the labels. If you purchase the labels, I do recommend the dental tool she sells for picking the labels off of the label sheet. I am so happy to know that I won’t need to purchase paper bobbins ever again.

How do you store your threads?

Taming The Scatters Of Yarns
Storage · yarn

Taming The Scatters Of Yarns

My Time Stitching9 Comments

Good afternoon my friends! My third post in three days! Can you believe it? Today I want to talk about my yarn mess. I had yarn scattered all over the house. There are several bins of yarn in the storage room. They will stay there as they are mostly my cheaper yarns from the big box stores.

I had yarn in a trunk, which started out to just contain all of my mini skeins from AJHC Wools. It was overflowing with full skeins as well.

I had yarn in the ottoman in the basement.

The lid wouldn’t even close all the way anymore. I also had yarn in the recently abandoned file drawers in the basement.

I had stuffed so much yarn in one of the drawers, that it would no longer open and hubby had to take it apart. A tag from one of the yarns had gotten stuck and wouldn’t allow the drawer to open and the bottom of the drawer was pushed off of the track. Ooops!

I also had yarn in bins on top of my scrapbook cabinets that were over flowing. I also have a rolling cart with drawers that were all stuffed to the max. Yarn everywhere!

So I really wanted to gather my hand dyed yarns and get them in some kind of order and together. So after talking to a friend a few weeks ago, and hearing about her storage, I was getting very excited about doing something for my yarn. I thought about it for a few days and I decided to go with the cube storage with bins.

So hubby and I searched on line for something that wasn’t expensive as it would be in my laundry room; the only space in the house. And not really space as it meant taking out my 4 scrapbook storage units. So we found some that we liked at Target. So we ordered and picked them up. Hubby put them together and I put all the bins inside the cubes.

I LOVE it!! So neat and tidy. And then I was worried that all of the yarn I wanted to put in the bins would not all fit. But actually, it did! I even have 1 empty bin.

A couple of the bins have a specific dyer’s yarn and the rest of the bins are by yarn weight. I also ordered some metal tags for the bins, but had to wait for them to be delivered by mail.

I just love how it all turned out. So neat, organized and all together. Sorry about the side photos, but there is only a couple of feet between the storage and my washer and dryer. So that is why the photos are off kilter. Just a FYI…the 4 bins on top of the yarn storage are full of photos that I have yet to scrapbook :O I also have a 5th box in my craft room. Sheesh! I am so behind. As for the 4 scrapbook storage units…they are…um…in my…..um….living room. They are full of scrapbook kits and paper. Some day I will get to them. They may end up in the garage. But for now they are in the living room. I don’t mind. Hubby doesn’t mind and no one is coming over to visit while there is a pandemic.

So, do you have some new storage for your stash?

Still At Home, Still Crafting
Bella Filipina Designs · cross stitch · Cross Stitch Patterns · Elegant Ladies · Knitted Shawl · Knitting · Mermaids · Project Bags · Storage · storage bags · WIP

Still At Home, Still Crafting

My Time Stitching12 Comments

It’s been almost 4 months at home during this Pandemic.  I am sad, frustrated, depressed, angry and lost.  I am sad for all of those that have been sick with this virus and for those that have lost loved ones.  I am frustrated and depressed because I can’t go out and do the things I used to do or go to the places I used to go.  And I am angry because the numbers of cases are going up again and hospitals are reaching capacity in some states.  I cry watching the news, wishing I could magically make everything ok.  And I have periods where I just don’t want to do anything.  My husband is going back to work tomorrow, and I am really sad about this.  I will miss him being home and I worry about him being in a place where the risk goes up.  So I turn to my crafting to take my mind off of things.  So, what exactly have I been up to?

First, I want to talk about a product that I purchased on-line a month or so ago from a yarn shop.  I saw this product last summer at a fiber fest, but chose to spend my money on yarn at the time.  But it has been in the back of my mind as a great organizational piece.  How do you store your circular needles?  This is what I decided to use:

circular needle holder

Sorry about the poor photo.  It was the best I could get while it was empty.  It is hand made by Wonderfully Made and I thought it was a great idea.  So as soon as it arrived, I started pulling my needles out of their original packages and threading them onto the holder.

circular needle holder with needles 1

Now I am not so sure.  Now I will have to put the needles in a needle gauge to find the size I want (which was included with this holder)  and will have to measure to see how long they are.  And I always forget if I am supposed to measure from tip to tip or just the cable.  I think it was easier to flip through the packages in my accordion needle holder to find what I wanted.  It looks nice and I love the concept.  Maybe in time I will forget all of the packages.  What do you think?

In my last post, I forgot to post my May project bag.  It took 19 days to get to me by mail and from a driving distance of about 20 minutes.  It really took the scenic route.

May project bag

This is the front.  I love the pink and yellow watercolor top of this one.  And the striped border looks awesome with the Spring colors.

back of May project bag

Here is the back.  Just look at all of those pink boots!  So fun and totally a surprise.  And since then, I have received the June bag.  It arrived in record time, getting to me in a day.

June Project bag

I was over the moon when I received this one.  It is now my favorite 😉

back of June project bag

And here is the back.  SO SWEET!  Kristine knows me well.  And she does an awesome job with all of her project bags.  Different shapes and styles for everything you want to store.  She is Clevergirl Designs and you can find her on intsagram.  Oh, and this bag is already filled with a project  gifted to me from a very sweet friend.

june project bag filled

I can’t wait to start stitching this beauty.  I still need to find a fabric.  So for now, I am still stitching on Lady Mirabilia and here is how she looks this morning.

Lady Mirabilia progress 1

She is getting there.  She has been a joy to stitch and I find myself relaxing while stitching on her.  Unlike my knitting project…

wingspan progress 5

I pulled out the Wingspan yesterday and knitted 3 rows and was so done.  This pattern is not hard, just requires my complete attention and I feel like I hold my breath and really tense up during every row.  Ugh!  But it is my only knitting project on needles right now and I really would love to get it finished.  A few rows every day 😉  So far,  I am very proud of myself that I have not started anything new.  Still trying to get WIP’s finished.

I spent last weekend getting some of this and that done.  And I crossed 2 bigger projects off of my to do list.  I finally redid all of my cross stitch files.  They were still mostly in boxes from when we remodeled the basement.  They all wouldn’t fit in the 2 filing drawers I had planned, so they went into the old file cabinet and with a few more files added.

cross stitch files

It took 2 1/2 drawers, but they are like I want them.  And all patterns are filed.  Woo Hoo!

I also reorganized most of my yarn.  I put a lot of it in the 2 file drawers that would not hold all of my cross stitch files. the top drawer is all AJHC Wools yarn.  Just love her yarn.  The 2nd drawer is mostly 2 skein project yarns.  It will be fun to rummage through the drawers when I want to start a new project.

yarn files

My ottoman is also home to some pretty yarn,  Mostly one skeiners.

Yarn storage

So that is what I have been up to.  Trying to keep myself a little busy and away from the tv, except to watch Vampire Diaries.  How are you spending your time these days?

 

 

It Was Only A Matter Of Time
Craft Room · cross stitch · Nora Corbett · Pixie · Storage · Uncategorized

It Was Only A Matter Of Time

My Time Stitching28 Comments

Warning, this is a long post, so grab your favorite beverage and hang out for a bit 😉  I have put Ella down to make a new start.  As the title says, it was just a matter of time before some beautiful design captured my full attention, making me want to put Ella aside.  Here is my new start!

IMG_0656 (2)

This is Nora Corbett’s new design, Queen Anne’s Lace.  Right now it is a FREE PDF from Just Cross Stitch Magazine.  Gotta love that!  It will be in the April issue of the magazine but for now you can download it from JCS magazine site.  It will be the first piece to hang in my NEW craft room when she is finished.  More on the NEW craft room in a second 🙂 I am stitching little Miss Anne on 16ct Aida Carmel Macchiato from Stehphs Fabbys.  Can I say I am already tired of green and want to get to the Pink?  I am not a fan of green, but there is not as much as the yellow in Ella.  Here is how I left Ella yesterday:

IMG_0657 (2)

She is coming along, but not fast enough for me.  So Pixie Anne is the perfect distraction.

OK, so I mentioned a NEW craft room.  A few years ago, hubby was encouraging me to take one of our boys’ bedrooms for my new craft room.  Our oldest moved out 3 1/2 years ago, and while the thought of a new craft room sounded wonderful, I couldn’t take over my son’s room. So last year, my youngest said I should take over his room, he will move into our oldest’s room and I can have my craft room.  So I decided I would do it in the Spring of 2016.  The last few months hubby has been pushing the idea and I have been thinking about how I would like to decorate it.  I will be losing quite a bit when I leave my current room; like a desk, shelves above my head, cupboards to the right of me.  You see, my current craft room is a narrow space in my laundry room, which also contains the furnace and water heater.  Here is a glimpse into my current space:

IMG_0635 (2)

I have made great use of the space I have had for 17 or so years.  But I have really outgrown it.  And the floor is concrete and is very cold.  Here is the other end of my current room:

IMG_0636 (2)

So a couple of weeks ago, hubby and I were at the office store and I ran into some furniture that just blew me away!  I was originally thinking a new desk would be white, to match my current cube furniture.  But this furniture I fell in love with is glass!  And silver frame. So I thought about it for a few days, had taken measurements and went back to the store on the last day of the sale to take a final look.  I even gathered some things from the store to put on my desk to see how it would all feel.  LOVED it and ordered the furniture.  That was on Jan. 30.  That day, hubby also called a painter to come in and give us an estimate.  The painter said he could start on Wednesday and be done by Sunday!  What???  That only gave us 3 1/2 days to box up one room and move the other room in!  It was moving way too fast.  I thought I had until Spring to start on it.  So, hubby and I began the move on Sunday and the painter arrived on Wednesday evening to an empty room that needed some patching and a border removed and prep for painting.

IMG_0638 (2)

So I am SOOOO excited about my new room!  I want the walls Pink (of course) and the trim gray.  The carpet is a light gray, even though the photo looks like it is purple.  After many times changing my mind, I made my final decision on paint swatches last night:

IMG_0655 (2)

So many pinks and grays to choose from (there really are 50 shades of gray, or more! LOL) but I finally decided: Impatiens Petal pink and Software gray. Sorry for the blurriness on my color choices.  So by Sunday, I think the painter will be done and sometime next week we can start putting my furniture together, which were delivered this week.  I plan to have all of my stamping, scrapbooking, cross stitch and knitting and crocheting all in this one room instead of spread throughout the house.  The room is not really that big, but bigger than the space I have now so I am looking forward to decorating and organizing it.  My wonderful husband is totally responsible for this happening.  If it wasn’t for him, I still wouldn’t be getting a room.  Spring would come and I would still have reasons not to move the boys’ things. My  boys are perfectly fine with what I am doing and my youngest was even here earlier in the week going through his things, and helping me move stuff.  I am feeling better about the whole process and can’t wait to move in next week 🙂

If you are still here, thank you for listening to me go on and on about my craft room.  Do you have a special place where you like to do all of your crafting?

Storage

My Bead Storage

My Time Stitching6 Comments

Yesterday a friend asked me how I store my beads for my stitching.  Then I realized I never shared my bead storage.  So, this is how I store my beads for my cross stitch projects:

My bead storageI purchased these boxes at Joann’s.  Each box has 30 little jars inside.  I use circular labels from the office store to label each jar.

my bead storage 3 I currently have 3 boxes full,  with the 4th box just about full.  Here is how they look from the bottom:

My bead storage 2So if I want to add beads to a project by color instead of number,  I can turn the box over and see all the beautiful colors and size of the beads.  It used to be when I purchased a cross stitch pattern, I would buy the fabric, beads, and any specialty threads all at the same time.  A couple of years ago, I realized that I was buying the same color beads over and over.  So I de-kitted everything and started storing my beads like this.  And this is where I keep all of the duplicates:

bead duplicatesSo as you can see, kitting things was not a very good idea for me.  So now I look in my bead box and my duplicate bead box before purchasing any more beads.  Do you have a great storage tip?

Fabric · Geisha · Joan Elliott Round Robin · Storage

Hand Dyed Obsession and RR progress

My Time Stitching22 Comments

I think the title speaks for the photos.

My fabric storageThis is an under the bed storage box that I have all of my hand dyed fabrics in. I remember when I didn’t have any hand dyes, and now I am obsessed with buying them.  And I have plans for every one 😉  Well, most of them.  Some may be just too pretty to stitch on right now.  But I have them on hand when I need.  I am not a patient person, so waiting for hand dyed fabric to come in the mail is very hard for me.  So now I have a pretty good stash.

some of stephanies fabricsJust some of my  Hand Dyed Fabrics by Stephanie.

Silkweaver fabrics

Some from Silkweaver.  Just can’t seem to stay away from their auctions 🙂

PTP fabricsA few from Picture This Plus from last years sale.

Liberty and CalypsoThese are my 2 latest fabrics from Stephanie. On the left is her limited edition Liberty and on the right is Calypso.  Both are 16ct Aida and both are gorgeous!!  Not sure what I am going to put on Liberty, but Calypso is perfect for a mermaid 😉

And here is what I am currently working on.  When I can stay awake that is.  I have been getting up at 5:00 am 4-5 days a week to walk with a friend and it has been really kicking my butt.  Can’t seem to stay awake at night to stitch.  Hence the very little progress.

Geisha on Julies RRThis is going to be Joan Elliott’s Eastern Promise on Julie’s Asian RR. Sorry for the bad photo, but the colors are truly bright and beautiful and Julie’s fabric is a blue sky with a touch of tan here and there.  It’s gorgeous!

That is my update for now.  Thank you for visiting and have a safe and wonderful Labor Day weekend.

Fairies · Joan Elliott Round Robin · Knitting · New stash! · Storage

A Finish, A Start and some this and that

My Time Stitching22 Comments

I finished Lavender Fairy on Karen’s RR last night and I think she turned out very pretty.

Lavender on Karens RRKarens full RRKaren’s RR is going to be so gorgeous when it gets finished.  She did an awesome job on her layout.  And just look at the sparkles in that fabric!  I still have to add my name,and then she will be ready to mail on in July.  I’m not sure I like Joan Elliott patterns.  Lots of fractionals.  But hubby does like this fairy and he did buy me a special purple hand dyed fabric to stitch her on.  So I suppose I will have to stitch her in full some day.

I also put my Passione Ricamo Mystery SAL on the LARGE scroll frame.  The masking tape hubby bought was really tacky and messy leaving a residue all over the roll when I pulled tape up and on my hands.  So I didn’t really want to put that on my fabric.  So I ended up hand basting it to the piece of fabric on the rods.  It was a chore, but I’m glad it’s done.

SAL on the scroll frameMy fabric didn’t seem to get tight, so I added the rubber bands and binder clips.  Do you see that tiny little spot where the yellow is on the left?  That is my start on this SAL. I hope to add some more this weekend.  I’ve already had a sneak peek at block #2 to be released on July 1, so I want to make sure I get block 1 done and keep up.  For those that were asking about the scroll frame,  it’s a K’s Creations.  You can click on the link to find out more.  Like I said in my last post, I haven’t used this frame in a really long time and not sure I will like it but I am going to give it another try.

Over the weekend, hubby was near a yarn shop and he stopped in.  This is what he picked up for me:

New knitting stuffA cute little case for my circular needles and some fun festy yarn.  There is enough to make 2 scarves.  The shop was out of the pattern, so I called to see how to use this yarn.  Cast on however many sts I want on to size 15 needles and knit in garter stitch for however long I want.  It’s double stranded and it will be interesting to see how this yarn knits up.  It’s called Fantasty Fest by The Sassy Skein and the color is Lobster.  The shop owner told me the yarn strands were put together by kids that were no longer in the Foster Care system.  I thought that was neat. So thank you Skeins On Main for helping hubby pick out some really nice things for me since I couldn’t be there.  I hope to get a scarf knitted up before fall rolls around.  And when I get to organizing my circular needles, I will post a pic of the inside of that cute little case.  That’s it for today.  Thanks for stopping by to see what I have been up to.

Storage

I Love to Organize!

My Time Stitching10 Comments

I don’t know about you, but there is something I just love about organizing.  And the companies that make bins, baskets, boxes, bags and buckets know this and rely on this.  Today I want to share with you my newest find for organizing my Kreinik threads. About a year ago I “de-kitted” my cross stitch kits because I realized that I was buying duplicates of beads (a future post) and krenik threads.  These things are not cheap.  So I put them in an Art Bin box that has spindles for spools of thread.  Since the Kreinik threads are so thin, there was so much empty space being wasted and I have been on the look out for a new way to organize my threads.  So here is what I found over the weekend:

Krenik thread storage

This cute little pink box (had to have it in pink although it does come in other colors) that is called the “Really Useful Box”.  I found it at an office store and they come in many shapes and sizes from a very small box that will fit in the palm of your hand all the way up to great big storage bins.  This one happens to be the 1.7 litre size and is quite perfect!

krenik thread storage 3

After putting them in the box, in numerical order, by type, there was a little wiggle room and I didn’t want them to get all jumbled up.  So I took some thin card board ( I get it in the 12 x 12 paper packs I purchase from Stampin’ Up!) and made some dividers.  I  cut 10 strips   5 5/8″ x 2″ and they worked perfectly!  I still have a little room to grow before I purchase another one.  I even cut some extra dividers in preparation for the next box 🙂

krenik thread storage 2

It has a clear lid so that I can see what is inside without having to take the lid off.  This will come in handy when I spill over to the second box.  I think this is the perfect box for my Kreinik threads and I don’t anticipate having to re-organize them again in the future.  I just love it when an organization problem is solved.

Floss · Storage

My Floss Storage

My Time Stitching42 Comments

I was pulling threads for my next project and realized that I never shared where I store my skeins of floss.  DMC cabinet

I think that Hubby ordered this for me back in 1998.  It is a limited edition DMC floss cabinet.  I have number 1386 of 2000 made in 1999.  I remember it took a long time to get as they were ordered in advance and made after ordering.  It’s in my living room, so it is a little scratched up from 2 boys and their toys over the years.  But I love it!  I have patterns to stitch panels for the doors that will have my initials on them.  I just haven’t gotten to yet.  I’ve liked the wood doors for years, and only this last year dug out the patterns to do in the near future.  Here is what it looks like when I open the doors:

dmc cabinet open

It has 13 drawers and the first 12 drawers are numbered with dmc floss numbers. The drawers have sections in the front and back for the floss.

close of dmc cabinet drawers

dmc drawer

Whenever I need floss for a project, I usually check my boxes of bobbins first and then pull the threads that I need from here.  I make a list of what is empty and the next time I go to Joannes or Michaels I pick up the colors and replace them.  I have noticed that some of my floss skeins are really old and a slightly different color than a newer skein.  I hope I pay attention to this when I want to use those colors on a project and make sure that I don’t use them together.  I love my floss cabinet.  It’s so fun to open a drawer and see all the beautiful colors.  The bottom drawer is my “junk drawer” of the cabinet.  It’s full of black and white floss and duplicate skeins.  I also store all of my needles, small scissors and some varigated floss in there.  Where do you store you embroidery floss?

DMC logo plate