Monday, October 1, 2012

Not sure this is a good thing....

I'm one of these stitchers who has 1 full set of DMC threads that I do my projects from rather than buying a complete set of threads for every different project. I just couldn't store that much thread! But what about dye lot variations, I hear you cry. Well here is what I do. As HAED cross stitch patterns are fairly confetti heavy and use threads that are all fairly close to each in colour I don't notice any variations in dye lots for the most part. The only time I would worry about dye lots in HAED is when there are large blocks of the same colour where variations would be quite obvious, so other than that I just replace thread as I run out. Also I have a DMC cone of 310 (black) so this colour is always the same because it all comes from the one cone.

When I stitch other patterns, such as Celtic Spring by Lavender and Lace, I do then make sure that I either have enough of a particular colour to finish the chart or I buy a new one specially for it. If a chart like this uses two of a particular colour I then buy the two from the same lot. This is because most of these types of charts are made up of blocks of colour and slight variations in dyes can be very obvious.

This system however comes with problems as anytime I want to work on a particular project, like Oliana for instance, I have to search through all my boxes looking for the right colours. It is fairly off putting to be honest. Then while reading Gizzimomo's Blog on getting ready to started Mini Trancendence, I saw how she had organised her threads and I thought that would be a great way to solve my problem.

So a cut some heavy card, punched holes in it and re-enforced the holes with those plastic circle things for punched holes. I then numbered them and put one length of each colour on it. I will replace the lengths as they run out but I felt one was enough to get started with anyway.

So here is QS Clara threads started.

QS Clara threads
It is a little time consuming but hopefully it will help speed things up over all. However I am worried that now I just have made a nice system to have as many projects on the go as I like.

Have a great day all :)
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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousOctober 1, 2012 at 12:40 PM

    hello, I have known this system for years, so it is quite familiar to me. I can give you two hints too, which came in very handy to me, when both my mum and me were xstitching. I write the name of the project on the cardboard (vertical in the middle) and I put the colorsymbol next to or in your shown picture right above the colornumber. Next time you make these cardh=boards you will find it of more use to put the symbol right next to the middle of the hole and the colornumber beneath it.

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  2. UnknownOctober 1, 2012 at 2:02 PM

    This has to be so much easier on storage while you are working on the project. Thank you for sharing, will have to try it.

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  3. MoniqueOctober 1, 2012 at 7:45 PM

    I also only have one set of DMC threads and also find sorting through threads everytime I change projects not so fun. But I have tried the punched cardboard and I just couldn't handle the tangles that kept occuring. But I hope it works well for you.

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  4. UnknownOctober 2, 2012 at 11:06 AM

    I too have a set that I use too and if I need another for a project just order extra woohoo i'm not doing anything wrong.
    http://traceyinlife.blogspot.co.uk/

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Would love to read any comments you would like to leave. Thanks for brightening my day :)

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