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Wednesday, April 16, 2014

April WIPocalypse

Right now Egyptian Sampler looks like this:

I don't want to jinx it by saying so, but I think I'm pretty close to a finish :)

This month's question: How do you keep your stash organized?
Since I skipped last week due to shame at the slovenly way I keep my room I thought I'd share the somewhat disorganized way I keep my stash. Almost everything takes up three drawers in a chest of drawers.


All my unused fabric is in one drawer. Everything is labelled with the size and count. Anything earmarked for a project has the project written down (because the number of times I used to get confused over why I had a particular piece of fabric cannot be counted). Little scraps that I'm convinced I'm somehow use are in a corner.

All finishes are in another drawer. This one is getting pretty full.

DMC is in five boxes. It felt like to took forever to get every colour on a bobbin but I'm so pleased that I did it. I actually have one giant set of floss that I work out of. I used to pull the colours for a particular project and keep them separately, but after I bought the same colour six times because I couldn't remember where it was I gave up and consolidated everything. Occasionally a dyelot changes and things go horrifyingly wrong, but mostly I never have to wonder where a particular floss is or whether I've cannibalized it for something.

All my books, magazine, charts and printed freebies are in a shopping bag. I keep everything by the same designer in one giant ziplog bag so they take up a little less space than if they were in individual plastic sleeves.

Everything else is in the last drawer, piled in controlled chaos.

The upper left is where I keep all non-DMC threads. The red is for my other Cirque projects, there's some anchor threads from Maia, The Shepherd's Bush thread-holder is leftover thread, there's some leftover Dimensions thread on a floss ring. Threads from the companies like Week Dye Works, Dinky Dyes etc are on their own floss ring. Next to that is my pile of ribbons. The two boxes in the bottom left contain all my Kreinik. Next to them is my tiny collection of pearl cotton.

The upper right box has all my trims.

All extra skeins of DMC are in bags corresponding to which box they would be in.

All Mill Hill beads are on floss rings in numerical order in their original packaging.

Oh and I forgot to take a picture of my WIPs, but they're all rolled up in a bag next to the bag of charts. It's a bit messy but it's organized enough for me :)

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

beautiful stitching, love the way you organized your beads

Kate Featherstitch said...

You're very organized! I have a similar system for DMC, working all my projects from a master set. What do you do now for projects, do you work out of the five boxes?

The Knitting Cross Stitcher said...

Great stash pics. Gorgeous stitiching as always:-)

Rhona said...

Your stitching is fabulous...can't wait to see it finished. Love how you keep your stash...it seems very organized compared to mine! :)

Anonymous said...

My beads are in their original box if it is unopened. When it is opened the beads get dumped into a floss away bag and placed on a ring by color family.

All my other stuff is in Sterilite or Rubbermade bins. The carded floss is in the boxes like yours. Unopened flosses are in floss aways bags and filed in small clear-view plastic drawers.

Specialty stuff resides in their own boxes (sometimes a bit less organized than the other things) and my fabrics and prefinishes are piled in a big Rubbermade bin. Unfortunately not all my fabric still has the tags saying what it is or what count. :::sigh:::

Jan said...

Wahoo !!! ES is looking mighty fine. Not much longer now for the final stitches. As for STASH organization, I like the idea that you have everything close at hand in an easy to reach chest of drawers.

Marcy said...

Beautiful work .... and almost a finish! Hooray!

DJ said...

You are really coming along on your Egyptian piece...love the colors!! Great idea for organizing your stash!

Anne said...

Beautiful progress Blue on the Egyptian piece!! Almost finished! It looks like you are pretty organized with all of your materials for stitching. Mine's a bit more helter skelter!!

CathieJ said...

I love your Egyptian sampler. I have always been fascinated with Ancient Egypt. Beautiful.

Elizabeth said...

Oh, wow! Your Egyptian Sampler is beautiful! I have that one on my "Maybe Someday" list.

Anonymous said...

I'm envious of your organization! I have my DMC on stitchbows, but I still need to get them organized by number/color.

ricketyjo said...

Egyptian Sampler is looking great! and I loved seeing all your wonderful stash. :)

Nima said...

so good to see your WIP.

and good to see your organised stash

Karoline said...

Great progress on ES, it's looking gorgeous

Jennifer said...

I try to be organized, but my big problem is not keeping everything together. I have it scattered between several rooms though ideally I'd like to have it all in one. My threads are in my closet in a combination of skeins and bobbins, my finishes and fabrics are in dresser drawers in our guestroom, charts in underbed boxes in the same guest room, and filed charts (ones I've done) in binders in the office. I think it works because I don't have a whole LOT of stuff, but sometimes it can take some time to find things.

If you have the room, I highly recommend underbed storage boxes. They're not deep, so you're not digging through layer upon layer, and my charts stay flat and unwrinkled. They're also out of the way, but easily accessible, and the sealed plastic boxes keep everything clean and dust free.

The Maiden said...

I am the queen of bags for organizing stash, I have so many I designed and sewed my own to hold 5 projects at once!

Carol said...

Love your progress on this one!! And I'd say you look quite organized... I have my stuff spread out in drawers in three different rooms. Not the best set-up, but unless I want to dedicate an extra bedroom to a craft room, that's the best I can do :)