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Thursday, November 22, 2012

Organized Chaos

As a follow-up to yesterday’s post about Fortunate Traveler, I thought I’d get around to answering Bonnie’s question about TW’s, thread organization and the needle roll.

For those who have not stitched a TW she likes two things (a lot): quarter stitches and blended threads.  Now these add a lot of depth and character to the piece and add up to a lot of back stitching but once finished totally worth the effort. 

The question is how does one organize the thread as a result of the blended thread and confetti stitches?

My favored method is to use a needle roll.  What is a needle roll (or my version in this case?)

Simple answer: an extra piece of lugana with a strip of tape to write on where needles are put if there is left over thread on the needle when working with a symbol.  Pretty simple, effective, and allows for faster stitching.  Or less stressful stitching, something like that.

The long answer: how to make one.

You need:
1.    Scrap piece of fabric. I like using needlework fabric because it has all those holes to hold the needle
2.    Masking tape
3.    Marker or pen to write on the masking tape
4.    Needles
5.    Colour code of the pattern
6.    Sandwich bag (optional)
7.    Hair elastic (optional)
That’s it.



Cut your fabric to about, mine is about 5" – you may want it to fit in the sandwich bag










Run a piece of tape along one edge.  I wrap end around the top and bottom to allow for nicer top edge.  Also it helps to have some sacrifice tape in case it starts to peel you don’t have to worry about losing your symbols etc. written on the tape.







This next part depends on how you want to start: Write the symbol and colour numbers on the tape
You can pre-set this up or do it as you stitch.
Let’s face it, who wants to waste the stitching time doing it before hand??



I usually draw a line under this and across the fabric to make sure I line things up right- this will be however you work best
Thread needles, stitch, park left over thread. Repeat.

When you’re not stitching you can roll the whole thing up and store in the sandwich bag or keep closed with the hair elastic…. Or whatever way works best




There you have it, my super easy way to organize thread for confetti stitches and blended colours

Any questions?

Also I should say thank you to Dani for showing me the basics for this.

One last thing: Can we start now????

1 comment:

Bonnie Brown said...

You're my hero (said in a steve urkel like voice)

Thanks Christin! I am going to try to do this for FT.

To answer your question, NO!