I’ve discovered a secret to reducing my stress levels when I walk into my studio. I’m going to show you two tools I’m using to organize my threads for creative success. How often are you confronted with a mess like this?
I have to tell you, nothing makes me more frustrated than knowing I have the perfect thread in my stash but not being able to find it. As I get older, organization becomes more important to me. I have less patience with myself, and I need to have a space to put my things away. I’ve recently indulged in two products that are changing the way I work.
The first one is nothing new. I had one thread rack on my wall, and it wasn’t nearly enough to hold all of my threads. Especially as I become more and more excited about embroidery threads. I decided to dig in and fill up my whole wall with these racks. I have a total of 7 racks, which will accommodate 840 spools of thread. That may seem excessive, because it is. I have a lot of thread. I like to have a wide variety of colors and weights, and I do everything. Piecing, quilting, appliqué and embroidery. I also feel driven to try everything, because I want to be able to help my students when they try something new.
These are the June Tailor Mega Rak, which holds 120 spools each. I just screw them to the wall (my husband love this behavior!) They double as an awesome backdrop for zoom calls. They give the illusion that I’m super organized, too. My definition of organized is threads grouped by size, then color. Right now they are just up on the wall, which is still really helpful. Since I don’t have to move anything to access them, it is easy to put stuff back when I’m done, which seems to be crucial to my process.
They are available at Joann.com right now for an absolutely unbelievable price.
My threads also make a huge mess when I’m on the go. The embroidery project I’m working on right now uses Trailhead Tencel Perle threads. I love these threads – not only are they a joy to work with, and gorgeous, they also come on these cute bobbins. It’s so easy to justify using 20 colors on a project, because they all fit in my little travel bag. However, they can come unwound and make a mess. (Oh, you can find these at SnugglyMonkey.com in the US, and if you use this link, you will get $5 off.)
Trailhead offers them with those round bobbin donuts, but those are kind of big for my project bag. These Bobbin Boats are perfect! They hold 10 bobbins each. (Affiliate link.)
I like the colors of the smaller Bobbin Boats better, but I prefer the way they fit into the large ones. 10 colors isn’t enough for me, so I’ve got 2 of the Bigger Bobbin Boats in my project bag. I seriously love that there isn’t a big tangle going on in there. I love these things so much, I might wind my other threads onto my empty bobbins, and just use them all the time.
What have I been working on with all of these pretty threads? I’ve been embroidering a piece of In The Dawn linen from Figo fabrics. I found it at Hangin’ by a Thread, a local quilt shop near me. Amanda still has a few yards left – get it before it is gone!
I’ve been sharing lots of videos of me embroidering on my Instagram account, if you enjoy watching that.
This piece will eventually be turned into a project pouch. I’ve been making samples from Aneela Hoey’s Stitched Sewing Organizers book, in preparation for the Bagapalooza Virtual Retreat at Gotham Quilts. I’m looking forward to a weekend of sewing with friends. Want to come play? You can sign up here. In addition to live sewing on zoom all weekend, we are also preparing a bunch of helpful video tutorials of all of the techniques used in the book. Attendees get to keep access to the videos “forever”. (Nothing lasts forever, but we don’t have plans to take anything down.) I adore putting together video classes, so the retreats are especially fun for me. I work on them for quite a while before we get started.
We’ve got the retreat planned for November 15-17. It’s the perfect time to put together a couple of small holiday gifts before Thanksgiving madness kicks in. I’ll share more info soon, but I’m really excited.