Cross Stitch Thread Organisation

Let me tell you. I am one of those people who manage to make organisation seem like a mess. Or make a mess seem like organisation...
Either way, its a gift.

So I figure as part of this blog, I shall give everybody I sneak peak into my organisation systems. As they are organised. No holds back, I'll show you the ones that work for me, the ones that don't, and why.

So first up is cross stitch thread.
This stuff is hellish. It gets knotted, I have quite a bit of it (especially given I have only just started to grow my own collection, instead of stealing my mothers.) One of my best friends gave me her collection of threads, some of which have been organised. Some that hadn't been.

The beginning of my organisation process

So first things first, I gave pinterest a solid browse. I found some really good posts about how other people had organised their collections (you can see some of them on my board here).

I decided on using the wooden peg method. It means that I can wrap my thread around them, and put a note on them with their number. Because I inherited a lot of thread, it wasn't all the same brand. There is a combination of DMC, Anchor and other brands (some that I don't even know, they just had a number written on the card). So I have colour coded my numbers, pink for DMC, blue for Anchor, and green for everything else.

I then put them into a plastic box. the ones in the long panels on either side are Anchor and other brands. While the middle sections are DMC, divided into numbers by the 100.

Every time I start a new cross stitch project, I pick out the threads that I need from my box and put them into my cross stitch project bag, along with my needles, cloth and thread scissors.

Once I've finished the project, the threads go back into the box (DMC 360, black thread, normally just stays in my project bag, as I use it in some form in all of my cross stitches).

Next step is to buy another container for all my duplicate threads!

Pros and cons:

• The wooden pegs are a lot cheaper than the fancy cross stitch thread organisation thingys. I picked up 100 for $3 NZ. Because of how cheap they are, I don't feel bad writing all over them 
• I can see the thread a lot easier, I'm not entirely sure why that is, probably because they are  wound closer together than you can do on the fancy ones 
• I find them easier to get the thread off then on the fancy ones. That might just be because I am useless, but I just have the end pinched so I know exactly where I am starting from 
• But I can't fit as many of the pegs into my container as I could if I used the fancy cross stitch thread 
• A few times my thread has got caught on the wood. Probably because I bought cheap pegs, so there are a few splinters and things in them. Its still annoying to have to be that careful.

I hope this helps you make decisions on your mess techniques!

Till next time!

Dat girl