organization

Thread Candy Studio debuted a purse-sized stitch journal last month. Each page is about 5�4 making it small enough to carry around. That’s its strength, but also one of its weaknesses. For those with large handwriting many of the pages and lines are too small to record information.

The book attempts to be a place to hold lots of useful information for stitchers of all kinds. The first section is project notes with a lined page and a table page for about 12 projects. The table has columns for stitch, effect thread, and thread size. A dozen stitches can be recorded. This is plenty for most small to medium projects.

After this there is a wish list section with pages divided into need and wish list. Having this in the same place as other inventories and plans makes it easy to keep track of what’s needed. At the end of this section there are sever pages without labels that can be ised for additional notes or lists.

Following this is a thread section where you can inventory your threads. The first several pages have marked columns for thread name, color, size, need/have. The vast majority of pages have unmarked columns. While this is very useful, I can’t really see anyone but those with the smallest stashes using this for inventory, there just aren’t enough pages.

The next section, design, has pages printed with grids, so stitches can be recorded. These are big enough to sketch a stitch but not enough for a pattern of any size.

The final section is for your project diary with two pages for each project, including a blank lined page and an open area marked “notes” which looks like a good space for a picture.

While there is lots packed into this little book, my main complaint is that the size limits its usefulness. While some people will find the small pages difficult to write on, but the desire to include everything and the small size mean that it can only hold a limited amount of stuff.

But at under $8, you can probably afford multiples. The book comes with three choices of cover color and can be ordered directly from Thread Candy Studio.

Go here to see the original:
Stitch Journal from Thread Candy Studio – Product Review

Organizing WIPs, UFOs, and Unstitched Canvases

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

Originally posted 2009-03-18 06:39:41. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

A major contributor to messy stashes are our piles of unfnished and unstitched projects, I know it is for me.

Once a year, at least, you should go through the piles of this stuff and organize them. It’s kind of like a treasure hunt. Yesterday was that day for me, occasioned by finding the two underbed boxes of stuff I had stored over the summer.

Begin by sorting stuff into four piles:

unstitched canvases
projects you are actively working on (WIPs)
started projects you aren’t working on (UFOs)
projects you don’t want to do anymore

I sorted my unstitched canvases into large and small (small is by far the biggest. The large ones went back into one of the storage bins. The smalls got organized by subject and put into a straew tote bag whixh ia easily accessible for when I want to start a new project.

My WIPs are stored in zippered project bags in open baskets under some of the thread stash. These projects are one stretcher bars. Some of them, like the CyberPointers President’s Challenge are long term, some, like Maple Leaf Rag, are almost done. I’m hoping that new projects won’t get added to this pile until an old project is done.

The UFOs are more problematic as I don’t want to waste stretcher bars, thumbtacks, and zippered bags on things I won’t be stitching for awhile. So I use plastic bags for storage and put threads and canvas into the underbed unit.

The stuff you don’t want anymore and what to do with it will be the subject of next week’s article.

Now instead of two underbed units, I have one. I’ve reduced the number of WIPs to ones I can handle and have the small pieces I love somewhere where I can get them fast.

All in all not a bad day’s work.

See the rest here:
Organizing WIPs, UFOs, and Unstitched Canvases

Make Yourself a Portable ORT Box

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in accessories,Nuts About Needlepoint

Originally posted 2009-06-27 06:31:32. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

small acrylic boxes for portable ORT containers

If you often stitch away from home, finding places to put your ORTs (end of threads) is always a problem.

What you need is something small and something which either fits in your project bag or folds flat. Or something you were going to throw out anyhow.

At my ANG chapter meetings, I often use the Starbucks cup I carry in. Once I’m done drinking the tea, it’s there and I’m throwing it out at the end of the meeting.

But what do you do if you don’t have something like that — throw the ends on the floor?

Here are some ideas for portable ORT containers:

cardboard gift card boxes – they fold flat and are pretty
small gift paper bags – I bought a tiny one with ribbon handles, probably made for a gift card this week
those clear plastic containers (pictured above)
a plastic salt or pepper shaker – I used one of these at Maker Faire
a collapsable origami box
AAA battery storage case
acrylic bead storage jar

In every case, the item is small or can be stores flat, is unbreakable and is easy to empty.

What could be better than that?

See the original post:
Make Yourself a Portable ORT Box

Organizing the “Junk” Drawer

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

All this month while cleaning and organizing I have been avoiding something. You probably avoid it too whenever you clean up.

Be honest now. You do.

The Junk Drawer.

Mine is in my desk and has in it, among other things, random twists of threads that don’t have a place, cards of beading needles, templates from LNA luggage tags, magnets that don’t hold needles very well, jewelry, and who knows what else.

It needs cleaned out. It needs organized. Because of the cats (this also applies to small children) I have to do it all at once.

Here’s how.

Take everything out.
AS you do examine stuff.Decide about each item if:
- It’s a storage container. If so put it aside, you’ll use it to put stuff into back in the drawer.
- It belongs somewhere else in the house. Put these in piles by room or floor and put into bags and take them there.
- It’s trash. Throw it out right away without delay.
- It should be given away. Make a pile of these, inventory them when you are done for tax purposes, bag them and get them out of there.
- They belong in your junk drawer. This pile should now be fairly small.
Take your junk drawer pile and sort it with like items together. Put scissors with scissors for instance.
Look at your storage containers and see what of your pile will fit in them. Also decide what in that pile should go someplace else. For example, I keep my small project scissors in a pot on my desk so I can grab a pair quickly. My markers are all in a big box in another drawer except for a few in my pencil jar on my desk.
Put your stuff into the containers you have and put them back into the drawer.

Depending on how bad your drawer is, this might take an hour or two.

But when you are done, you are organized and can find that elusive tool you KNOW was there.

Read this article:
Organizing the “Junk” Drawer

Is there an Island of Unwanted Projects?

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

Remember how in Rudolph there was an Island of Unwanted Toys?

The toys there were unloved or missing something.

We have unwanted projects too. Maybe it was a class and we learned what we wanted to and never finished the project. Maybe your taste or decor changed. Maybe it’s too late to give that gift.

Whatever the reason we all have projects that have been started but won’t ever be finished.

Marlene asked about what to do with them. Here are some ides:

Do you have stitching friends? Arrange a “needlepoint swap.” Everyone bring 5 items to trade. The hostess should arrange for food and maybe goodie bags to entice people to come. This is like a pot luck, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

Are you in a guild chapter? Donate these projects to your guild for a chapter auction. My chapter has funded our education auction with these for decades. Chapters take different tacks with this. Our chapter goes with bargain basement pricing, but other guilds go with higher prices. If you aren’t in a chapter, look for one nearby and ask.

Work with a local shop to have a garage sale. People buy tables, with the money going to charity, and on a given day the sale is held. The shop does some of the marketing so there are plenty of sellers and plenty of buyers.

Sell it in eBay. There are some shops, such as Fireside Stitchery and The World in Stitches, who will sell your items on eBay for a commission. They will take most things (email or call to ask) and have better luck than you would yourself.

Sell it through and independent reseller such as Canvases Begone or Stashing Destashing. From what I see as a buyer, they are more strict about what they take, but I’ve found great bargains in both places. Many stitchers visit their sites.

Donate it to a thrift store. I sometimes see needlepoint at local thrift shops and Northern California has one thrift shop that only has craft items.
Donate it to charity. You might know of a local charity looking for craft items. There are also some organizations that take donations from everywhere. The ANG Yahoo group has a list of these.

If it isn’t a UFO, you have more options for donation. Rittenhouse Needlepoint has a wonderful charitable program for teaching needlepoint. Local youth organizations and schools might welcome yarn and thread. Knitters who knit for charity might love uncut skeins of yarn.

There are enough places to place those unwanted projects that maybe we don’t need an island after all.

See the article here:
Is there an Island of Unwanted Projects?

Organizing the UFO Pile

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

For me, if the UFO’s are more or less corralled then I feel as if I am keeping the forces of chaos away from my door.

Deciding what constitutes a UFO instead of a “project on hiatus” what you store with it, and where that all goes can be a complex process, different for each stitcher.

Here’s how I do it and along the way you might find some tips to help you organize.

I would love to be one of those organized people who keep things neat and only work on a project or so at once. But I’m not and never will be, so this at least keeps me somewhat in control.

Triage

Deciding what kind of UFO a project is makes a HUGE first step to getting organized. When you go to the emergency room they call this triage, we can apply the same idea of quick classification to our needlepoint.

There are three kinds of UFO’s:

Projects currently being worked on
UFO’s you’ll get to soon
UFO’s you’ll egt to “someday,” or projects on hiatus

I’ll talk about each one in turn and how I store them.

Current Rotation

I am never without several projects going on at the same time. And my current projects range from models for classes, new projects for the needlepoint clubs, projects that will be used on the blog, gifts, stitch guide projects, new designs, and Sunday stitching (stitching for me).

Each of these projects lives in a project bag and sits somewhere around the house. I know when there are too many of these and I need to clean up when my DH complains about needlepoint being “everywhere.”

As soon as something is done, it goes to my office with the threads, gets taken off the stretcher bars and the project bag gets used for the next thing. Sometimes I have used a basket to keep these together but at the moment they are just piled around.

I like having these in bags, then I just pick one up to go someplace. I’m happiest if there are only five of these floating around. Right now I think I have six, so I need to get one done and none are very close.

UFO’s

These are projects that aren’t currently in the rotation but will be as soon as a space opens up. I used to keep them in piles in the office, but now I have them put in a tote I’m not using next to my desk.

These pieces are on stretcher bars and in project bags. To start work on them I just need to add needles and scissors and go.

Projects on Hiatus

A project on hiatus is one I intend to finish but has no deadline or compelling reason to be completed. If I have taken a class and learned what I needed to from it, I’ll take it out of hiatus and donate it or give it away. So every project here is one I plan to do. This is one of those parts of my stash I go through about every six months to be sure I haven’t changed my mind about any of these projects.

These live in the same dresser drawer as the large unstitched canvases. Mostly they are in plastic bags although some are in project bags. Usually, but not always, if something goes into this pile, I take it off the stretcher bars.

In theory if I take something from my UFO bag, I take one of these projects and put it in. But usually, I’m afraid, a new UFO has intervened.

The Portable Needlepoint Tool Kit – One Woman’s Essentials

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint,tools

In my recent epiphany about organizing my studio I realized some things about me and stitching on the road. I have optimized many of my choices for tools to be portable. The stuff goes into project bags or my purse and comes with me.

Here’s how I deal with my essential stitching tools.

First off let’s talk about needles. I lose them constantly. I also tend to use mostly one size of needles (22) and so about a year ago I stocked up. John James makes 25 packs of needles you might be able to find. Many of them live in a little tin that goes in one project bag. It’s the size of an Altoid minis tin and I bought it on Etsy. Usually there are a couple in every project as well, but not always. I was stick waiting someplace in the car and lost my needle. Usually there is one on the floor, but not that day.

So now I have a second, zippered needle case in my purse. I keep it there stuffed with even more needles, just in case I run out. It doesn’t take up much space and I know I’m always ready to stitch.

Scissors are another important things. You need to have them, but many scissors have points that will pierce even a reinforced project bag. I like these little titanium scissors. They are small with sharp, but not too sharp points and big comfy fingerholes. I have four pairs of them and usually they all are in project bags.

Since I found the little flat Lantern Moon ORT container (reviewed here) I take that with me. I’ve looked at other portable ORT containers, but this is the one that works for me. Another one might work for you.

The newest edition to my traveling kit is my iPodTouch. It has several stitch dictionaries on it and so I can look up stitches easily on the go.I also use the note pad for ideas, Weave (a free to do application) to keep track of projects, and if I had time to do it, thread inventories — all in the size of a small notepad.

These things sound small, and they are, but they have changed my stitching life. I can be organized, I don’t worry about not having a needle, a stitch idea, or a place to put my ORTs. I know my stitching will stay neat and I will be organized and that peace of mind is worth so much.

Go here to read the rest:
The Portable Needlepoint Tool Kit – One Woman’s Essentials

Organizing Threads

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

For many of us, including me, organizing threads is the biggest part of organizing our stash. A critical part of this is figuring out how to make this organization work for you.

Of course that means thinking. You can think about threads in three ways: by thread type,by texture, or by color. If you say to yourself “Pebbly Perle would be perfect here!” you should classify by thread type. If you say “I need a furry thread for that little cat!” you should classify by texture. If you say “That dress should be ruby red!” you should classify by color.

Whichever you choose, now think about the places you have to store things. In many cases this will determine how much you can break out the categories.

Someone with a small stash and not much space might classify the stash by big color groupings: re, orange, yellow, etc. But with lots of storage, a stash classified by thread type might have five different drawers for Kreinik metallics (I do).

Once you know these things take out all or part of your thread stash, emptying drawers and anyplace else thread hides.

Divide what you have pulled out into the categories you decided to use.

Next either do some more classifying or put what you have away where it will live.

But how do you know when it’s time to split on of your categories? I use two criteria. If I get a new bit of storage, I think about bins that are pretty full and split something (I recently did this with several IKEA bins). If a bin gets too full, I see where there is space I can free up and split that bin (I need to do that now with my Rainbow Gallery metallics).

I don’t like to put away threads often, even though they are organized well, so I keep a small tote by my desk. Threads I’ve used go there and then get put away when the bag is full. I use the same dump and sort procedure.

See more here:
Organizing Threads

Planning – the First Step in Organizing

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

Although you don’t need to plan before you organize your stash, you’ll be happier if you spend some quality time thinking before sorting and storing.

First, think about what you have to store. Is it UFO’s, canvases, threads, books, or just about everything. Write down the board categories and not if you already have storage for them.

For example thread is the main thing I need to store, which is fine, But much of my thread lives in a seed cabinet and two chunks of card catalogue, which may not be so fine. They take up a ton of space and any organizing I need to do has to take that into account.

Second, think about the space you have. Is it big or small? Does it share space with other things? Does it have furniture in it? What lighting does it have? Is there hidden storage space anywhere?

Finally, think about how often you use the things in your stash. Do you start projects often? Are you mainly working on your UFOs? Do you need to get to blank canvas often? Do you mostly work on small projects so long stretcher bars can live far away?

Now that you know what you have, how you use it and what space you have for it, you can start thinking about how you will use your space. Do you sit in a particular space? What needs to be near it to make stitching easier? Do you do your work at a desk? What needs to be close by? Do you have a door you can close?

Once you have thought, write down what you have discovered and write down what you like and hate about your space.

When I set up my studio I knew it would need to be a guest room, so I bought a daybed, but not the one I wanted that had storage. But I found that I hated pulling out the bins.

Re arranging our house last winter allowed me to move that daybed to another room and to get a daybed with storage. The drawers make me more organized and I am MUCH happier.

A final word of advice. You won’t get it right the first time, but with each reorganization, you’ll get closer to a space that functions for you. By planning you’ll know what is good, what needs to be changed and where there is untapped potential.

Follow this link:
Planning – the First Step in Organizing

Organizing Month

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

Last week I spent several days doing a major clean-up of my studio. I had been sadly neglecting it. First there was the sick cat being in a cage (August) in here (August). Then there was the stuff from ANG and the new slide out shelf units that belong SOMEWHERE ELSE (September). And the various purchases and threads that couldn’t get put away because of all the other stuff.

So I thought about what needed to be in here and how I could work better in this space. So this month I’m going to devote the middle of the week columns to organization of your stitching space.

I’ll talk about analyzing your needs, planning your space, clean up and organizing your stash. I’ll show you pictures of what I’ve done and link to some great tools and sites.

Today we’ll start with the great clean-up. Cleaning up and throwing out is going to be a big part of any reorganization project. Often the psychological lift you get out of throwing out stuff is enough to encourage you to continue the process.

I keep two trash cans in my office. One is for recycling stuff and the other is for trash. So, before I start to reorganize I get a paper bag for recycling and empty that trash can and a garbage bag for regular trash.

I empty both cans. If either bag is full it goes out of the studio and to the trash. If not, I put it aside for the next bit of stuff for it.

Now, with empty cans I start looking for obvious trash and put it in the cans. If there are magazines that have dog-eared pages, I pull out those pages and recycle the magazines.

When I clear off my desk or clear out something, I check everything to see if it’s trash. If it is — out it goes. Immediately. Once a trash can gets full I bag it so I have an easy place for more trash.

Another tip that helps me get through this is to move stuff that doesn’t belong in your stitching space to another place. Right now I have five piles going: upstairs (clothing etc), books for other parts of the house, garage (I’ll move them at once and organize immediately), thrift shop, and out of the house (packages to mail and ink cartridges to recycle).

Whenever I find something that needs to go in one of these piles it goes there. Right away.

This always clears lots of space.

Tomorrow we’ll talk about planning your space.

Continued here:
Organizing Month

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