Fancy fibres

Well, I've solved the problem of what to do with all those fluffy, knobbly, hairy, tangly fibres!  Actually Sharon B gave me the idea.  At the "Adventure" in Connecticut she carried around her embroidery threads on a big ring rather than pack numerous baggies, and as she demonstrated a stitch, she just chose and snipped off a length from the ring.  Great idea, thanks Sharon.

80*F >>>>>> 24*F

For for those of us in the Celius mode: 26*C >>> -4*C. The beach at Nokomis is part of Casey Key, on the Gulf side of Florida.

Seafood was on our menu lots of times, and shrimp boiled in seawater is to die for!.

Crab was on sale at Publix and there were lots of loose claws. This was a great meal!

Before I left on my vacation I was lucky enough to find this great bag in Fabricland, on sale for $9.99! It's about 12" x 8". On the outside it has two large pockets, one zippered and the other with Velcro.

It comes with two "pages" with zippered pockets. The pages are anchored with strips of Velcro so they are removable. This is the middle where I have a variety of threads.

This is inside of the outside back. The inside of the outside front has one large zippered pocket that I filled with bits of lace and trim.

The sewing case was so great that I decided to buy another one just to get the two removable sections and add them to my original case. There were no black cases left, so I took the white.

The other double page I filled with beads. I used very small plastic bags to hold small amounts of various colours.

Security is very tight on the airlines, and on my last trip I had to forfeit my tiny scissors. There's lots of time to sew while waiting for planes and you absolutely need something to cut the thread. This little bit is part of a dental floss cutter. It measures only 1" x 1/2" and does a great cutting job.

These were some of the small projects I took with me to work on. They are all needle cases. The orange (above) and lilac ones (below) are folded in half.

Above is how this one looks folded with two folds. On the left is it unfolded.

These two needle cases are still unfinished.

There's lots of interest in making paisley motifs on the CQ websites, so here's my first attempts. The top one is 2 1/2" x 1 1/4". The other I'm still working on, and I like how it looks. It's bigger, 3" x 2 1/4". The sequins are all the same colour!

This is Lilifee my new Garden Angel Dotee. She came from Miriam in Germany in a Swap-Bot swap recently. She loves her new home in the orchids.

So now I'm home and need to get caught up with the daily chores. But not yet ......SharonB has just posted March's Stitch Explorer Challenge technique and I must have a go at that before I do the laundry!!

Added Monday, 16th March. This is finished now. The colours are better in the unfinished one above.

Storing all the stash

On CQforNewbies, there's a discussion going on about how folks store their stash. I've been involved in loads of different crafts in my life and none of them have stashes that grow so much and so fast as crazy quilting! I began last March with one small box of "fancy" fabrics and some DMC floss. Now I am bursting at the seams! I have a great wall unit that takes up almost one wall in my bedroom made by my handy friend. The unit is just adjustable shelves and 12 x 12 x 12 cardboard boxes covered with wallpaper. Most of the boxes have fabric sorted by colour. The centre open unit is scrapbooking and genealogy. There are 42 large boxes and 6 small, three quarters of them with fabric.

In my living room I have a small corner where I do cake decorating. My handy friend used an old door, a big sheet of arborite, an old sewing machine table and an extra support to give me lots of workspace. Underneath all of that are three rolling drawer units supporting the door and giving me lots of storage for beads, charms, buttons, and threads. All the drawers are used, most are full.

Within the larger drawers there are two plastic containers with beads or threads.

This system works for me. But I am at capacity and must stop adding any more stuff. By the way is there a "stash anonymous"?