by Sandra | March 5th, 2009
Organizing handwork tasks can save more time than you think. I have a system that organizes and streamlines my embroidery almost in an assembly line fashion. This is an excellent time saver when I am frequently having to change thread colors during the process. I have a good friend who does this with her applique threads too. I assemble all of the colors for the area I am currently working on and thread a needle for each color. At my work table I have a table top ironing board that also serves as my humble pin cushion for lining up the needles in a row of colored perfection.
needles are lined up, separated by color group for fast identification as I work and within easy reach.
I have found by doing this one small thing, I can eliminate a day or more off the time it takes to create the more time intensive embroidery work. I really don’t like having to constantly change thread colors and this has eliminated most of this tediousness and I am not constantly starting and stopping to re-thread the needle.
Call me a simpleton, but I also think it is really pretty to look at all of those colors lined up like a tactile color wheel!
©2009 Sandra Leichner
Great tip Sandra. It has inspired me to organize my threads. What is your favourite size needle though for embroidering?
I use mainly two kinds of needles for the embroidery on my quilts. The needles in the pictures are a John James crewel needle #9 . For two strands of DMC or silk floss, this is has a large enough eye for the threads but leaves the smallest hole in my background fabric. I use regular sewing thread a lot for fine small scale embroidery too and for this I use a #10 sharp (any brand).
I am so glad this tip helped!
oh I like that !! I usually end up threading many but when I put them in a pin cushion they get all tangled . I have a small ironing board , like yours , I could dangle them from . : )
Thanks!
Glad your feeling better !
It is always the simplest of ideas we come back to and always work huh? Speaking of pincushions…..I have the coolest of ideas and as soon as I can carve out some time (I know I am dreaming), I am going to make up a pattern for it. I get excited about the small things. LOL
Thanks Boop for the get well vibes, they are working!