Fall is in the air here in Chilly Hollow, with deer and turkeys strolling through the yard and stink bugs trying to get inside to spend the winter. At least they are larger and slower than lady bugs that invaded five years ago!
It's a good time of the year to move the computer next to the kitchen door and settle down in a comfy chair to browse the Internet and wait for more deer to show up (including the darling little fawn we've watched lose his spots over the last three weeks) so I can pop out of the door like a Jack-in-the-Box and scare them away. Besides, there is a lot to see online.
The Embroiderers Guild of America has posted their 2010 Seminar classes online, and we can spend a lot of time browsing the photographs and enjoying the designs and skills of the teachers. Click on the first photo and a new window will open with navigation arrows to browse the designs in a better picture. Click on Events: National Seminar in the left hand column for more information.
http://www.egausa.org/html/sem10.html
Nordic Needle's newest newsletter is full of information about magnets. I thought I had seen every type of magnet available but it turns out those who stitch from charts have a huge variety of magnetic items to help them stitch that us painted canvas folks should browse. How about a darling little magnetic elephant on your stitching table to hold your needles until you are ready for them? Or magnetic sheets that roll up for portable chart holding on the go? Or magnet sets that are the front and back of cute animals? As an added bonus, many of the magnets they describe are on sale at the shop, plus some of Laura Perin's fabulous charted designs are on sale, too. This is a Don't Miss newsletter issue!
http://www.nordicneedle.com/newsletters/stash/36.shtml
If Mary Corbet's tutorials on long and short stitch I mentioned last month didn't interest you, how about learning how to stitch lettering on your designs? This is the first lesson. Mary will publish several that will give you the tools you need to monogram a piece or do a great name on that Christmas stocking.
http://www.needlenthread.com/2009/10/hand-embroidery-lettering-text-1.html
Hope everyone has a fun Halloween and a warm and cheerful fall!
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Beads Storage System from Jolee
You may remember we learned about the bead storage system that has Tick Tack boxes inside larger boxes. I discovered something similar at Michael's my local craft emporium when I went shopping with my 40% off coupon. The Jolee's sets have inner boxes with removable lids. I'd prefer the Tick Tack box lids but I'd have to mail order those and wouldn't have a coupon, so I bought the Jolee ones instead and I'm happy with my choice.
http://www.michaels.com/art/online/displayProductPage?productNum=bd0767
I bought two sets, one that is half the large size boxes and half the small ones, and one that includes half large sized boxes and half medium sized ones. (I think there is a third set with all small boxes.) In the photo above you see a pile of discarded Mill Hill and other brand boxes. Everything in those boxes went into the Jolee box shown, so you see this is a very efficient way to store beads in a compact area. I can see the colors pretty well even if all the boxes are in the big box since all the boxes are clear. This photo shows one large box and one of the medium sized boxes that stores up to three boxes of Mill Hill beads in one half the medium box. I also put the label from one storage system in the photo, just for you to see.
The one drawback to this system is that once you remove your beads from the original packaging, you won't know what size/color/brand you have. I solved that problem by using stick on labels. I wrote down what was in a box, put the label on the clear new box, used an arrow to indicate that this was in the half box section on the right or left, and labeled the other half of the box with its color number, etc. If you put all Mill Hill Magnifica beads in the halves of a box, you just have to write down "MH" and "Magnifica" once. There's plenty of room for the color number and arrows for the two types of beads. By the way, the photo above shows both of my Jolee boxes and the large and small boxes. You can't see any of the labels I put on the outside as I turned those to the back so you could see how the boxes are constructed. I'm happy with this system, even though it isn't perfect, as my beads are easily visible yet stored in a small place. The next time I have a 40% off coupon I'll pick up a third box and then all my beads will be put away with room to spare. By the way, the original pricing on these boxes is $9.99 each at my local Michael's.
On a related topic, Needle Works of Austin has S-Lon beading thread sets in assorted colors on their What's New Page (if it disappears, try searching on S-Lon). This is nice for those who like to use beading thread instead of regular thread to attach their beads and want an assortment of colors.
http://www.theneedleworks.com/catalog/
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
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