A little something for my husband

Stitchinspiration Celtic Quickies
Stitched over 1 on 18 ct. Ivory Aida Fabric
with DMC 823
Finished with seed beads in Jet

My husband has a habit of sticking his needles in the arm of the couch while he's stitching. It drives me nuts. He says it's because he doesn't have anywhere to put them - the little fob I stitched for his scissors is too small and he doesn't like the typical tomato pincushion.

I have a little biscornu I stitched from from some freebies on The Floss Box website which works great for my needles, so my husband asked if I'd make one for him. I told him I'd stitch the designs if he put the piece together for me (he's the finisher of all my biscornus). He agreed, and I showed him several patterns I had in mind for him. He picked two by Stitchinspiration.

<-- Celtic Quickies - Spinner

At first glance, they look the same, but if you look at the middle of the piece, you can see that they are a different design. The original design calls for the knots to be stitched in color, then outlined, but I really liked the blackwork look of just stitching the outlines. Luckily, so did my husband, which made this a much easier project to stitch up. I was very careful not to cross over any open areas with thread so you couldn't see it through the fabric, and as a result, the reverse of each side looks almost identical to the front. (And once again, I forgot to take pictures before he started stitching it together.

Celtic Quickies - Loop De Loop -->

As you can see in this picture, it's a good sized biscornu - that's my hand in the photo, and let's just say I'm no petite flower (I'm 5'10"). Also, we're not planning on pulling the middle together with a button or anything - we both like the way it looks now, and it's more functional as a pin cushion this way.

I have a few pieces of Aida floating around in my stash drawer and wanted to do something with them. Most of my work is done on linen and evenweave now, but I picked the Aida because it's a little sturdier, and less expensive for something my husband will be regularly sticking with needles. It was kind of strange stitching on Aida - I don't do it often and it took a little getting used to the rougher fabric. But one of the other pieces I'm working on now is on 40 ct., so it was a nice break for my eyes!

So once I got the pieces stitched up, I turned them over to my husband for finishing, and once again, he did a great job with it, especially with the beaded edge.


I use regular craft store seed beads and so far, it's worked out fine. Sometimes it take a little picking through the pile of beads and discarding any that are oddly shaped, but it still looks nice to me. (Note that every other stitch is beaded. Beading on every stitch can look crowded)

If you've never finished a biscornu before, they're not hard to do. My husband has followed this tutorial for the ones he's finished for me, and it works out very well.

I'm dying over here!

First, many thanks to Rachel for her AWESOME floss dying tutorial. Because of Rachel, I not only didn't throw out the Rit Dye I had already invested in, but I picked up a few awesome techniques, including steaming the floss. Worked like a charm.

And now I am sure you are all very curious as to how I turned out such lovely flosses. Behold, based on Rachel's methods, I present to you my adventures in floss dying. (You will definitely want to read both mine and Rachel's, as I am sure I will leave stuff out. Important stuff.)

First things first. Invest in some floss dying equipment because most dye companies and websites will tell you that your equipment will no longer be food safe. Which means don't grab a bunch of bowls out of the cabinet for dying, then eat your cereal out of them the next morning. I don't know if a spin through the dishwasher will render them non-lethal, so why take chances? I hit up the kitchen section of my local dollar store and purchased the following:

a plastic mixing bowl with a pour spout (spout not necessary - any mixing bowl will do)
glass custard dishes / ramekins
chopsticks
disposable cookie sheets
ice cube tray
plastic measuring spoons

You will also need a large piece of plastic to protect your work surface. I used a disposable plastic painters drop cloth from the local home store. (as a side note, these are far too slippery to be used as an actual drop cloth when painting). Latex gloves are also helpful - you can usually find them at a beauty supply shop, or near the pharmacy counter at the big box discount store.

I used an old ice cube tray (we have several we no longer need) for mixing colors, and several glass pipettes (eye droppers) with rubber bulbs. You can get the ice cube trays at the dollar store, and I've seen plastic pipettes in the craft stores. You may also want to try a scientific supply house if you have access to one. And of course, you will need floss, dish detergent (I used Dawn), white vinegar, plastic wrap, plain white paper towels, boiling water and various and assorted dyes. (And you can use a regular food-safe pot or tea pot to produce the boiling water as it will not be coming in contact with the dyes.)

A Note on Dyes: Rachel speaks out against using KoolAid, and I agree with her assessment. Use dyes intended for fabrics. Now, you can either use Rit Dye or specially formulated cold water dyes for tie-dying. These are fairly easy to find at craft stores or online, and there are several good resources detailing the techniques for these types of dyes. (Check here as well). There are plenty of websites that tell you NOT to use Rit dye, but I had already invested in several colors and chose to go that route. Overall, I am satisfied with the outcome and would use it again. However, at some point I will probably experiment with cold water dyes as well, just for fun.

My personal recommendation is to purchase the Rit Dyes in their liquid form. Yes, they're more expensive, but they're pre-mixed and FAR less messy / hard to mix than the powdered dyes. If you have the choice between the liquid and the powder dye, go for the liquid, especially when it comes to the darker colors, like black and navy blue. In fact, I would strongly recommend against purchasing the black powder as it is flat out a total pain in the ass to mix properly.

You don't need a LOT of different colors, as you can make almost anything from red, yellow and blue (or cyan, fuschia and yellow). Start with the basics and work your way up from there. Experiment. I purchased Scarlet Red, Rose Pink, Dark Green, Dark Brown and Royal Blue in liquid, and Black, Yellow, Kelly Green, Teal, Pearl Grey, and Navy Blue in powder. I also purchased a box of Rit Color Remover. (More on that in another post). I would never, never, never purchase the dark colors in powder form again. Never. Check out the Rit Dye Website for available colors and ideas. They have some pretty good recipes on their site.

You also don't need to mix up a LOT of dye, especially if you're not dying a lot of floss. Mix up more of the basic colors like red, blue and yellow, but go easier on the other colors, especially black. A little goes a long way, and quite frankly, you're never going to accomplish a deep, dark black on your own. Go for DMC 310 and use the black dye more as a tint than an actual dye color. Also, black is super hard to mix and tends towards little red spots (grains of undisolved dye) that will wreck your work. Did I mention I highly recommend using the premixed liquids?

Are you still with me? Now comes the fun part. First, set up your work area:

I used our kitchen island, which was covered completely by the disposable painter's cloth. You can see how I have the glass dishes set up on the disposable cookie sheet, and the floss laid out according to color.

Really, the sorting was just for show, as was the notebook you cannot see in this photo. My original intention was to have my scientist husband apply his excellent and exceedingly thorough work habits to this process, and as you might have guessed, it didn't work out that way. I had grand plans of carefully measuring the dye, recording said measurments, and creating recipes from which to successfully generate consistent batches of floss. Yeah, not so much. The word "recipe" should have been a dead giveway, since I can never seem to follow them. This makes DH completely insane. He likes consistency and measurment (which makes him a fabulous baker, but cautious cook) and I like throwing things together willy nilly. After about 10 minutes of my random mixing and refusal to actually measure anything precisely, he gave up and went in the other room to watch football, leaving me to my wild ways.

Back to the process. First, I mixed up the dyes. I recommend / insist / demand that you mix any powdered dyes away from your dying area, as powdered dyes are teeny tiny little particles that can get EVERYWHERE. Some sites recommend using a mask when working with powdered dyes, but I'm just not that paranoid, and I'm working on a very small scale. I cut off a tiny corner of the Rit Powder packet and sprinkled some into a small, clean mustard jar (which is now part of my dying kit). I added hot water, a splash of vinegar, and a drop of dish soap and shook it for all I was worth (with the lid on, of course). And shook it some more. Then shook it again. Then I poured it into a glass dish in the dying area and added the boiling water. No, I didn't really measure any of this, and yes, I am well aware this is making some of you very nervous.


I repeated the mixing and shaking process with the rest of the powdered dyes, carefully folding over each packet, clipping with a paper clip and sealing in a ziploc snack bag for storage. As for the liquid dyes, I shook the bottle vigorously, then added the dye to a glass bowl with hot water, a splash of vinegar and a drop or two of dish soap. Supposedly the dishsoap opens up the fibers and makes them more receptive to the dye. I don't know if that's true, but it worked for me.

I prepped the floss by removing the labels and throwing caution into the wind. If I'm not going to measure correctly, why bother keeping track of what color floss I was dying? Most of it was one of the following colors: Blanc, B5200, 3865 and Ecru. I also went through my skein stash and pulled out some extra tans, greys, and pastels, just for experiement's sake. I highly recommend this as I got a fantastic autumn-y color by dipping tan floss into red dye.

As you can see here, I suspended the floss on a chopstick and dipped it in a vat of warm, slightly soapy water. Several websites recommended using Sythrapol for cleansing the floss ahead of time to remove dirt and oils that may impede the dye from penetrating. You can get Sythrapol in the craft store with the dying stuff, but it's expensive, and several well respected sites said dish detergent was just as good. And cheaper. And it works. So there you have it.

For the first batch of floss, I used a wire tie to hold skeins together, but ditched that idea for the second batch, chosing to just be a little more careful. The floss stayed together slightly better with the wire ties, but the ties ended up being tedious to remove. I'm all about making things less tedious. The floss rested on the chopstick, in the water, until I was ready to use it, at which point I squeezed it out and laid them out on a paper towel, like so.



I then went to town dripping dye on the strands using the pipettes. Sometimes I mixed up colors in the ice cube tray, sometimes I use a clean dropper to add a little water from the floss vat to the colors in the mixing tray to dilute them. Really, I just had fun with it and experimented. Sadly, I do not have a picture of a batch of dyed, pre-steamed floss, as I was working with nifty purple gloves and was afraid to get dye on the camera (or drop it into a bowl of water). Or it could be that I was so caught up in playing around that I forgot to take pictures.

I would suggest keeping batches of like colors together. The first time I dyed, I went a little nuts with expeimenting and ended up running a few colors together unintentionally. The second time, I worked in color families (shades of red, shades of blue, etc.) and it worked out much better, especially when it comes to wrapping them in plastic. Your floss should be thoroughly saturated with color, but not dripping wet. Dripping leads to bleeding onto other flosses (not as noticeable when you're working with one set of colors at a time). If necessary, pat out the excess watery dye with a paper towel. The white paper towel is also handy for testing out dye colors before you drip it on the floss.


Then do your jelly roll o'floss as Rachel describes, rolling the floss up in plastic wrap, one floss skein at a time. Be sure to roll it in the plastic enough times to separate it from the next floss (that pesky color bleeding again). The chopsticks come in handy here to maneuver the floss and get it into place without dirtying your gloves too much. Always be aware of where you are putting your hands and what you are touching, since it's incredibly easy to transfer dye unintentionally.

Now you will steam the floss. This is something else I neglected to take a picture of, but basically, I used an old pot with a lid and a roasting rack set on top. The flosses went on the rack, the lid went over the floss, and rested on the rack as well, and I steamed the bejesus out of those flosses. Rachel recommended 10 minutes, but once again, my experimental nature prevailed and I let them steam in batches for at least 20-30 minutes. Could be slightly more, could be slightly less, who knows? I don't keep track of these things. I flipped them over occasionally until I thought they were good and steamed, then took them off and let them rest in the kitchen sink until they cooled.

Once the packets are cool, carefully unwrap and start rinsing each skein of floss until the water runs clear. Be careful not to rinse over the other flosses. I rinsed in hot water, then a little cooler, and was surprised that I didn't get a whole lot of run off, except from the reds. The reds were a little harder to rinse, and I used a little more dish soap with them to make sure I was getting all the dye out.


This is what they looked like, steamed, cooled and rinsed. They're still wet, which is why the colors look brighter than they actually turned out, but I still think they came out great. I then draped them over a drying rack, carefully spaced out so there would be no accidental bleeding (I rinsed until clear, but you never know.) And this is what they look like on the drying rack in my dining room. (Don't get too upset - they're all dry, which is why they're touching. Also, I didn't move the drying rack into the carpeted dining room until the flosses were dry. I did not want anything dripping on the carpet. Not that there was a whole lot of dripping because I squeezed them pretty dry, but better safe than spotty carpeted)


There you have it. My adventures in floss dying. If you're thinking about trying it, go for it. I had fun doing it, and will start collecting floss on sale all over again so I can do another batch. Or perhaps invest in a cone of DMC (which is over 2000 yards) and dye even MORE floss. I do caution that this can be VERY messy and has lots of disaster potential, especially if there are children or nosy pets around. I used gloves, or tried to, mostly, and still ended up with some dye in my nail beds. (Lots of scrubbing, some lemon juice and later, some peroxide, helped tremendously)

It will cost you some money to get started for the equiment (less than $10 at the dollar store), the floss and the dyes. I mostly used coupons on the dyes and picked up floss on sale, but definitely check out your grocery store for the dye - mine sells it cheaper than the craft stores. And expect to devote a couple hours to this process, especially if you're dying a lot of floss. You can even make it a party where everyone bring a bottle of dye and the flosses they want to do. Be creative, have fun, and experiment! You're not being graded on this!

Blogoversary Giveaway

In honor of my first Blogoversary, I wanted to do a little giveaway. And I thought, what better to give away than something I made myself? I've been itching to try dying my own floss, picking up supplies along with way as they've been on sale. I finally amassed a bag full of floss and the necessary dyes, and went to town. (Yes, there will be a post on this.) To my surprise and delight, it came out VERY well.

I have four flosses up for grabs, each an entire skein of DMC cotton floss, dyed by me.

From L-R: American Girl (red, white and blue), Sweet Pea (pink and purple), Rainbow Sherbet (pink, yellow, orange and green), Candy Corn (yellow, orange and white)

To win one of these flosses, leave a comment on THIS post and let me know which one you'd like. I'll choose one winner by random drawing for each color. And if you like more than one, let me know, and I'll enter your name in all the drawings, but you'll still only win one floss. Deadline for entering is Tuesday, November 4th. I'll pick a winner on Wednesday morning.

As you can see, I was also messing around with creating floss cards / tags for each floss, trying out different fonts and such. (I collect fonts. I love to play with them) DH thought perhaps I could make a small business out of this, and maybe I will at some point, but for now, it's just for fun.

Also, you should note that NONE of these flosses should be considered colorfast. I rinsed them very well until the water ran absolutely clear, then rinsed them again. However, I can't guarantee they won't bleed - no overdyed floss is guaranteed, and I wouldn't suggest stitching anything with them that needs to be washed.

I'd like to send a special thanks to Rachel for posting her methods, as I (mostly) followed them. Thanks, Rachel!

A Stitching Meme

I saw this on Stitch Bitch a few days ago...

1. How do you hold your fabric? Unless a project is very small, I have trouble stitching "in hand" and prefer to use scroll frames.



2. Floss licker? Yep, ever since childhood when my grandmother instilled some basic sewing skills. I occasionally experiment with a threader, but find it much more conveniet to just lick the floss.



3. How do you thread your needle? Trim the end if necessary, lick the floss, and thread it through. Easy peasy.



4. What needle do you like best? I'm not too picky about brand, though I won't turn my nose up at a nicer (more expensive) needle. I prefer size 28s as I usually stitch on linen, evenweave or high count aida.



5. Are you a needle loser? Having stepped on a needle (or pin) or two, I am SUPER careful about keeping track of my needles. I use a magnetic "Needle Nest" to store them and that seems to work out for me. I also like sticking threaded needles right in the bobbin



6. What fabric do you prefer to stitch on? Evenweave. I'm a big fan of Lambswool Jobelean. I'd be hard pressed to ever want to stitch on 14 ct. Aida again.



7. Bobbins or floss bags? Ahhh, here is a bone of contention in my stitching world. I prefer bobbins and all of my DMCs are on bobbins. HOWEVER, my DH is also a stitcher and does not like the kinks bobbins put into the threads; he prefers working off the whole skein and keeping floss in snack size ziploc bags (way cheaper that the same thing labeled as a floss bag). So we have 2 sets of DMC - one on bobbins and one in skeins. It's just easier that way. And I try to keep a lid on specialty threads, so they're usually only purchased for specific projects and kept with the projects.



8. Are you a scissors collector? Sometimes I'd think I'd like to be, but I can't afford it. I'd rather spend the money on new materials or projects. I have a few pair of scissors, but I try to keep pretty good track of them, even though none of them are particulary fancy.



9. Do you do your own framing, and if so, do you lace or pin? I have done my own framing, unless I can talk my DH into doing it for me. He's far more patient than I am. And I cheat - I use the sticky mounting board. (Hey, it's acid free)



10. Are you a floss floozy? I am a sucker for pretty colors



11. Silk? I like it as much as anything else, though I can't really see what the big deal is. Maybe I haven't stitched enough with it?



12. Railroader? Sometimes, but only on the top leg.



13. Are you a pattern or designer snob? Not really. I don't even know what this question means. If I like something or find a pattern suitable for an occasion, I'll stitch it. I don't care who designed it.



14. Do you get antsy when you give someone a stitched gift? Not really - I try to make the gift as appropriate to the recipient as possible.



15. Have you reached S.A.B.L.E.? I don't think so, unless you start counting all the freebies I have saved. Then maybe I have. But really, what does it matter? It doesn't cost anything to feed them, as my father would say.



16. Do you wash your projects? Most of them that I stitch with DMC floss, I'll wash. I hesitate to wash ones with overdyeds because I do not rinse them before I start stitching. I'm just extra careful to be clean with these projects.

How to Organize your Printed Freebies... and other charts

Based on some of the comments on my last organizational post, I started thinking about how to organize printed freebies, and it occurred to me that a method I used for planning our wedding would work just as well for printed freebies.

Instead of being buried by an avalanche of wedding magazines and spending lots of time flipping through endless advertisements to find what I wanted, I started tearing out what I liked and filing it in a binder. (What was left over of the magazine I passed on or recycled). By using page protectors, tab dividers and a sturdy 3 ring binder, I was able to eliminate a lot of clutter and keep all my useful things in one place.

First things first - gather up all the stuff you want to file. You can do this with printed freebies, charts you haven't stitched yet, charts you've stitched, whatever. This method will work for all printed charts. Round it all up and go through what you've got. This is a good time to weed out what you no longer want or need and duplicates. Set those things aside to give away or sell, then start categorizing what's left in a way that makes sense to you. Do you want to sort by designer / publisher (Just Nan, Bent Creek, Little House Needleworks, etc.) or by theme (Christmas, Quaker, animals, baby, etc.) One set of labels will not work for everyone, so choose a system that works for you - you'll be more apt to follow it.

Once you've got things sorted out and categorized, you'll need supplies - at least 1 large 3-ringbinder, page protector sheets and tabbed dividers.  How many binders, sheets and dividers you'll need depends on how many printed patterns you want to sort.  I recommend getting a sturdy binder - any color or ring size will do - use your own judgement.

You may also want to use smaller binders and use one per designer. It's up to you and your storage space. However, you may want a binder with covers large enough to completely cover the page protectors and dividers when the binder is closed as it will help keep things neater. (I recommend taking a sample page protector with you when you go binder shopping).

I prefer top load page protectors as the charts and pages are less likely to fall out and are easier to access than side load page protectors. Check a warehouse club like Sams or Costco - they're usually cheaper there.

I also use extra wide tab dividers so I can still see the tabs once I put the sheets in between - remember that page protectors are wider than a regular sheet of paper, so regular tab dividers are going to be too small and the tabs won't stick out.

Put your printed freebies into the sleeves, making sure they're labeled appropriately with designer, website, etc., then file them according to catagories in the correct binders. You can also do this with your regular charts as well.

I usually use page protectors to keep my charts clean while I am stitching, and when I'm done, I file stitched charts in binders. Sometimes I stitch from an original chart, sometimes it's from a working copy (especially if the original chart is on cardstock or a stiffer paper). If my page protector is in bad shape by the time I am done, I file using a fresh protector.

I put any documentation in the page protector along with the chart - color cover sheets (I sometimes make notes on mine as to when and where I bought it, what I paid, when I stitched it, etc.). If I am filing a kit, I put in any left over threads that came with it (unless it's a threadpack like LHN, then those threads go into my regular stash.)

How to Organize your Freebies

Many of us collect freebies online. Unfortunately, it's hard to know what you've got if you're just looking at file names. Sure, if you have a couple dozen files, you can probably guess but I had no idea what I had collected. And without some kind of inventory, I just kept collecting hundreds of files and never stitched what I had.

I decided to create that visual inventory, and this is how I did it. I used Microsoft Picture Manager (usually included with Office) and Windows Explorer. (Note that I work on a PC - Mac users may have to modify). These instructions assume that you have or can get the software, and know how to use it.

1. Corral all your freebies from your hard drive. Discs too, if you have them. Get them all into one folder using Windows Explorer. You need to round up everything you've got so you can see what you're working with - and delete duplicates. Don't start deleting yet, though. You want to make sure you don't have 2 different files with the same name. (Rename files temporarily if you have to).

2. Start sorting. Create subfolders for categories as needed, but try not to make them too specific - the more folders you have, the harder it is to sort, file and manage. The categories I use are these: Alphabets, Altoid Covers, Angels, Baby, Biscornu, Blackwork, Bookmarks, Borders & Corners, Cards, Celtic, Dollhouse, Family, Flowers, Foods Gifts, Hearts of America, Holidays, Ideas, Miscellaneous, Months, Motifs, Needlework Tools, Pattern Scans (More on that later), Samplers, Scenic, Seasonal, Sports, Wedding and Zodiac. You can change them to suit your freebie collection, but that is what worked best for me. You can also sort by designer or website, but I would think that would make things more complicated if you're looking for a certain theme.

If you don't know what a file is, open it and rename as necessary. Keep going, adding categories and subfolders until you have every single file categorized. Depending on how many freebies you have, this may take a while and you may get sick of looking at them. Take a break. Don't start throwing things in folders because you don't know what else to do with them.

3. Create your Visual Inventory. Every file should have a visual representation that can be viewed in a picture manager such as Microsoft Picture Manager. As you can see (I know the picture is a little blurry, but I made it small to save on space), there is a filing system on the left and a visual representation on the right. All of those pictures represent a file that contains a freebie, and I can quickly look over my inventory and see what I have without opening all those files.

Getting to this state is the not-so-fun part, which is why I would recommend working with a folder or two a day, going through it and organizing your files. Don't try to do this all at once, unless you have just a few dozen to look at. Work on it in small chunks, or you will run the risk of frustrating yourself and abandoning the project.

Freebies that are in GIF or JPEG format are easy. They will show up automatically in the Picture Manager.

PDF and PC Stitch files are a little harder and will require you to create jpeg or gif files to represent them. You can do this by opening the file and capturing a screen shot, which can then be cropped and resized in your graphics software. (With PC Stitch, I'd recommend using View --> View Pattern to view the file, then capturing a screenshot without the grid.)

Alternatively, you can use Google and Yahoo image searches to look for pictures of the stitched pieces online. I try to do this whenever I can because I like to look at stitched examples rather than screenshots. I save screenshots as GIFs and convert JPEGS I obtained from the web to GIFs because they take up less space. You don't need a super crisp, clear picture - you just want the gist of what the file is in the least amount of storage space.

Files should be renamed so that the PDF or PC Stitch pattern has the same name as the picture of the piece. That will keep them together as files when you sort them alphabetically and allow you to open the correct file that corresponds with the picture. For example, I have a file called blackwork snowflake.pdf, which does not display in the Picture Manager. The file blackwork snowflake.gif, however, does display, and when I want to stitch Blackwork Snowflake, I open the PDF file.

If you have a chart in jpeg format (chart.jpg), but find a picture online that you want to save, either save the picture as a GIF with the same title (chart.gif - the extensions prevent the new file from overwriting the old) or as chart_pic.jpg. The files will still stay together, but you'll maintain 2 separate files. I do not recommend converting actual charts in JPEG format to GIFS because the chart itself may become blurry and unreadable.

4. Properly credit your sources. This is something wasn't as conscious of until I started blogging, and I can't stress the importance enough. If you use someone else's work to make something, please respect their copyright and give them credit for the design. Designers work hard and provide complimentary charts out of their own generosity. If we as stitchers want them to keep supplying us with these goodies, the least we can do is recognize their efforts and generosity by giving them proper credit.

Anyway, once again, PDFs are the easiest as they usually include the name of their designer and other copyright info right in the PDF. JPEGs and GIFs can be modified in a graphics program to add credit information. Simply add the credit text to an unstitched part of the chart and save the pattern. For PC Stitch files, use Tools --> Pattern Properties to indicate the designer, the website, etc. If all else fails, create a text file with the same name as the graphics file and enter the credit information there.

Take the time to note the designer or the source when you save the pattern, and you'll save yourself a lot of aggravation later. Trust me, make a note - you will NOT remember it later.

5. Follow your system. Once you've done the work and sorted out what you had, take a few seconds when you get a new freebie and label it properly. Make sure you have the source and the designer's name and a visual representation for each freebie before you file it, and file it right in the folder it belongs in. If you label and file properly as you collect, you won't have a long and painful sorting process down the road and you'll have easy access to the files you already have.

Other Tips:

• You can use pre-fixes for grouping charts together. For instance, I group Lizzie*Kates together by using LK_ in front of the file names. All files designated with the LK_ are grouped together, but still maintain their individual file names after the prefix.
  
• Keep folders to a minimum. Don't make a new category for every file or you'll drive yourself nuts. Try to keep your categories broad enough to encompass as many designs as possible. For instance, you don't need to have Christmas Ornaments, Tree Skirts, Christmas Samplers, etc., when one "Christmas" folder will do.
  
• Pattern Scans - I often borrow books from the library for pattern ideas, but it's hard for me to stitch out of a book. Usually I scan the patterns I am interested in and make a digital copy that I can either print out or transfer into PC stitch to create my own patterns or make modifications. Also, it helps me get the book back to the library faster so that other stitchers can use it as well. I note the designer and the book these patterns so I can credit them when I go back later.

SBQ: Working on the Railroad

I am going back in the SBQ archives and answering the older questions to catch up.

Do you railroad?

I never used to until I was looking for information on a different topic and came across a discussion on railroading your stitches. It seemed like a good idea, so I tried it, and the result was quite nice. However, I should probably strive to be more consistent and do it all the time as opposed to "when I remember it". This is the technique I like to use.

I've also found that separating the threads one at a time from the skein, then combining the number of threads I am using back together also makes for nicer stitches, but I don't do that as often as I should either.