Jan 14, 2022

FIELD TRIP FRIDAY

The Cottage Care team was here this morning, which meant getting up early, putting on shoes and socks, and heading out while they puffed and scrubbed the place. (Why is it that I still feel guilty and sheepish about having help cleaning, despite the fact that I couldn't bend over or lift anything if my life depended on it?)

Rich is very good about reading the South Bend Tribune online and coming up with things to do, places to go, and people to see, so today we headed off in search of the perfect sticky bun. (The man has lived here four and a half years, and at least twice a week he asks me if I know who makes a good sticky bun.)

(According to my research, sticky buns originated in Philadelphia in the German community and are also known as schmecken.)

(I know them from watching Ina make cinnamon rolls and putting them in muffin tins containing brown sugar and raisins and nuts.)

We ventured to Buchanan, Michigan to a tiny little place called the Gustavsen Cafe and bakery. Apparently, Mr Gustavsen was a local tradesman and pizza maker who always wanted to make a special cinnamon roll and open a bakery with his daughter. Sadly, Mr G passed away, so his daughter has opened the place on her own.

 God bless her, she was making and selling cinnamon rolls and coffee in a perfectly lovely little place all by her very self, and there was a nice line of people buying cinnamon rolls and coffee from the moment we got there until the moment we left with four rolls for the weekend's feasting.

I don't know how they taste yet, but if they are half as good as they smell and look, I can hardly wait until tomorrow's damn good session!

From there, we drove home and had breakfast at the fancypants place in front of CS2, and as I was enjoying my eggs over easy, Coach Mike Brey (Notre Dame basketball) came in. It was at this point that I must have blushed furiously and made googly eyes because Rich just shook his head and wondered why he even bothers with me sometimes. (What can I say? Coach Brey is, in my opinion, a very nice looking gentleman in person, and I happen to appreciate that he is genuinely a nice guy.)

Now I'm all tucked into my Happy Chair with a Starbucks treat (trenta cold brew with three pumps sigar cookie syrup and a splash of cream), and I'm ready to start the weekend with stitching and some TeeVee.

But before I go, I have a question....for those of you with full sets of DMC floss...how do you store them?

Happy weekend, Dearies! Please keep yourselves warm and safe and dry, have lots of fun, and come tell me all about it!

20 comments:

  1. Blush away Coni! I appreciate a nice looking gentlemen here and there! I wish there was a simple solution as I have tons of different threads, from cross stitch, hardanger, needlepoint... Leftovers worth keeping etc. I started out with the flat plastic spools and have a four drawer chest they are in. (I LOVE that DMC and Anchor are coming out with floss on a real round spool or cone.) I didn't like the kinks from wrapping, but you can always give it a light press to straighten them out. I have to do that with alot of the ribbons and fancy threads from Rainbow Gallery. A laying tool helps obviously but a little heat does too. Then I started putting later threads in the 'bows' that slip into plastic pages in a three ring binder. Meh... Not sure I like that either. Of the numerous hand-dyed threads, I have ended up letting them untwist and leaving them hang from their card on rings. I've tried way too many things and still use them all!! Sadly I have too many to convert to any one system. I guess that's what happens when you have been at it a long time.

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  2. I bobbinate all my DMC when I am kitting up a project. I write the number in the top right corner with a sharpie (the little DMC stickies tend to fall off over time, for me anyway). Yes I get kinks but I've never noticed a problem as I'm stitching with them - which I've been doing for 34 years! I think there are double sided bobbin cases for storing the whole collection. I just keep mine in small clear plastic storage bins with lids that I pull from for kitting up.

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  3. Sounds like a perfect road trip :)

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  4. I store my skeins of DMC floss numerically in a little four-drawer cabinet that is really a bit small for them. Although the division into drawers is strict the skeins do get jumbled - I should find space for another cabinet so they aren't as crowded. I also have an ureasonable stash of non-DMC floss of multiple brands and incarnations of brands. Those are sorted by colour in another four-drawer cabinet. On the pooter I have a list of every thread in the stash, updated every time I start or finish a skein or (blush) add to the stash.

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  5. I "borrowed" this idea from another cross stitcher, when I started back up again. I ordered 4"x'6 zip lock bags (Amazon), put a note card in the bag with the floss number in the upper right-hand corner (I'm sure the number could be written on the bag); it was a tight fit, so I ended up trimming a smidge off. Then all I had to do was put the floss in the bag. I went to Joann Fabrics and bought 8 photo card boxes to put the floss bags in. I love them! If I have extra floss left over from a project, I can put it in the baggies or If I have more than one skein of the same floss (DMC 310), I can put them ALL in there. There are no "bends" in my floss from putting it on bobbins. I know there are "floss bags" out there, but this was a cheaper way for me to do it. On the front of the boxes, I have written what floss numbers are in the box. Liz-Boise, ID

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  6. glad that you are able to get out and have an adventure now and then. One small correction, though, the word is Schnecken (not schmecken) it is the German word for snails. (German teacher here)

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    1. die Schnecken schmecken bestimmt gut :-)

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  7. Mmmm...cinnamon rolls for the weekend 😋 lucky you!
    I use Flossaway bags for almost all flosses. I. will. not. put them on bobbins , I have better things to do, like stitch. I like the bags because if I have short ends I can throw them in the bag, and there's plenty of room for multiple skeins. My two cents worth. Wishing you a happy, cozy weekend!

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  8. I use the cardboard bobbins and write the number on the top, then store it numerically in Art Bin Super Satchels with the removal dividers. I get them at JoAnn's but they are on Amazon. Best thing about them is that you can still see the color, so when I need a bit of something for a needlepoint project, I can pull colors to see what matches best.

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  9. The DMC I originally got is on plastic bobbins, in 4 (5?) plastic containers in number order. The extras are sorted by number and in zip baggies with all the other threads are in the stack of DMC drawers (estate & shop closing sale purchases). I like the sturdiness of plastic bobbins, but they can be a pain to label where it won't wear off. Cardboard is better for that, but they can get bent and no longer hold the thread tails, maybe doubling them up would be better?

    While I love opening the boxes and seeing all those bobbins of DMC, it's a pain when I take 1-2 out of each little section as the rest fall over. It's not easy for me to get them back upright. I'm not sure I'll continue with bobbins as those are used up. Yet I don't want a storage system that requires to pre-cut the floss into lengths long before you know what they'll be used for. I'm not sure how I feel about Anchor moving to spools, but am very happy it's now available in Michaels/Joann. And DMC also moving to spools? - that I didn't know about. *That* will goof up so many storage setups. With so much DMC in use, at least in the US, moving to spools might bite DMC in the butt. And it seems like so much excess packaging, yet after seeing the racks with messed up sales racks, I can see why.

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  10. My set of DMC is on bobbins in a 'jammer' box. The extras skeins are stored in their original form in Plano bait boxes. Enjoy the cinnamon rolls! Can't wait to hear if they are as good as they smell!

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  11. Another blogger I follow, Judy Laquidara, has gotten into cross stitch in a big way this past year. She just did 2 blog posts, January 13 and 14, on sorting her linen and floss. Her blog is Patchwork Times (patchworktimes.com) if you want to take a look. She has a boatload of DMC, along with other brands. When I used to cross-stitch I just used the compartmented art boxes and cardboard flat bobbins. Worked fine, easy to see colors and didn’t take up too much space.

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  12. I store my unused skeins in a nut and bolt storage box that I got from Lowes. It has little drawers. Skeins in use are in Floss Away bags and I am slowly converting my DMC onto floss drops and storing them in a file box like the Twisted Stitcher aka Vonna P. I like the drops because the thread doesn't get all kinky and I can see what I have and how many there are of one number. Enjoy your cinnamon bun and damn good!

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  13. I'll accept schmecken also....they look and probably are very
    tasty .

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  14. I love these old darice boxes and store mine in order by number. The whole collection fits in about 4. I also have a smaller version (5 compartments) I keep on my end table while working my active project.

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/Darice-DMC-Embroidery-Thread-Organizer-Storage-Box-17-Compartment-7x11-x-1-5-/154793293601?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l6249&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0

    They keep everything tidy in a smallish container that is easy to review and kit things up. They aren’t pretty statement pieces, but I do like the functionality. I’m not selling this item, but it’s an example of my fave kind. If you look close at the hinge, it allows it to swing wide open and stay that way. The “living hinge” on new boxes is different and I’m not wild about it. But if you’re not as ridiculous as me, it would work just fine.

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  15. I've been stitching for over 40 years. I have every # DMC and they are numbered on paper bobbins and placed numerically 4 plastic boxes with the dividers in them. Bobbins fit perfectly and a 5th one holds (on bobbins) gold, silver, extra white, black and ecru. All my overdyed threads are in zip bags (that are sold specifically for thread at LNS) and labeled and put on a shower hanger then hung on the back of the door in my sewing room. I have an over the door rack then I hung a length of chain from Lowes, then I hook the shower curtain hanger through a link. All the Weeks are one section, Gentle Arts another, etc. I love that I can find everything at a glance and know whether I need to replace it or add to my collection. Works for me!

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  16. MY DMC is stored in Floss-Away bags. The bags are then placed in plastic file boxes about the size of a shoe box. Then, I put them on the shelf in the closet in my stitching room. It works, but it is easy for them to get slightly out of order. I wish there was a perfect way.

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  17. I like to use Floss Away bags stored in Floss Totes. However, I have been slowly transitioning to this method as I use skeins of floss. The majority are stored in quart-sized Ziplock freezer bags in multiples of 100. I label the bags 100's, 200's, 300's, etc. These are all stored in one 12" square flip-top plastic storage case. All the bags fit in two across. It's not the most efficient, but it is convenient and they're all in one place. If I ever have absolutely nothing to do, I'd like to convert all these to the Floss Away bags, but it will be a time-consuming project. One note about the Floss Totes - I store these on closet shelves, so I cut the top flaps off so I can stack them, and I find it annoying to open and close the flaps all the time.

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  18. Sounds like a lovely day out and about. And my floss storage is all over the place so you do not want any pointers from me :)

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  19. I store my skeins in ziploc snack pack bags. They're the same size as floss away bags but way cheaper. I have plastic shoeboxes from Target that are numbered more or less by the hundreds (0-315, 315-399, 400, 500, etc). DMC doesn't number evenly so the numbers don't always make sense - like the highest 300 is 372, but it would drive me crazy to have one box that stopped at 372 and another one that started at 400. I would have to make a 373-399 box so I didn't lose my mind. I have 16 boxes all together, and I have a lot of floss! I try to always have five of each color, but some colors I have 20 or 30 of, because I'll buy all the thread for a chart when I get it but I'll only kit it up when I actually stitch it. One box is just black, white, and ecru, and one box is misc. I don't use bobbins of any sort until I'm almost done with a skein, I keep my skeins intact and just pull the thread off. Once I've used enough thread the number label won't stay on; that's when I put it on a bobbin. I love how compact and portable my storage is. I have all the boxes stacked on the floor in my closet and when I'm pulling threads to kit up a project I get the one box I want, set it on the table while I pull the colors from the number series, and then put the box back. I live in a condo so I don't want anything out if I don't need it out, because I need my space. I also have a DMC floss color chart, so if I'm looking for a color instead of a number I'm not aimlessly rummaging through bags.

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