10/19/20

A Do-Nothing Day

The month of October has seen me sewing obsessively. Yesterday, I took a needed day off from it. Mike had an idea to drive into town and deposit our ballots. Great idea, I said, and now that is done. With apologies to Don Raye, who wrote the lyrics to This is My Country..."I only know I swell with pride, and deep within my breast..." Yeah...it just makes me feel all teary with patriotism.


Now...fingers crossed I get my way, because honestly, what's good for me is good for me. Deep, I know.

So we ran a few errands. Mike wanted to recycle some cardboard, but the recycling depot is closed on Sundays. Bummer. No problem though, Mike just heaved the cardboard over the fence and into the bin as if he played for the NBA. My hero! We made a quick trip to the grocery store, since it was close to the ballot drop box. While there, I started looking at substitutes for brown sugar, and I found the one I was looking for.


According to the ad, it tastes, bakes, and measures like regular brown sugar. Zero calories and just 4 grams of carbs. Now I just need to find a recipe with a low enough calorie count to give this a try. Sadly, most of them contain a lot of butter, which ups the calorie count significantly. I'll keep searching though...just you wait...I'll find something.

So I didn't do much other than housework after we got home. It didn't seem like enough to write a post today. Then, my friend Karen kindly wrote asking me how I store my embroidery floss. Thanks for asking, Karen, because it gives me something to talk about. So here goes...

All my embroidery floss is stored on these little plastic floss bobbins. These are widely available. You can find them at Jo-Ann, and I've also seen them on Amazon.com. 


When I'm working on a project, I load all the floss for the project onto one of these little ring clips. And these are widely available at any office supply store. They come in different sizes. I think mine are around 2 inches in diameter.


So, here's the floss ring for my current project. 


I use a pencil to write the color number on the floss bobbin. When I've used up this floss, I can simply erase it and write a new number.


Leftover floss is sorted by color and stored in this little divided box. (I love all that shiny color.)


It makes a tidy little package I can take along when we travel, if I want to.


Unopened skeins go in another box with larger divided sections. These are kind of just thrown in there.


When I have more than one skein of the same color, I clip them together with safety pins.


You should also know that I don't necessarily use the color printed on the pattern if I have something I can substitute. Embroidery floss piles up like fabric scraps, and so I try to use what I already have on hand. Also, there are substitution charts online, and that helps if you happen to have a different brand of floss than the pattern specifies. There's an excellent chart right here, and it includes several different brands. Most often, I'm using DMC or Cosmo, but I've also used Weeks Dye Works. Of the three, it's my least favorite. Between DMC and Cosmo, I can't tell much difference. DMC is easier to find and less expensive, but Cosmo has a beautiful collection of variegated floss colors. Their colors also seem more "shimmery" to my eyes. 

Okay, so today I'm visiting a podiatrist upon the recommendation of my doctor. I've had a life-long difference in leg length. My own theory about this is that I have a very subtle curve to my spine. It's never really been an issue, but I've grown to believe it accounts for my chronic right knee pain. I tend to stand with my weight on that leg. If I stand with the weight on my other leg, my right foot doesn't touch the ground. It means my right knee has done all the work for most of my life, and it really wishes the left knee would pitch in every now and then. So...enter this recommended podiatrist...to see if a lift or some sort of custom orthotic might help. I'm not really committed to this idea, but I'm willing to give it a try. Besides, as I get older, I notice I'm tilting more and more to the right. Possibly, I'll just tip over one of these days and then I can yell, "I've fallen and I can't giddy-up!" 

Yeah...I've always wanted to say that.

So I'll probably get back in the sewing room today. I want to make four more masks. Matthew picked out these next two for his two masks. He likes this color combination since it matches a jacket he brought back from Guatemala.



I was going to make myself a Halloween mask, but it seems a little late in the game for that. Instead, I'll use this fabric with fall leaves, and that should be good through Thanksgiving.


After Thanksgiving, I want to wear a mask made from this candy cane fabric. Fun, huh?


If there is still time left in the day, I'll get busy doing the applique on the next Dancing Chickens and Flying Pigs quilt block. Oh yes, and I still need to make a quilt back for Waste Not Whatnots before I can put it in the to-be-sandwiched pile. Sandwiching is pending since I'm running out of quilts for quilting.

Okay...so that's my day. What are you doing today?

14 comments:

Barbara said...

My only wish is that we leave room for hope. There is good and bad in all things. We find what we expect to find. We see what we expect to see. I have learned that if I tilt my head just right and squint, the world outside is beautiful. The future is bright. There are good things to come. ~ Hugh Howey

Julierose said...

Rest days are good for the creative juices...pretty mask fabrics...
Love the candy canes...stay safe and take care hugs, Julierose

Lyndsey said...

I like the mask fabrics especially the leaf one. I'm finding it rather funney that masks have suddenly become a fashion statement here in London. Who knew that would happen.

Chris K. said...

I'm a extreme floss organizer. I use the DMC StitchBows as well as the bobbins. I have two binders with pages that are designed for the StitchBows, and I keep the skeins in there, roughly sorted by number (all the 300s together). Then I also have a bobbin box like yours for the pieces that were cut off but not all used. DMC sells stickers with all the floss numbers, and I put those on the bobbins, leaving the bobbin in the box even if it's empty. Obviously I'm DMC's favorite kind of customer. I used to visit Michael's and/or Hobby Lobby every week and buy some piece of the system with a coupon. Now I don't do a lot of embroidery, but when I do, I'm prepared. :-)

Carole @ From My Carolina Home said...

I have all my floss in little floss zip locking bags, called Floss Away, made for keeping floss skeins. No winding needed, and the bags have little holes so you can pull the ones you need for your ring like you use for the cards. Best part, small bits can be stored with the uncut skeins. Saves a lot of work, and I keep them in numerical order in two small boxes.

gpc said...

As we get older I suppose many of us tend to lean more to the right but you want to nip that in the bud right away, missy, at least for the time being. We can talk again in four years. Meanwhile, as far as voting goes, what is good for you is good for the whole dang world so I also hope you get your way. I am in shock and awe over your organization skills. I am lucky, more lucky than you know, if all of something is in one room, let alone one box. Love love the mask material choices, and love Matthew's sense of design!

Teresa said...

Enjoyed reading about your organization of embroidery floss. When my mom passed, I inherited all her embroidery floss which was like a tin full of loose threads. I also had my own tin full of floss - no organization. So I bought the plastic spools like you used and started untangling and winding the floss on spools. Wish I had read your idea of writing in pencil as I used a sharpie to write my numbers. This was kind of a fun project during these long covid days.

Anonymous said...

Your way of handling floss that you're using is a great idea - I'll be copying that one. Regarding your knee - I had the same problem for about 15 years, if I stood on one leg I was taller than if I stood on the other one, by about one and a half inches. I went to the osteopath and my spine wasn't straight - he managed to manipulate it over several visits and was about to declare a failure when it finally moved back into place nicely. My knee still aches on some days, years of taking all the weight probably, and I occasionally have a tendency to lean to one side when I stand for a while, BUT it's much much better. Hope you find your cause and solve it.Love the mask fabric choices. Elaine in UK

Chopin - A Passionate Quilter said...

Well Barbara! We have something else in common. Due to my 4 back surgeries, my right leg is about 3/4" or less shorter. Throws the sciatic off. I do stretches (therapist taught me) and that helps, but I have a lift in my right shoe that keeps me upright. I certainly understand standing on the shorter one.

I also have braces that keep me from turning my ankles, supports my arches, and helps the planter facias on the left heel. So see if the difference is less than 3/4" because the lift in the show is great. I love my braces too. I have 2 disc that are probably gone so you know what that mean - yup a back brace. No more surgeries for me - just braces. LOL. After 70 it is best to not have those type of surgeries.

We took our ballots to the County Seat Courthouse. I have tons of floss and keep them in baggies color coded - DMC thread. Then I switched to Prescencia. I could start a fabric and thread store! But that is what newbie quilters do and I did that starting in 2000 after retirement!

Have a great day!

piecefulwendy said...

I like your masks. I should probably make a few more, something fun. Good tips on storing floss. Those bright colors all together are so fun to look at! I didn't know Swerve had a brown sugar sub. Interesting!

Magpie's Mumblings said...

You store your flosses exactly the same way I do. I'm ashamed to say that I have 8 of those divided boxes - each one stores only one colour and...even worse....I couldn't shoehorn any more floss into them if I tried!! Comes from doing so much crazy quilting and the fact that I inherited the stash my grandmother had. And I'm oh so weak when it comes to new colours.
Glad you voted and avoided the huge lines we're seeing on the news here.

Christine said...

I store my embroidery thread the same way, but I use Anchor Threads as DMC is a tad more expensive.
I am removing the Runner Bean poles and greenery today, hoping to clear the ground before the rain sets in.
I will then rest in front of the TV watching an old film that has been recorded . . . not really energetic at the mo.
Look forward to seeing what you decide about the next quilt.

QuiltGranma said...

When I was doing counted cross stitch I wound my floss on the spool cardstock that was available then. I've got three of those floss bins with floss in them... fewer than what I did have, because Mom in law would come for the summer and blanket stitch around her appliques. Using my floss bobbins. And they would go home to NM with her for the winter, and disappear! What Mom wants, Mom gets.

Kate said...

I store my embroidery thread similiarly, but hadn't thought about putting the cards on a ring. I use similar rings in the sewing room to keep the pages of my in progress quilt patterns together. Thanks for the new tip.