needlework essentials 3.0 :: floss & needle minder

What a wild month March was to document in stitches. Two forty degree days, hot days either side, and then bam, straight into the greens as autumn hits with a vengeance. April is promising to be as delightfully wet as the past couple of weeks have been, and first frost is just around the corner, so I think I’m safe to wave farewell to my orange and above threads for now.

As I type and watch the rain fall outside, finally after a dry summer, I surprisingly find myself looking forward to cooler days and being able to light the fire and embrace the coziness that comes with mid-autumn heading into winter. This will be our fourth winter in the cabin, three more than expected, but we should be in the new house before it gets really cold, so we should get the best of “yay fire!” season and miss the worst of “if I have to spend another day listening to the wind whistle through the gaps of this cabin I might lose my mind” season. In theory, anyway. I’m trying not to have too many expectations of the building process. I do hope to have a finished home before we hit the purples! You can find my colour ranges and floss colours in my initial post, and the pattern we are all using is this one on Etsy**.

And with my March update, also comes my final instalment of my latest needlework essentials series. Today I’m actually sharing the last two projects I made for this collection – partly because they were made together, partly because I feel the series has dragged on a bit longer than planned, and partly because they are the absolute basics I make for most stitching projects.

Rounding is out is a floss minder (actually two, because I was playing with options and couldn’t decide), and a needle minder. I used my watercolours** (I bought this set forever ago for a Studio Calico class**, and I love them! Great pigment and a joy to use) to match the floss as closely as possible, then did two different styles of swatches – large dots and small stripes. Once they were dry, I used my new favourite pen** (thanks to Car in our 12 Days swap) to note the colours and range on the large ones, and just the top temps on the small one, and then laminated and hole punched with my crop-a-dile**. In the end, I settled on using the larger of the two.

While I was throwing paint around, I had a section where I was testing my colours to see how well my mixing matched. It was such a pretty piece that it inspired my needle minder – a rainbow of dots to match my floss, then cut into a precise circle using my cricut. I did quite possibly overengineer this stage of the project, but my previous needle minder I’d cut using my Big Shot and it was quite satisfying to have such a neat edge I couldn’t bring myself to cut it by hand! The magnets I used I had on hand still from my 2014 needle minder marathon, I had picked them up from Bunnings, and when I couldn’t find my stash I tried to buy more but it’s no longer a product they stock. Thankfully my second foray into the storage container was much more successful, and I was able to have a pretty new needle minder to match my project!

I think five add-on projects to one stitchery might be a record for me? If you have a suggestion of something else I need in my stitching kit I would love to know, drop me a comment below!

PAST NEEDLEWORK ESSENTIALS SERIES:
Series One (2014): travel pouch // thread minder // thread catcher // needle minder // wrap up 
Series Two (2020): ribbon welt pouch // hoop cover
Other needlework projects: Christmas themed thread minder // rainbow floss minder // thread catcher
Series Three (2023): project pouch // scissor keeper // needlecase

**I am an affiliate for Amazon, Etsy & Studio Calico, which means if you click the links in this post and make a purchase, I will earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. I only ever affiliate link to products and places I genuinely use and love. Thank you for supporting my blog!