I’ve written about mosaic artist Martin Cheek before and I’m sure I’ll write about him again. This post is a book review of his Mosaics book
in The Weekend Crafter series published by Rankin Street Press. It contains 20 projects that can cater to all levels of mosaic enthusiast. There are small and large projects, but most won’t take very long to complete and look very satisfying to create. The basic instructions section is informative and I’ve read about some things that were new to me. It’s never too late to learn something new. Now let me apply it to my mosaic work. Some projects can be done with no grout, which takes away some of the mess factor. But sometimes you do want to make a mess, right? If you’re looking for a good book to inspire you and get you started on mosaic this one is definitely for you. Martin’s your guy…
Have you read?
How to Store Embroidery Needles
I have a complicated relationship with my embroidery needles. Which is a fancy way of saying I don’t really take care of my needles at all. Even though I know I have embroidery needles to use for cross stitch and sewing, needles that are certainly still in their packages, I can rarely find them when I need them.
So when I saw this post from Crewel Ghoul about how to store your embroidery needles, it hit close to home for me.
It doesn’t really say anything I didn’t already know, but it is good advice that might also serve as a reminder for you to take better care of your needles when you cross stitch or do other hand-sewing projects so that you’ll be able to find your needles again when you need them.
It would help me a lot if I had a dedicated place to keep needles I’m not using, including the needles that are still in their packages from when I bought them. You’d think I would keep them with my embroidery floss but apparently you would be mistaken about that.
Another good idea for me is to have a place to put needles I’ve been using when I am done with them. Because goodness knows I’m not going to put them back in the package. (Which may actually be a good thing because then I know which one I’ve been using and which ones are fresh. Not that I replace my needles regularly, but still.) I own pincushions but I don’t really use them for anything, which is silly.
Check out the post at Crewel Ghoul to see all the options available for storing your embroidery needles properly. I’d love to hear what you do, especially if you have a better system than I do (which, honestly, would be any system at all).
[Photo: Crewel Ghoul]