Cricut Couple will have you in Stitches!!!

Hey Ya'll,

Sassy Dude day today.  Bobby here from Cricut Couple.  Well, normally, I really try to come up with something really cool for Sassy Dude day, but this summer has been just wacky.  So... I hope ya'll don't mind, but I am going to share an organization project with you today.  As some of you know, I got a dream machine recently and then found a deal on e-bay that I just couldn't pass up.  So... here is the story.

 So... with getting the new embroidery machine, I thought I should get a couple more colors of thread to add to the stash.  I already had quite a bit of Sulky, so I really probably only needed a couple more colors.  Well... after doing a little bit of shopping, I thought I would check e-bay.  So... I am shopping around on e-bay and I come across this auction for 260 spools of thread.  It was at about $60.00.  I put in a max bid for $90.00.  Why I picked that amount, I have no idea.  Well, guess what?  The next morning, I find that I won the auction for $88.00!  Holy Cow!  Really?  Only $88.00.  Then it hits me... What in the WORLD am I going to do with 260 spools of thread???  I did a little bit of searching online and I come across this really great idea!  Peg board!  I am sorry to the person who inspired this because I don't remember your blog, but I am SO Grateful!

 So... this is the haul in all it's glory!  Packaged glory that is.  Hee! Hee!  I even got an extra box of bobbin thread too which made it 280 spools of thread!  I called my dad and we met up at Lowes.  I picked up 22 - 1/4" dowels at 48" long and a 24" x 48" piece of 1/4" peg board.  I ran to Dad's house and borrowed the chop saw and about 3 minutes later, had hundreds of 3" dowel piece.  That was well worth the drive over.  Hee! Hee!  I then cut some foam board and added it to the back of the peg board with some wood glue.  This way, I could glue in the dowels and not get glue or any uneven dowels sticking through the back.  Then I laid out all of the dowels and glued them in one by one with that 20 year old giant bottle of elmers that was sitting in a cabinet.  You know the one... you have to take the lid off and pick at it for about a half an hour until the glue will go through again, but for some reason, it's still good.  Go ahead and laugh... you know you have one.  Hee! Hee!  This is what it looks like with all the pegs in place.  (mounted to the wall of course.  Hee! Hee!)

 This is how the thread arrived.  Each one is individually shrink wrapped and has the number of the thread stuck to the top.  The dowel comes through the end of the spool where this sticker is, so I had to figure out how to know what the color number is so that I can reorder when I need it.  So... I removed the shrink wrap on each one and removed the sticker.  Then I replaced the sticker on the inside of the spool.

 Then I made HUNDREDS of these tiny labels and stuck them to the peg board at the end of each dowel.  This way, all of them are in order and I know what I need when I run out.  Did I mention that there were HUNDREDS of these?!?

 Now, looking at the picture below, can you hear the angels start to sing?  It's all loaded up and ready to go!!!  I thought that I should have painted the rack for a while, but once I had it all loaded up with all of these pretty colors, I think I am going to leave it the way it is.  I really like it!

 And... here is the finished rack in the craft room with the lovely new machine right under it and all setup!  YAY!  Something I learned about this experience.  Do you have one of those old laptops that is so slow that you never use it so you just put it back in a closet for the last couple of years?  Well, if you get a Singer Embroidery machine, drag that sucker out!  The software for the machines is a really old format.  It works beautifully with new computers, but it works fine and without slowing down in the older ones too!  So... I already had a computer in the closet to keep right next to it at all times.  Hee! Hee!  Who knew?

So... now that it's all setup, I had to take it for a test drive.  I found this stitch file in a collection of Raggedy Ann and Andy files.  Jill has a think for Raggedy Ann.  Believe it or not, this was one of 36 images that I found online that they e-mailed to me for just $4.75!  Can you believe that?!?  My old embroidery machine was $90.00 per card and each card only had 20 images... most of which I hated.  Hee! Hee!  So... here is Cricut Couple Embroidery Project #1!

This is the first design that will be stitched on recycled denim.  These will all be put together for a very special gift for Jill that I hope to have done by Christmas.  Just don't tell her, ok?  Hee! Hee!  It will probably take me until then to finish it, so you will just have to check back to see the progress.

So... in summary, it's not super cool, it's not paper, I didn't make my Gypsy simple, but it was something that really helped me organize my craft space and thought there may just be someone else who got that fancy machine for embroidery or sewing... or has 300 spools of baker's twine and needed to know a cheap way to organize it.  I thought I would take a shot.  Hee! Hee!  So... thank you so much for letting me share today.  I hope you enjoyed it anyway.  By the way... This entire rack costs less than $20.00 to make.

I hope you like what you see today and thank so much Sheila for letting me play today!  I would love to hear your comments!