I know that stitchers often like to talk about their stash. After all collecting fabric, thread, kits and charts can be almost as much fun as stitching!
However, when you run your own embroidery kit business, you’d think that that feeling might have to be ‘toned down’ a bit, maybe? Well, if it should, then I’m not very good at it!
Here’s what recently happened…
I was looking on Facebook, as you do, and someone in an embroidery group mentioned an online trade auction that was due to end in two days’ time. It was the closing stock of a UK distributor of needlework and knitting supplies. I had a quick look, just out of interest, you understand….and couldn’t believe what I saw. Hundreds of bulk cones of thread, the same as I use in my kits, with an opening bid that was a fraction of the trade price. So, I thought about it overnight, then started bidding the morning that the auction was to finish.
I’m not very patient when it comes to bidding, but I AM very determined. So when a few people bid against me, I used tactical bidding to still win what I wanted, at a really good price.
This is what I got – several hundred cones of Anchor stranded cotton, which, once delivered to my home, took up most of the living room! I’ve put my sewing machine in the picture, to give you an idea of the scale of this heap:
It took my husband and I several hours to sort them all into their colour number groups, so that they then looked like this:
Now that they’ve been sorted properly, they will be added to my inventory in a tidy way, like this:
I could look at them for hours! I’ve already got ideas for how I can use them for new designs, as there are some colours in this selection that I’ve never stocked before.
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Yummy! Well done, and congrats on winning the auction. Off to buy some more brown boxes now? 🙂
Yep! You’ve got loads!!!
Are the cones stranded cotton like the skeins but more of it (with 6 strands)?
Amazing, as for a moment, before I read the description, I thought your sewing machine was a small toy machine for children.
Yes, it’s the same thread that you get in an eight yard skein – but there’s 500 metres of it on each cone. Each one is about six inches high.
Love it! I use Anchor too, so I can see the colour number groupings there. 🙂
Wow! Great score on all of the thread. It must have seemed like Christmas morning had come again in July. 🙂
Looks fantastic and a lot of fun!!
That’s a lot of thread! How fast do you think you’ll get through it?
I think it will last me for the rest of the years that I want to run my business, and then for all of my retirement, and then for a bit longer, actually!