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Penny Pinching Projects
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Spring Cleaning your Embroidery! March 2011 Issue! |
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Spring is just around the corner! What does that mean??? It means it is time for SPRING CLEANING for your embroidery! We will add new free tips for everyone every day Monday-Thursday (03-07 thru 03-10) PLUS a new dust bunny design on those days as well:-) They are for paying subscribers only. If you would like them please subscribe here:
Scroll all the way down to learn how to get a free BONUS Dust Bunny! Monday March 7th 2011 Even though it does not seem like it, Winter will be over soon. What does your embroidery room/space look like? If it is like most of us it is a disaster! LOL The holiday's seem like a distant memory but the remains of several gifts & projects still litter your work area. Day 1: CLEAN UP! The first thing you need to do before you can sort and organize is clean up any garbage you have laying around. Put patterns back together and put them aside. Go through fabric laying around. I know many of you HATE to throw any piece of fabric away. I tell you if your scrap bin of fabric is over flowing it is time to find a new home for it! If it just kills you to throw it see if someone else can make use of it. I know, I know you may need it later, right!?! If you have not used it in the last year, the chances of you using it now is VERY slim. Heck you probably will not even be able to find it or remember you have it! Make piles of like items that you will be going through next! Take all garbage out immediately! Already you will see a huge improvement. Tomorrow we will start on sorting these items. Today's dust bunny!!!
paying members click above link to download Bunnies come in filled, applique & redwork in 4x4 & 5x7 sizes! They are for paying subscribers only. If you would like them please subscribe here:
Tuesday March 8th 2011 Day 2: Now that you have your garbage thrown and all your stuff is piled up now you need to sort it! 1st thing, make sure all like items are together. Put ribbons with other ribbons and patterns together, fabrics together and so on. Now that we have it all sorted into like groups, you need to decide do you have room for all of this? Be HONEST with yourself! If you do not have room for everything you need to decide, do I have another reasonable place to store this. Again be HONEST! If you do, put those items away in that area. If you don't you need to make some decisions! Most of us are over loaded with stuff! I am sure most of you will say sure I have room for this, but you probably don't. LOL Ask yourself a couple questions. How long have I had it? If you have had something for a year or more and have not used it, most likely you will NOT miss it. If it is a project, do you have the time needed to finish this project in the next year? If not, you probably will never get it done. I know it seems tough to purge things, but when you are done you will be surprised how wonderful it is to have room to work and maybe even add in a couple new things! If you decide you just don't have room for the items you need to decide what you are going purge and what you are going to keep. Again, give yourself a time limit. Not 3 weeks either! LOL You can give away what you cannot keep to friends or family or even many church or school groups are happy to take fabrics & crafting items. If you want to make a few $$$ you could list it and sell it on eBay or Etsy. There is also a great Yahoo group that you can list your sewing/embroidery related items for sale : This group is only for private sales and not those selling products for business. Please read the group rules before posting there:-) Now that you have your stuff sorted, and you have the items you plan on keeping and those that are finding a new home we go to step 3, tomorrow:-)
paying members click above link to download Bunnies come in filled, applique & redwork in 4x4 & 5x7 sizes! They are for paying subscribers only. If you would like them please subscribe here: Wednesday March 9th 2011 Day 3: Hopefully you have steps one and two done and are thinking o.k. now what?!?! Now you must find a permanent home for your stuff. When putting things away remember that this is where this item will ALWAYS go. Don't think, oh I will put it here for now and figure out something later. Later NEVER comes! LOL So take into consideration any future plans for your space as well. When putting away projects try and keep all the pieces you will need together. Those huge Ziploc bags are great for project bags. Many have handles so you can hang them if you like. Plus they are cheap enough to get for several projects. Bankers boxes also work well for storing projects and fabric. They stack up nicely and you can put a clip of what fabric is inside the box on the outside of it for easier searching. I am sure everyone has a thousand different ideas and ways to store things. Don't get pulled in by the hype. Just because something looks great in the show room (or online) does not mean it will work in your space. I love the look of glass jars filled with buttons and ribbons, but do I have a place to put these jars? So before purchasing any storage items sort your items, know where they are going to stored and first LOOK around your home to see if there is something you have that you can use or repurpose before going out and spending your hard earned money!!! Now start putting things away in their permanent home! Tomorrow we talk about keeping our place organized!
paying members click above link to download Bunnies come in filled, applique & redwork in 4x4 & 5x7 sizes! They are for paying subscribers only. If you would like them please subscribe here:
Wednesday March 9th 2011 Day 4: Our final day! Well, maybe???? LOL Today we go over how to keep your newly organized space! PUT IT AWAY WHERE IT BELONGS! That is the best way to keep your space neat & organized. When you are finished with an item, put it away right away. Don't think I will do it later. That seems to never come around. You must stay on top of it. If you have items stored into places in your home, every time you leave the room bring something with you that needs to get put away. After a while this will become such habit that when you don't have something to put away you will feel like you are forgetting something! LOL
Today we also want to cover a bit about organizing your embroidery files. There are so many ways to organize designs and everyone has their favorite way. One thing I will tell you to do is always file the design files as you download them. Do NOT create a general folder you download everything into and then sort later. Later never comes! Or when it does it is a nightmare job. Also, ALWAYS unzip and check files IMMEDIATELY! If you wait you may not be able to get those designs later. Lastly, back up, back up & back up more! LOL It happens every day! Someone has a hard drive failure or some other kind of crash and they lose years worth of designs. Many that you cannot get again. I know how it feels when it happens. For me it was pictures and not designs. Those pictures are gone forever. I have someone email me almost daily asking for lost designs. I am sure most think it is only them emailing but digitizers can emails like this all the time. For me, it is almost impossible to send lost designs. I would have to figure out what weeks a person was a member and what designs were put up. It is really a lot of work to do that and if I did I would never get any new designs done. Many other designs sites are the same. So BACK UP YOUR FILES! I use Carbonite and really like them. There are other sites that do auto back up and you can also burn CD's or store on a flash drive or back up hard drive. Remember though to check them often as they can fail as well. O.k. so now you should be all organized and ready to create!
paying members click above link to download Bunnies come in filled, applique & redwork in 4x4 & 5x7 sizes! They are for paying subscribers only. If you would like them please subscribe here:
BONUS DUST BUNNY!
Send us pictures of your neat & organized sewing/embroidery space (and a tip of something you use to organize your space) and I will send you the Bonus Bunny for FREE (via email*)!!! Email to:
*Please note we will not repeatedly resend the the design. If after 3 tries you do not get it we will not continue to send it. Be sure you add our email address to your email address book so there is a better chance of receiving it. We reserve the right to reject any submissions if we feel they are not property of the sender. The only persons that will get the free design MUST send a photo & a tip! This design is held by www.stitchitcheap.com(tm) and all copyrights connected to it are valid. By sending the photo and tip to www.stitchitcheap.com(tm) you are giving us the right to use the photo and tip on our website and newsletter. We will only accept photos and tips until 03-31-11.
Do you want to download all these designs??? Sign up now!
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