Last month, I spent a day playing with silk threads. These silk threads, as a matter of fact.

Last week, I finished up some thread organization with the very same silk threads, which are from The Silk Mill.

I also mentioned earlier how this particular complete set of Silk Mill silk threads is organized.

With the threads already in their plastic sleeves (which are part of the DMC stitch bow thread organization system), my task was to arrange the threads into binders.

When 4″ binders went on sale (and I had a coupon to boot!), I purchased three of them. I hesitated and almost bought four, but three worked out just fine.

I chose 4″ binders in black, with D rings – the rings that are round on one side and flat on the other – because these rings make it much easier to store a lot of stuff in the binder and still turn the pages easily.

I was able to fit 13 of the Stitch Bow pages (each having slots for 15 skeins of embroidery thread) in each binder. So, each binder holds 195 skeins.

The “pages” of these thread books unfold to reveal all 15 skeins, and I’ve arranged the pages in order, according to their thread numbers, which also conveniently organizes them into shade families within specific colors. The colors are not grouped together, though, in each binder. They progress according to the numbers they were assigned when they came to market.

So, in one binder, I might have a family of coral reds in graduated shades, along with pale greens in graduated shades, yellows, tans, blues and so forth, and in another binder, other families of reds (pinky reds) might reside with all the shades in the pinky red family, along with a blue-green family, and so forth.

The point is, they’re arranged by number, and within a number range, there is a group of shades of a given color family.

This is my kind of Picture Book! I could browse through the pages of these three books all the day long! There are so many gorgeous colors and shades in the The Silk Mill thread line!

*Sigh*

Monitors and cameras in various lighting situations don’t always do colors justice. But I think you can understand why I sigh. I’m sure there’s an ocean shore out there waiting for me, in just those colors.

I love the arrangement of shades here. It’s often difficult to find a red line with enough deep-to-light shading in it. Just think of the needlepainting possibilities!

Yep. This is much better than thumbing through a picture book.

And this is better than a jar of candy!

I labeled each binder 1 – 3, with the number range within that particular binder. Now I can find the threads by number easily, or I can flip through and look for specific colors.

The binders were then situated on the front of one of my book shelves (which are very deep and accommodate a couple layers of books, as you can see).

And then, I did what any self-respecting person would do…

…I shut the cabinet doors.

I used to store all my books on open book shelves, but dust and bookshelves have an affinity for each other, and I got sick of dusting them. So I keep all my books inside a closed cabinet. In fact, I keep all my “stuff” relating to embroidery in these cabinets, which are floor-to-ceiling, with doors that close, so that the possibility of dust and light is at least reduced. And it keeps the work room looking somewhat orderly, with all the stored stuff behind closed doors.

Somewhat is the operative word.

And so, those threads now have a permanent home. They won’t stay in it for too long, though. I’ll be playing with them soon, and you can come along with me and play, too!