Early last year I had come across this blog post about saving your spools for the year. I thought this would be a fun exercise. I am not sure if it signifies much in terms of your productivity as the spools can differ vastly in size. One cone can equal 20 tiny spools but anyway gives you a sense of how many stitches your sewing machine churned out. That workhorse!!!!
I had a 16 spool year. Most of the thread was used for sewing and piecing. The cardboard spools are for machine quilting thread. Based on the density of FMQ you can go through thread rather quickly.
Since we are on the subject of numbers I wonder how many needles/rotary cutter blades everyone uses per year. Most of the talk is centered around the cost of fabric but I find myself spending quite a bit on rotary cutter blades too. The Olfa blades cost more than the Fiskars ones and I find they both last about the same. I also find myself going through quite a few sewing needles in a year. Especially size 70/11 that I use for piecing and 80/11 that I use for quilting. I mainly use Schmetz needles and thankfully they are not expensive.
I would be interested in knowing how much you spend on basic notions such as thread, needles and cutting blades and what thoughts you may have on sourcing these items for less than full retail.
Rachel,
ReplyDeleteI buy most of my blades on sale as well as my needles. Sadly I also buy when stores go out of business. :(
Barb@Witsend
Good thing to keep track of! I started collrcting spools because the art teacher in my daughter's school used tthem for projects! I couldn't believe how quickly I had a small bag of 5 to hand over! I usually replace my rotary blade every other month - that really adds up over the year!
ReplyDeleteI like this idea, I've seen quilters keep track of the stash that they use but never the thread. Great idea!
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