On topic: amazing story....

Hey - pick some numbers for me!

Cheryl

Hi Sue

I wouldn't run out and buy a lottery ticket just yet!

Hitting the same dye lot number within 2 or 3 years or sometimes even longer is not that uncommon for the mainstream brands.

If you stop and think about it from the manufacturing and distribution end, you would understand why more easily.

Large manufacturers don't just mix 30 gallons of dye and make a run of that color lot, they mix more like 3000 gallons of dye and refill the entire rack in their warehouse of that color and lot number. And this applies to almost every company where variances are important.

I had an aunt who worked for two different companies that manufactured wallpaper. One company was very large, the other was a smaller more specialized company making special order runs like for restaurants and chain stores own internal decorating.

When they tooled up to run a specific product code, the number of double rolls ultimately produced started with the number of master rolls of paper they had from a single lot number of that product. Enough inks were blended and reblended so that there would be enough of those particular colors to handle the entire shipment of paper bearing that lot number. These would all be packaged and placed in the warehouse for later shipment as the orders came in for that product code.

The first 500 to 1000 rolls off the line, as well as the last 500 to 1000 rolls off the line were often given different lot numbers and sold to discount stores, just to insure that the main run was identical from start to finish of that lot number.

As always, they would have some inks left over and would load up another paper lot number and begin running until the blended inks ran out, often topping up the inks with unblended so they could run out of all the inks at the same time. These most often would not have lot numbers at all or if they did from the center of the run only, they would be given a special lot number. These finishing off surplus runs of a product number are the type of product you find at the deep discount and dollar stores.

I'm sure the floss business is handled in a similar fashion. The lead and end skeins of a run go to the discount stores under a couple of different lot numbers and the main part of the run is sent through the regular distribution channels under the primary lot number from that run. Which could easily be a 2 year supply of that floss color in the warehouse.

TTUL Gary

on 7/20/05 2:57 PM, Susan Hartman/Dirty Linen at snipped-for-privacy@dirtylinen.com posted:

Wow - Sue - what a lucky thing. Congratulations on that! Your piece was gorgeous in process, and I can only imagine it's even better now! I almost, almost bought it to do for our friends getting married in Sept (DH is Best Man, and I've taken them on as a client for the event coordinator business). Anyhow, I had the bride at the LNS where I used to work, and there was that lovely Drawn Thread Heart piece for a mother which had just been framed - the bride says "Don't ever do anything like that for me - I guarantee you it wouldn't get displayed" .., Yikes! Then she backpedaled into "well, I don't like purple" . Fortunately I had decided that they wouldn't appreciate the work of "Marriage of Minds" and instead have modified the latest Elizabeth's Designs Garden sampler to be a wedding thing for them. Of course my friend who owns the LNS, as well as the florist, keep saying "you're not getting them a wedding present!" - since the wedding coordinator thing is taking much time and reminding me why I like doing specialty events more, and weddings less frequently. I guess after I finish the "True Love" for DH, I'll start on Marriage of Minds for a gift to ourselves - some day.

Anyhow - congrats on the find, and the approaching finish of your fabulous piece. You know if you ever need thread I can just pop it in the mail from Needlewoman East and you'd have it in a day or two. That shop has more thread of all kinds than is imaginable.

Ellice

*grin* Well she sounds a lot like me. Don't get me wrong: I love _making_ things. I tat and I knit and I do bobbinlace and I know how to crochet but prefer not to ;-) But you won't find many of my selfmade things around my apartment. It's not that I don't like them, but for me personally it feels too "granny". My Grandmother used to crochet. There's loads and loads of chrocheted doilies and things in their house. I inherited a huge pile of crocheted Tablecloths and doilies and things and while I think they're nice I still don't use or display them. They just look so odd here. I have a son who's 4 and he's always moving stuff and "looking" at things with his hands and when he decides "this is nice" that also means he takes it with him wherever he goes in the apartment *lol* so I try to keep things simple and plain and "no frill".

I just figured I'll make all the lace and stuff now while I'm still able to see what I'm doing and later when my eyes decide to retire (probably sooner than later looking at all the "owls" in my family *g*) I can knit and crochet with big yarn and harass my grandkids with sweaters and mittens and hats ;-)

cu nicole

. I inherited a huge pile of crocheted

Great. You can use them later. I received a whole bunch of hand embroidered tablecloths etc. as wedding presents, and for the first few years they were used on on Sundays and holidays. Then, one year, when both kids were teenagers and away for the summer, I firmly told DH "OK, there are no small children in this house any more, from now on we are usng the hand-embroidered cloths, the sterling, the bone china and the crystal every day!!" He vetoed the bone china - he's a klutz and didn't want to break it - but agreed to the rest. It feels so civilised, using "the good stuff" every day. And, I may as well. The silver won't take any hurt and as for the linens, I know perfectly well that neither my daughter nor my daughter in law would ever iron them, so I may as well use them and enjoy them, and, if they fall apart, so what, it was nice while it lasted.

Olweyn Mary in New Orleans.

*big grin* Yep, that's basicly the plan ;-) I'm glad you're doing it this way, my mum still has the "everyday" and the "for good".. well, everything I guess *lol* it's not just the silver and the china with her, she has the whole lot, the drinking glasses that used to hold mustard or nutella because it doesn't matter when they break (they don't break! We had one _bounce_ on the tile floor once! I don't know what they make those glasses out of.) Well, the "for good" things only come out for birthday celebrations, christmas and suchlike you know, when there are guests in the house. Usually they use the cipped, faded, old plates (don't get me wrong, I'm very fond of those I remember eating with those Spoons and Forks and from those plates way back when I was tiny) but I always think "Mom you spent all this money on a huge china set for 24 people and it's got nearly all the extras, too. Use it! Now I don't have silver cutlery or "good glas" glasses or china but if I ever do I will be using it no matter how expensive it was because that's what it's being bought for! I don't need 24 small, 24 medium, 24 large, 24 soup,..... plates/cups/bowls/whatever on display ;-)

cu nicole

Sue, Yes, I can see the magic of this ! barbie

Great. =A0You can use them later. =A0I received a whole bunch of hand embroidered tablecloths etc. as wedding presents, and for the first few

years they were used on on Sundays and holidays. =A0Then, one year, when both kids were teenagers and away for the summer, I firmly told DH "OK,

there are no small children in this house any more, from now on we are usng the hand-embroidered cloths, the sterling, the bone china and the crystal every day!!" =A0He vetoed the bone china - he's a klutz and didn't want to break it - but agreed to the rest. It feels so civilised, using

"the good stuff" every day. =A0And, I may as well. =A0The silver won't take

any hurt and as for the linens, I know perfectly well that neither my daughter nor my daughter in law would ever iron them, so I may as well use them and enjoy them, and, if they fall apart, so what, it was nice while it lasted.

Olweyn Mary in New Orleans.

They SHOULD be used & enjoyed. Even when "the kids" do come & visit, it is a good idea to still use it. One of our EGA members (in her 90s) has her 5 year old great granddaughter use the "good stuff" when she visits just so that the little girl can learn to use it. I used to hate that "Corelle" dinnerware because families that I knew that had it would use it for kids, while the adults ate off of the"real" dinnerware. It annoyed me that they didn't think I had good enough manners to eat a meal without breaking dishes. Why not just TEACH the kids tablemanners so that the dishes don't run a constant risk of being broken? Granted, accidents do happen and the occasional piece will get broken but adults do that too. :-)

I admit that you probably don't want the cut glass candy dish on the coffee table when you have toddlers toddling around, but by the time they are three, they should be learning that some things can be touched and picked up and carried around, AND SOME CAN'T! Otherwise, how will they ever be able to be taken anywhere public or even to a friend's house to play? Granted, I grew up in a family of four girls, but there were plenty of boy cousins who had no problem visiting our house and not touching things they weren't supposed to touch. Running, jumping and rough housing was great - OUTSIDE! Needless to say, my extended family believed in teaching the children to have respect for "the good stuff" and not picking it all up and putting it out of reach of the children. :-)) It was usually made to be USED, not to be hidden away so that it doesn't have any meaning or memories anymore. Liz from Humbug