organize patterns,fabrics,skeins

I used a spreadsheet (think Excel) so I could sort by type or style or subject. I have my books and mags cataloged as well as the charts and kits. I've also cataloged fabs and fibers.

The mags and charts are in binders, plus a crate for those that don't fit into binders. Kits are in a drawer of one of the rolling carts. Also in rolling cart drawers are the fab and fibers as well as miscellaneous stitching paraphernalia. This isn't ideal, but will have to do until we move to the house this fall and I get my stitching room back. Then I'll set up wooden cabinets to hold fabrics and fibers.

Helen

Drawers all over the place!

From the hardware store, I got some "parts cabinets" -- the drawers are the right size for a skein of floss to lay almost flat. Because I have several brands of floss, I organize mine by color (Reds in the first drawer, pinks in the next, peaches, corals, oranges, etc.) though a friend who has only DMC does hers by number.

I store the fabric in drawers that allow me to lay it flat, again, filed by color.

My kits (and kitted projects) are in file boxes: Small (up to roughly

5x7), Medium (roughly 8x10), and Large (11x14 and up), and then some boxes specifically for certain categories that I have a lot of (like Cats, Stuff for Mom, and Purple Stuff). Theoretically, this allows me to find a project by looking through just one box ... assuming I was in my right mind when I filed it. I came across "Celtic Banner" in the Medium box, which it most assuredly is not!

Charts are on a bookshelf. Where I have a substantial number in one category (e.g., Cats or Alphabets), they are in a magazine file.

I've never taken the time to set up a database. Takes too much precious time away from stitching!

Helen,

Are you my twin! Everything is in Excel, except the fabric. So much of that I bought unlabelled.

Cheryl

I roll my fabric onto old wrapping paper ( the center cardboard) which I firs cover with cling film ( cling wrap, saran wrap ) Then store in an old chest of drawers by light and dark. ruby

Hi Valentina,

There is a database program out there called CrossMagic. I find it helpful for cataloguing my flosses more than anything, but if you also do your charts, it has a great report menu that will tell you what you need to buy to do a certain chart or which chart you could stitch with your current inventory. You can download a shareware version here:

for the rest of my stuff...well I'm still working on getting my DMC floss bobbins out of Darice boxes and into something a little nicer. Over the holidays I received a nice stitching chair and a lot of help to buy a 9-drawer CD cabinet that holds my fabrics and fun threads. Hope that helps.

Addie

Fabrics by content ,,, threads by perle moline thicker etc,,, I don`t spnd too much on organizing i work whenever i can ,,, mirjam

Thanks for information.But anybody knows some database file just ready?

"Valentina" ha scritto nel messaggio news:43cf614d$0$1070$ snipped-for-privacy@reader4.news.tin.it...

How about Stash Can as shown here?

I actually have a filing cabinet that I use to organize my patterns. I file them by category (halloween, row samplers, holiday, misc., etc). I don't really have any fabric to organize because I only buy fabric when I am actually gonna sit down and make something.

Mavia : have you tried this program??? sounds user friendly.

ruby

I didn't really have much of a fabric stash, either, till LNS had a bunch of it on sale for half-price.

I have the software but never found the time to install and put in the information! It's on my to-do list! :) I've heard it recommended but can't vouch for it myself!

Mavia

Microsoft Access has a whole host of databases ready to use. I don't think there's one specially for fabric and threads, but there must be one that works, or one that could be adapted to work.

Hmmm... maybe there's a market and I could write one? (In return for stuff) What excatly do you require from such software?

Catherine

I actually had everything on Stash Can. Then, when I wanted to sort, I found I couldn't do so in a useable (for me) fashion. So I started over. Boy was *that* fun!

Helen

For the fabric portion of the DB: color, count, type (linen, Aida, Lugana, etc.), and size (no point rummaging for that 5x7 piece of Kermit Green if you need a 15x18 piece. Should be searchable in any of those categories -- show me all the green fabric, show me all the 15x18 pieces (can you write it to show minimum of 15 x minimum of 18 rather than only pieces that are precisely 15x18?)

Now for the big question ... how would people find fabric size easiest to use? My former LNS used to mark it with the number of Aida squares or linen threads in each direction, i.e., 123 x 234, which was quite convenient in figuring out whether your chart would fit on it.

Charts: name of chart, name of designer, type of chart (cats, flowers), size of chart (whether you want to make that Small/Medium/Large or specifically 196 stitches x 253 stitches), and a column that at the very least tips you off that it requires some unusual stuff, and preferably allows you to enter *what* unusual stuff (Watercolours 123, Waterlilies

456, 2 MillHill charms #90909).

Brenda,

You don't need to pay again! Just use the feedback form on my website at

to contact me and ensureyou give me the email address you were using when you originally boughtCrossMagic, and I'll email you another copy of your CrossMagicregistration key. I get people contacting me all the time saying they need a another copy of their registration key because they lost CrossMagic due to having hardware problems, so I'm quite used to re-issuing registration keys. Just as long as I can verify that you did indeed register CrossMagic at some stage.

Regards Murray Moffatt

My computer came with Microsoft Works installed. Within it is a database for books that worked perfectly with my cross stitch book inventory. There's room for comments so I can indicate what was of special interest to me in each book. I'm up to about 1000 charts/books and the database is searchable, so that helps. There's space for price so I can mark both cover price and what I actually paid on sale. I keep one for crochet and knitting books also and plan to do the quilting books this year.

I used the preinstalled spreadsheet to inventory my floss so I can see at a glance what colors I need. Since I have between 4 and 20 of each color DMC makes, it is good to see where I can fill in when a great sale comes along. I really need to do a database on my quilt fabric, but that would be a huge undertaking. HTH, Moni

What Karen said, but for type of chart, the ability to select more than one category, and to customize the category list, creating as many categories as one wants.

For example, you may have a chart of a cat in a Christmas stocking. Is that cats, or Christmas? Is a butterfly in a garden under butterflies, flowers, or nature? Is a Pooh sampler under Pooh, or samplers? If I have to choose only one category, it is inevitable that the category I think I'll be most likely to look under turns out to be the one I think of last when I then go looking for the item. I'm all for the ability to cross-reference!

Barbara