Not so much storage as..

..keeping my work space organized.

Every time I get ready to do some embroidery, I start with an idea, find a good image, create the design in my PE Design Plus software, and I get a page with this information on:

What I have to do next is gather these threads ready to use in order.  I started out by just lining them up on the table beside my sewing machine, but that wasn't ideal.

Next I tried using an egg carton, and while that kept things relatively tidy, the spools of thread were bigger than the cups in the carton, and so it didn't satisfy my sense of order.


I had a couple of dowels and tried to balance one in the very large spool of black bobbin thread in my storage basket, as you can see from the photo, that almost worked, but it was balanced very precariously and if I wasn't very careful removing the thread as I needed it, it all toppled over.


So it occurred to me that if I could drill a hole in the side of my work table, just the right size to hold one of the dowels, that would keep it upright and steady. I am perfectly capable of drilling a hole, after all I built an entire deck, OK it was a small one, but I had a very nice collection of power tools and I did build a deck, however, no reason on earth to go to all that trouble now that I have a very handy and willing husband, so at my request, he drilled a neat hole in the side of my table and the dowel fit perfectly.

Problem solved! Now every time I start a new project, I place the threads on my dowel in the order I will need them and I am ready to go. The dowel will hold nine spools and I almost never use more than nine colors so it is just perfect. I am sure I will eventually have to come up with some way to indicate a repeat of the same color, but so far that has not happened so I will worry about it when it does.