A week or so ago I was talking with a friend (who happens to be the manager of my LNS) about trying to find suitable thread for thimbles.  It was an interesting conversation since I have not shown her a thimble that I’ve stitched nor did I have a sample of the TIRE #9 silk with me to show her.  I described the type of thread that I was looking for whilst bemoaning that I have yet to find anything suitable besides Japanese threads from mail order.

Anyway, she got me to thinking about a silk thread that is used very occasionally by some cross stitch designers:  Au Ver a Soie 100/3.  I’ve used it before but forgotten about it.  I remembered that one of the kits I did had a spool of white or something so that I could probably pull a few yards off and try it out on a thimble.

So, I went digging into my cross stitch threads stash.  (Yes, I have separate stashes for temari type threads and my other embroidery.  Since the cross stitch threads tend to be bundled with projects already I don’t want to pull from them and accidentally short myself.)

I discovered this while digging into the stash:

A collection of silk thread

Whoa!  15! spools of wonderful 100/3 silk in nice bright fall-ish colors.  I could not even remember what I used it on, or if it was earmarked for something I had not stitched yet.  It was a mystery to solve.

I dug into my stash of projects and could find nothing that would use those colors.  Hmph.  Next I wandered the house looking at the samplers I have done to see if I could find one with those colors.  Nope.  Now what?

I did many Just Nan designs when I was working for the shop and I was pretty sure that was what they were from so I went online.  I *still* couldn’t find it in the gallery of designs.  So as a last gasp I looked at the list of silk kits she sells and I hit paydirt!  These threads were used to stitch this:

A mini-quilt with a Halloween cross stitch design

Here are some close ups for the curious:

A witch with her broom and jack-o-lanterns, notice the N on the top of her broomstick

The moon in the center with the Just Nan witch charm and spindly backstitched spiders

The design is called Witch Way, hence the broomstick compass points.  Since it is a seasonal mini-quilt, it is not stored with my other framed pieces so I didn’t find it when I went searching originally.  I had forgotten it was in my cedar chest.  Conveniently it is the right time of year to display it too!  Now that I see it again, I remember how fun it was to stitch; I loved the little witches and the bright fall colors.

So, the hunt for information is over and  I can go on. The result means that I have discovered a treasure trove of threads in my stash that might just be perfect for thimbles and they are not earmarked for anything else!  I transfered the threads to my thimble drawer and am making a test thimble right now!