How to Collect Leftover Thread and Why You Might Want to

Do you keep your thread ends when you finish a cross stitch project? These little leftover bits are sometimes referred to as ORTs (short for old ratty threads or old random threads) and some stitchers like to keep them and use them in projects, too.

I’ve seen people keep their ORTs in jars or even make them into Christmas ornaments (the one shown here is from Caterpillar Cross Stitch, instructions in the blog post linked below).

I don’t keep mine with any particular purpose in mind. They go into a container that also includes the ends of yarn from knitting and crochet projects, and when I need to stuff something I’ll turn to that material before I use storebought stuffing (unless the stuffing needs to be white for some reason).

But every time I see cute little jars filled with bits of thread I wonder if I should save them more deliberately.

Caterpillar Cross Stitch has a great post all about what ORTs are and different ways to use them, from the aforementioned jars and holiday ornaments to making a patchwork project stitching at random with all those little threads.

Check out the blog post for more tips and ideas. As it notes and I want to point out, too, leaving your random threads out for the birds to collect is not recommended as even short fibers can be a tangling hazard for babies, and brightly colored threads can attract predators to nests.

I also love the idea mentioned here that looking at your remnants over the course of a year can tell you things about yourself as a stitcher, such as what colors you prefer, which might inspire you to mix things up a bit and pick a project outside your color comfort zone.

If you save your ORTs I’d love to hear what you do with them!

[Photo: Caterpillar Cross Stitch]

Siren Stitchworks has cross stitch patterns that feel like old samplers (and some of them are in fact historical reproductions) even when they are modern designs. They have patriotic patterns, biscornus, pop culture patterns and more so let’s take a look.

One of the projects that caught my eye was the Mexican menagerie, a set of five Mexican folk art inspired creatures. There’s a bird, horses, dragons, alligators and cats on these designs, which you can make into tiny pillow or ornaments.

The pattern notes don’t say how many colors are used but it doesn’t look like any of them have more than five colors. It does note the smallest pattern is 59 by 59 stitches, and the largest is 82 by 68 stitches. They also only use full cross stitches.

The category with the largest number of entries (which is still only 12 as of this writing; this is a small shop) is called ornaments and smalls. It includes this menagerie and another Mexican animal collection, as well as traditional looking patterns with a twist, such as a little pattern with Yule goats, a needlebook cover that looks like a tombstone and alphabet samplers that include Greek, Latin and Hebrew.

There are also a bunch of samplers, divided into monochrome, traditional and reproduction samplers. There are some fun ones in the monochrome department, including a Titanic sampler and an aloha design with a pineapple motif. Traditional samplers include some patriotic designs (and a gorgeous folk art resist fist), as well as a really fat cat.

And the reproduction samplers include fun fonts, florals and birds like you’d expect from old sampler designs.

In addition you’ll find a few pop culture designs (mostly Game of Thrones inspired samplers for different houses), biscornus include a couple Chinese zodiac designs, and a few needle minders for sale.

Check out all the fun designs at Siren Stitchworks on Etsy.

[Photo: Siren Stitchworks]

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