I enjoy embroidery in my spare time, and I’ve created two databases in Notion to support my hobby.
Floss list & inventory
Thankfully, I didn’t need to start from scratch. In fact, I was inspired to use Notion for my floss inventory after discovering these two great resources:
My database contains the same information these spreadsheets contain:
- the color name (using the shade name first, then the value)
- the color number or alphanumeric code
- the product family the color belongs to (Étoile, Satin, etc.)
- whether the color is active or discontinued
- a space to indicate how many skeins one owns of a particular floss
One difference is that I’ve moved some of this information into separate columns for easier sorting. For example, Lord Libidan’s spreadsheet includes the data about product family and product status along with the color name (ex. “Discontinued Metallic – Purple Ruby”).
Another difference is that Notion has allowed me to create a number of filtered views – so it’s easy to see what colors I own, all the colors in a particular product family, etc.
If you’re interested, I’ve created an inventory you can copy; just click ‘Duplicate’ in the top right corner of the page (after you’ve created your own Notion account).
One of the other things that makes Notion cool is that you can create relational databases! I’ve connected my floss inventory to a…
Stitch Palette Library
One of the embroidery artists I follow on Twitter mentioned Stitch Palettes a few weeks ago, and I’ve spent hours exploring the site. While the site has a feature that allows you to save your favorite palettes, I thought it’d be neat if I could connect my floss inventory with the palettes I liked.
Most of the palettes have six colors, and having the two databases connected allows me to see whether or not I own all six colors. I also created a view in the inventory that allows me to see colors that I don’t own, that belong to various color palettes; this gives me a quick idea of colors I might want to buy the next time I’m at a craft store.
I’m not going to share my palette database for a few reasons. First, I don’t want to infringe on intellectual property rights, and the majority of the palettes in my database are from the Stitch Palettes website. Second, I’m not sure the relations between this database and the floss inventory would carry over properly in the copy process. However, if anyone’s interested, I’d be happy to write up a tutorial explaining how you can set up your own.
A project journal?
Honestly, I’ve spent a lot more time lately organizing my floss and other threads than I have embroidering. When I have been embroidering, I’ve been working on a project that I started about two and a half years ago. When I started it, I didn’t have any color scheme in mind, so I used whatever floss I fancied at the moment.
I’m almost done with that sampler, however, and I plan to be more deliberate in choosing my colors for at least some of my future projects. I’ve been thinking about creating a project journal, where I’d record the project I’m working on, the color palette I’ve chosen (including photos to help me keep track), and photos of my progress.