Thread Stash: The Origin Story

I’m Nikki Hughes, the creator of Thread Stash. In 2020, two things were born: my son and Thread Stash. But I need to go back a bit further…

I learned to cross-stitch when I was young, maybe 7 or 8. I remember buying cross-stitch kits from Walmart and doing them. I picked it back up as a hobby in 2019. During that time, I was facing a lot of stress; my husband and I were in the process of buying our first house, there was a lot of stress at my job, and I didn’t know it at the time, but I was also pregnant.

In my line of work as a Product Manager, I do a lot of thinking and collaborating with others. At that particular job, I didn’t feel like I had much to show for all of my work. I really craved building something that was tangible. I contemplated some hobbies to take up, but they either felt like too much work to learn or too expensive (I thought about buying Lego kits and putting them together, but that felt like absolutely too much money). I don’t remember what prompted me to do it, but I bought a cross-stitch kit. It was the perfect hobby for that period of time:

When I started posting about the things I was working on and even bringing things to put on my desk at work, other people started noticing and I started making things for my co-workers. As I stitched more and more, my collection of threads kept growing, but I wasn’t keeping up with what I needed and what I already had. I would buy a pattern to make something for a friend, I would buy all the threads without asking myself “Do I already have this color??”

On January 30, 2020, I was unexpectedly laid off from my job. I was 35 weeks pregnant at the time and feeling very overwhelmed by the prospect of not having an income with a baby coming incredibly soon. I knew the likelihood of actually landing a job was very slim, given my pregnancy, but I tried. With no luck.

But I still had cross-stitch…

I had noodled on the idea of building something that I could cross-reference what thread I had with what I needed for my projects. With very few digital options available on my phone, I decided to make use of my software development skills, free time from unemployment, and a strong desire to be productive before the baby came…And that was the beginning of Thread Stash.

I bought a Udemy course for building an Android app.

I had a very early prototype for an app completed before my son was born. I remember showing it to a very close friend of mine when she visited after he was born. During her visit, I showed her the Thread Box and Shopping List. Over the next few weeks, I also added Projects.

In April 2020, between learning how to be a new mom, navigating a world with COVID-19 (because that became a thing), and continuing through the multiple stages of grief of the job loss (that was a tough journey, too), I actually LAUNCHED Thread Stash to the Google Play Store.

It felt like such a huge accomplishment. It was terrifying.

I remember posting about it to a Cross-Stitch Facebook Group and then driving across town to tour a daycare. And then coming back home and seeing a lot of comments! Mostly positive! There were some bugs in that initial release, which I felt silly about, but the excitement and grace shown by most kept me going!

Want to hear something crazy: I actually launched the first version of Thread Stash without quantities? I very rarely needed more than one skein of thread, so I didn’t code for it, but that was what everyone asked about. And so that became the next big addition.

After that came “Thread Tracker” (comparing everything across ALL projects), new brand additions, and more and more features.

It’s amazing to see how far things have come in the past FIVE years. From an Android app, to a web version, to a failed iOS app, to this latest iteration!

My goal is and has always been to make it easy to stay organized; to create a product so you spend less time managing your supplies and more time doing the thing you love: cross-stitching!

❤️ Nikki