Author Archives: Dana Batho

A few months ago I wrote a couple of blog articles about the techniques of parking and cross-country stitching. These articles generated a bit of feedback in some of the cross stitch groups I belong to online, so I thought … Read More

If you’re like most stitchers, you’re always looking for great cross stitch tips! Here’s a video I made that will hopefully inspire you to get out your unfinished works in progress and start stitching again like a pro! In the … Read More

As promised, here’s a post about how I decorated the photo frame project I made as part of my video about how to cut a mat board frame. I have some books (from a dollar shop of course, but they … Read More

I’ve noticed recently that many people are talking about the amount of money that they’re spending on framing cross stitch pieces. I’ve always done my own framing – I learned how to do it in art school years ago – so … Read More

As a follow-up to this post and video, I’m going to be showing you how I use the MacStitch program. There’s also WinStitch which is the PC version, but I use a Mac so that’s the version I’ll be showing … Read More

This week I found out that more people than I realized were viewing and subscribing to my YouTube cross stitch instructional videos, which is great! As a result, I thought I’d make a video of how I started designing my … Read More

Recently I decided to try another way of supporting my scrollbar sewing frame. The few methods that I had tried (here and here) were working to some extent, but I knew the frame had to be a little bit more … Read More

I decided tonight to sit down and start a drawing of a sepia flower image I created in this post, but just as I was about to turn on my iPad and open up ArtRage I thought about what the … Read More

So in the past few posts I’ve been talking about using ArtRage again, and in conjunction with photo editing software. I’m thinking I might work on the sepia-toned flower photo I did as a sample, but I wasn’t sure what … Read More

As I mentioned in my last newsletter, I spent a few hours last weekend working on a gift for some friends (I’ll do a blog post about how I did it once they get the pressie). I ended up with … Read More

I was online this week participating in one of my cross stitch Facebook groups, and several people were asking how to anchor their thread. I mentioned that I use the loop method to start, and a pin stitch to finish. … Read More

So I’ve been told many times that I don’t look like I’m disabled or that there’s anything wrong with me. However, after a stint at the Ottawa pain clinic in their month-long program, I realized that even though others may … Read More

I decided to do a bit more work on my mini oil painting today, and I wanted to experiment more with colour and texture. So I started messing around a bit with some orange, it was “ok” but not amazing. … Read More

I wasn’t feeling too bad today (went for my first ride on my recumbent trike this year, the weather has been just awful), so I decided to do a bit of work on my mini oil painting. I’ve detailed in … Read More

Here I go, finally paint on canvas. I worked for about an hour getting the first layer of my oil painting started. I set myself up so I could work as much as possible directly at my eye level. It … Read More