Author Archives: Dana Batho

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

Here I go again, designing yet another cross stitch scroll bar frame. I’ve done several versions of this in previous posts, I’m just constantly trying to make my stitching as pain-free as possible. I’m usually reclined on my couch or … Read More

It took me a few days to figure out what I wanted to paint first on one of my mini canvases that I talked about in my last post, but I finally decided to do a little floral series. I … Read More

Well this will be a first – returning to oil painting after seven years not doing it. I did two paintings in 2008 for our cadet squadron lounge at the Royal Military College (“General Wolfe” and “Joseph Brant” in my … Read More