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
Although I normally discuss various articles in my weekly newsletter, I thought I’d switch things up and talk about one article here I stumbled across on Twitter. It’s called “It’s Okay To Jump From Idea To Idea“, and it is … Read More
So last week I had a brilliant idea. I am at some point going to start offering prints of some of my paintings for sale online (I’m still determining if it will be directly through this site or a site … Read More
Well it’s been a while since I’ve drawn or painted, and I was thinking it would be nice to get back into working on my drawing skills. I decided to try out a class I found on Craftsy called Figure … Read More
In my last post, I wrote about one popular method for keeping track of where you are in a pattern and managing lots of colours – the parking method. As I said in that post, personally I’m not a fan … Read More
The parking method can be a great way to keep yourself organized and on track while you’re stitching. Most people who come across the parking method fall into one of two categories. They’ve either never heard of it, or they … Read More
A few days ago I saw on an ArtRage social media post a blurb saying that the painting they were featuring was done with a capacitive brush, the Nomad Brush. Mind. Blown. I had no idea that capacitive brushes even … Read More
Now I know most people are intelligent enough to be able to figure out how to follow cross stitch patterns on their own, but depending on the pattern it can sometimes look like a logo machine threw up all over … Read More