Today was the only day I could wander around CHA, also known as the Craft and Hobby Association show. It’s usually held in Anaheim, CA, which can be a bit of a trek from Los Angeles, where I’m located. As luck would have it this year’s show was held in Los Angeles. Yea ha!! Just 15 minutes from my store and house. Lucky me!! S I walked the aisles searching for items I can use for fusing and mosaic and metal clay and I found a few things. I do need to go through my catalogs and brochures and business cards to find everything there is to write about. I do want to mention the bottle cutter at the Diamond Tech booth. It makes glass bottle cutting more precise and a whole lot safer. They also sell a wide variety of mosaic supplies as well as stuff for fusing, glass bead making and stained glass. They are going to require multiple postings to talk about all they do. And they’re the perfect place for the beginner. They even have microwave kilns…
Have you read?
Designer Spotlight: Rina Stitch
Rina Stitch, a Ukraine-based cross stitch designer, has a wide range of cross stitch designs to suit a lot of different tastes.
Of their more than 280 patterns as of this writing, 69 fall under a Christmas theme, but there’s also Easter patterns, boho designs, flowers, gnomes and more.
Since it is the biggest category and we’re still sort of in that season, let’s check in on the Christmas cross stitch section. There are lots of fun, classic motifs like a Christmas tree in the back of a red truck, a snowman holding a heart ornament, bells and lanterns and gingerbread houses. There are hot chocolate mugs and lots of gnomes, penguins and bunnies in holiday situations.
One of their patterns to first catch my eye, though, was this Easter egg stitched in pretty pastel flowers. The design is 67 by 93 stitches, which comes to 4.79 by 6.64 inches or 12.16 by 16.87 cm when stitched on 14 count fabric. It uses 11 colors and includes full cross stitches, backstitch and beading. (There are beads in the centers of the flowers, which you could omit but it’s a lovely effect.)
Another fun section to check out is the lettering section, which includes letter designs made with flowers, as well as a script font you can use on other projects. You can buy letters individually, say if you want to make a project for a baby’s room or make the initials of a couple for a wedding present, or you can buy the full set as one download.
If you like the boho look, there are some fun projects here for you, too. Mountains, succulents, llamas and more can grace your walls with these fun designs. I of course love the cat in the window with plants, but that’s because the cat is black and I have a black cat, too.
Check out Rina Stitch on Etsy for all this and more, and let me know if you know a designer I should put in the spotlight!
[Photo: Rina Stitch]