Let’s Talk About Glass

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Allow me to introduce myself. I’m a crazed bead maker. An avid glass enthusiast. I fuse it and melt it and will mosaic it if that needs to happen. I teach bead making and glass fusing and have been fortunate enough to have appeared on TV showing off some of my skills. I’ve tried different techniques and seen a variety of demos. I have learned technical information and tried out different types of glass. I make jewelry with glass beads. I macramé curtains with glass beads in them. I am your basic lover of glass. That’s why I’m here.

My plan with this blog is to help you love glass too. I want to show you what other glass lovers are doing, what new products are out there to be used to alter your glass, any new glass available on the market, all of the places to go to learn about glass. All things glass.

With all of the conferences and organizations related to glass in the world there is a vast body of information I plan to seek out and write about. I look at this blog as my venue for information on glass that other glass lovers need to know. I will always be looking for more information and ask that if there’s something I need to know please share it with me. If you have classes or shows or meetings that need to be posted I’ll post them for you. The more information the better.

In my over 15 years of glass experience I’ve been privileged with a variety of opportunities and lessons which I’ll share with my readers. But I’m always learning more and plan to share those lessons too. I’m planning on tutorials and projects from myself as well as those of you other glass lovers out in the world. This is all about sharing the love because I feel beads are love…glass is love and I sure do love glass. It’s all about the glass!

Most of the cross stitch projects I make are pretty small and not something I would consider heirloom quality (though I am working on a big project for my daughter that I hope to have done for her high school graduation in two years that I hope is something she’ll want to keep forever, but that’s another story).

But it is definitely possible to cross stitch projects that will stay around for generations, and one prime example of that is a cross-stitched linen tablecloth.

Linen tablecloths are classic, while stitching one can be a big project, depending on the size of your table, it doesn’t have to be really complicated.

Koekoek has a good, detailed post about figuring out how much linen you would need to make a tablecloth that you can cross stitch and/or embroider on (they also sell tablecloth linen in their shop if you don’t already have some or a linen tablecloth you already use). Of course for a project like this you’d want the best fabric you can find and afford, because you’ll be stitching it for a long time and hopefully using it for years.

The post walks through how to measure your table and determine how much fabric you’ll need including the drop you’ll want and hems. It includes the math for rectangular and square tables as well as circular tables, which helps take the guesswork out of buying fabric. It also talks about preparing the fabric and making mitered corners if you have a square or rectangular table, which will help the tablecloth sit nicely on your table.

The tutorial doesn’t include specific patterns to use for your tablecloth, but it does advise keeping it simple because this is a really big project. You can start with a motif in the center or doing borders, and this is a project you can add to through the years by, say, stitching a symbol for each family member or adding names, wedding dates, etc. and making it a real record of your family.

Would you ever cross stitch a tablecloth or have you done so? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: Koekoek]

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