I just finished a 4 day class with Roger Thomas and what a fabulous experience that was. His work is so beautiful and he’s a great teacher. I left the class with so many ideas brewing in my brain it’s almost scary. Check out his web site and then sign up for one of his classes. He’s based in the Portland area but travels to teach. He uses frit to create his glass paintings which are “iconographic” landscapes. Some of his pieces are abstracts. All of them are tremendous. The kinds of things he taught help create depth in your work without having to work too thick. Also he works quite a bit front to back so you’re firing your work face down. A very interesting way to work and the front of our piece has a nice look and feel to it. Indulge your senses by wandering over to his site and enjoying his work!
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Using Counting Pins in Cross Stitch
Here’s another topic in cross stitch that I didn’t know anything about until I found a post about it: counting pins.
I mean, it makes sense that you could use pins as an alternative to gridding your cross stitch fabric for a big project, but I guess I had never heard of anyone doing it or how it might be done until I saw this post from Stitching the Night Away.
Tommye J Bunce explains that counting pins are like blunt tapestry needles and they are a specific thing that’s made for this purpose — you don’t just use sewing pins to mark your design grid.
These pins can be used to mark out an area where you’re stitching the same color for a long time. Say you have 25 stitches in a row that are the same color. Instead of counting as you stitch (and recounting over and over to make sure you’ve got the right number) you can just mark those 25 stitches with pins and know that every stitch between them is the same color.
You can also use them to help you mark your place when you’re stitching some distance from the last stitches you worked. Say you’re stitching all the parts that are in one color and part of it is away from the rest.
You can get more details on what counting pins are and how to use them from the post at Stitching the Night Away. Tommye sold counting pins until their retirement but you can find lots of options on Etsy, including the colorful ones shown above, which are from Stitchingly Along.
Have you ever used counting pins for cross stitch? I’d love to hear about it. Or if you’re new to knowing these things exist let me know that too and make me feel better!
[Photo via Stitchingly Along]