Princess Bubbles Creates

but definitely not finished.  This little painting was started last week at Sandra's workshop.  I thought I would have time to finish it this week but no.  The week went by so darn fast!  I am not quite sure where it went.  At any rate I am not willing to give up on this piece even though I don't love it.  There are times when making art that you have to push past the ugly.  There are also times you have to cut your losses and move on.  Deciding which is the right thing to do is the work of the artist.

Sharon at http://pintangle.com has us doing the wheatear stitch this week.  This is a new stitch for me.  I drew the lines on the fabric as suggested for doing this stitch.  Often I don't bother with the lines but I am glad that I did this time.  It is a cool stitch and I definitely will try to use it again.  I don't know what I will do about using it on a crazy quilt though.  You certainly can't draw the lines on that.

I also haven't been to a workshop at Sandra Spagnuolo's for a while.  It is always a fun time at Sandra's.  She has such a good spirit.  Pictured above are some the clean up my brush papers I created.  I love them!  I plan to color copy them so I can use them over and over.  They are way better than the piece I created yesterday.  Possibly I will post a pic of the piece tomorrow.  I do plan to work on it some more though.  I have to push past the ugly!

Kitty created the beautiful little under the sea quilt pictured above.  Mirna created the lovely pendant with the fun fibres I provided.  I LOVE seeing everyone's creativity.  It is so interesting to me that starting with the same materials everyone creates something new and unique.  So clever.  So fun.

I bet I have stitched a million french knots over my life time!  I feel that I am a pro at them.  I am not so sure that I am all that innovative with them though.  I used them to hold on the sequins in the bottom photo.  Truly that was out of the box for me as I usually use beads for that! giggles The top two pictures I have used silk ribbon to make the french knots.  I can't claim that as an original idea as that is a kit I purchased and stitched. 

I belong to the Grand Guild of fibre artists. A while back I provided a small bundle of cool knitting fibres (top picture) to the members.  The challenge was simple.  Just use the fibres to create something.  Anything could be added from your own stash.  The bottom picture is the beautiful bracelet/cuff that Penny created with the fibres.  She is so kind and generous as she gifted me with the cuff!  Hopefully I will be able to show some more wonderful creations soon.

Sharon B at http://pintangle.com/    introduced the stem stitch this week.  This is probably one of the first stitches that I learned.  I haven't used it all that much lately though.  The piece pictured above I did many years ago.  I have very fond memories of sitting outside in the sunshine stitching and watching my small boys play.  Now all these years later my oldest son is getting married this weekend!  I am getting a little teary thinking about it!