Hi

Please don't faint!  I know it's been a while since I posted.  To be really honest I find that I would much rather stitch than work on the computer, I guess some of that is a hang over from my job when I use to spend up to 14 hours a day working on a computer.  I keep trying to be better.

I've been stitching away, I had 48 stitch guides come out at the January market.  You can see a lot of them on Rebecca Wood's website.  I really like the way they did the Nativity in the basket.

One of the fun projects I did for January (although they were all fun) was a butterfly for A Collection of Designs.  Since I didn't have to write a stitchguide for it I kind of went crazy.  I had great fun attaching flatback Swarovski Crystals for the "eyes" on the wings setting them inside Jessica stitches.  I did learn you have to keep the canvas flat until the glue dries or the crystals slide, also learned that you can remove the crystals without damaging the canvas but it was a scary process because they don't come off easily.  At least now I don't have to worry that they would fall off at the slightest touch.   Janet used it as an insert in a purse, the lights at market sparkled off the crystals.

One of my new projects for the June market was this Shelly Tribbey skull.  Seems like Day of the Dead canvases are going to be popular this year.  It's hard to tell from this picture but all of the skulls around the edge are beaded.  It took a while but I think it was well worth the effort.  The beading made up for how fast the rest of it went, the skull in the center was done in Kreinik #8 032 in a Kennan stitch and let the gray paint show through for the shading.  My students always look at me funny when I tell them to forget shading snow and let the paint show through the thread.  I find this works well on Kreinik, Crystal Braid and Caron Snow.

Cindy

PS  Just realized I had written some blogs which I left as a draft so I'll review those and maybe post if they are still of interest.