I totally missed posting about our visit with the amazing Jo Christensen.  It’s been so crazy here with Jo, Meredith and Needlepoint Nation coming tomorrow (and trying to squeeze in a quick vacation last weekend to the Jersey Shore.  More about that later.)

I will say, for those of you who are local who didn’t sign up for this class. . .you REALLY missed out.  This could have been the best class I’ve ever hosted at the store.  Maybe because it was different than any other class I’ve taken.  And, it didn’t involve stitching.

Jo taught a class she has created called “CPR”  or “Canvas Predicament Recovery.” What we did is this.  We all brought in a few canvases to analyze and try to figure out what to do with them.  We learned about the color wheel and color theory.  Fascinating!  We talked about what bothers us on the canvas and how to remedy the situation. And sometimes there wasn’t a remedy.

I brought in a very special piece to me.  There was a woman who used to own a store in my area many years ago when I first started stitching, who painted all of her own canvases.  My grandmother bought me this canvas for my 16th birthday.  Of course I started in right away.  Put it down.  Picked it up again.

Now you have to promise not to make fun of me when you see this picture.

I know. . .I know. . . she looks like a burn victim.   If I only I had known about shadow stitching at the time.  (Or basketweave for that matter.  See . . .we all start somewhere!)

After working with the color wheel and analyzing the piece, we decided that a A LOT was wrong with it.  We couldn’t believe that Renoir had this all wrong.  So, we pulled up a picture of the original artwork and it was very different.

Moral of the story . . . my piece was not salvageable.  WAY too much ripping out and correcting.  As sad as that was to hear, it finally gave me closure to this piece that I knew could never be stitched the way that it was painted.

Other people in the class had better luck than I did with this piece.  Jo suggested to stitch over something, change the colors or eliminate something entirely.

So, when she comes around again next summer (hopefully), be sure not to miss this class.  Or, if she’s teaching this at your local store, be sure to sign up.  You will learn SO much.