Have you ever taken a class with Susan Portra? Well you don’t know what you are missing! She is beautiful both inside and out and here you see her with one of the loves of her life, Kody…oh and did I mention talented too?

Bring Your Canvas to Life is her mantra and it has been for years…not canvas enhancement, not canvas embellishment, but Bring Your Canvas to Life. I had taken classes with her years ago when she owned her shop in Huntington Beach, which you probably don’t remember me do you Susan? She taught how to make “The Perfect French Knot” and so much more. To this day I still make them the way she taught me and people always compliment me on my knots and I say, “I learned from Susan Portra!” I lost track of her for years as life got in the way. I started taking from her again a few years ago. I am pretty lucky that she is close by…well if you consider 90 miles close by? In California standards a 90-mile drive is really nothing.

This was the first piece that I worked on with Susan…and yes she really did bring my canvas to life. Santa Riding the Panda by Brenda Stofft. I learned so much from stitching this piece and I just love it. Susan even helped me selected the framing, mat and the cut of the mat.

I was with Susan the other day as we finished up a few things…I think! and boy does 2 hours fly by as we talk about all things stitching, while I try to hang onto every word she says.

We started to work on a new piece that I want to start stitching. A beautiful piece by Katie Molineux of Shorebirds. Susan has some amazing ideas for this one, but first I need to do some serious bead shopping! I don’t go see her again until mid December and I tried to schedule some more time BEFORE that…do you know that she is totally sold out for the REST of the year? OMG! tell me that isn’t so?!

If you have a chance, you should try and take some privates with Susan…if you are a shop owner you should try and schedule this lady for a class or two or three. Well you get the idea… Do you want to see some more of her work?

Now I did not stitch this…this amazing canvas Viola and Martini by Leigh Designs but after seeing this I want to! Make sure to look at the original canvas and see how Susan really brought it to life.

Okay time for some thread shopping and home to stitch for the day.

I sat on the floor the other day to water some plants and look who I found? and until next time…keep on stitching