Princess Bubbles Creates

 I was listening to a podcast this morning.  The interviewer always starts with the artist's origin story.  Were you the arty kid?  I most certainly was an arty kid.  My parent's both worked with their hands and always encouraged me to do so as well.  I remember getting a tiny set of tools when I was quite young.  Dad let me use them to 'help' build our garage.  Mom knitted and sewed.  There were always fabric scraps that I could use.  I am so glad that I took a photo of the stuffies I created when I was about 11 years old.  I am pretty sure they ended up in the garbage as Mom was never overly sentimental.   Birthdays and Christmas often brought arts and crafts supplies.  My oldest brother gave me a good set of paintbrushes possibly around the age of 14ish.  I still have them!  I was also pretty resourceful and found clay at a creek near our home.  There was a Bell telephone building not terribly far aw...

 I love the base of this piece.  It is cut from a wool sweater I found at a thrift store.  It was already preshrunk/felted.  This little seascape is coming to life with needle felting and some silk ribbon embroidery.  I am happy that I have more of this sweater to cut up and stitch into. I think I will create a little textile book of bright and colourful stitched pages.   I am linking to https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/

 I used some scraps of silk ribbon to create three flowers.  I feel like this piece is really coming alive and is really close to being finished.  I think the butterflies need a little something more, possibly beads.  I am undecided if it needs more flowers stitched.  At one moment I say yes and the next moment I say no.  Waffling is never good.   I am linking to http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

 I have adhered this coffee filter mandala to fusible interfacing.  I need to find the right fabric background for it and then I will be ready to stitch.  There is already a lot of detail on this mandala so I will keep the beading and embroidery to a minimum.

 This mixed media mandala is in an online show right now.  The show is pretty fabulous and I am honoured to have my work in it.  Check it out.  https://www.artsteps.com/view/60b50be6c8fe9b1ecf163a98/

My progress seems rather paltry.  I am okay with that.  This project is meant to stretch my thinking and I don't want to rush it.   Pictured below are the templates I mentioned last week.  They are by Carole Samples.  There are so many to choose from.  They are a bit short.  I think I may dig out my scrapbooking rulers and they are longer and will do the same thing. I am linking to https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/  

 This little piece has been lying around for a while.  The base is a sweater I found at a thrift store already shrunk and felted.  It has a bit of glitz in it so how could I resist it!  I added some needle felting and then it sat.  The other day it jumped out at me and I added more needle felting and some silk ribbon embroidery.  I think this will be a page in a journal of sorts. I am linking to http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/