Princess Bubbles Creates

I met the artist Raegan Little this past weekend and we swapped our art pieces.  It turns out she is not a young artist but has been working on her BFA for eight years while working and raising a family.  RESPECT!  Her call to exchange art on Instagram is her final project.  Such a clever idea! Seeing Raegan's hanky embroidered with the word Panky really did make me laugh out loud.  I chose a vintage quilt block embroidered by Aunt Pat in response to Raegan's piece.  I embroidered LOL in sparkly threads liking the contradictory styles.   This was a fun way for me to use and honour the work of Aunt Pat.  I think she would be thrilled to know that her work is hanging in an art gallery at U of W.  Thanks to my sweet cousin Laurie for gifting me with this treasure.  

 Yes, big surprise, another mandala.  The ideas for mandalas just keep coming.  Yesterday in the shower three more ideas popped into my head.  I am on my third journal that is just hand-drawn mandalas.  I don't see myself stopping any time soon.  I do have other stitch projects percolating in my head but need to source some things so will need to hit a thrift store. I am hoping for a quiet day today.  Staying inside to stitch is a delightful way to spend a Sunday afternoon.  I count myself blessed to be able to do so.  May all your days be filled with sparkly goodness. I am linking to https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/

 Even though I have two other mandalas I am working on I have started a third.  I can work on more than one at a time.  That's not a problem.  The ideas aren't flowing so easily for the other two and I refuse to sit around doing nothing waiting for the ideas to come.  I am confident the right ideas will come eventually.  So this mandala was started with an experiment.  I wondered if paper could be trapped in Angelina fibres.  I cut a kirigami shape and sandwiched it between the Angelina fibres and then ironed it all together. It works great.  I have stitched that to some lovely dupioni silk.  I now intend to create a very textural mandala.  I have to go through my stash to find the right beads etc.  That is always fun! I am linking to http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/  

 A textile collage adorns the cover of my latest altered book.  Going through my stash of vintage textiles and some of my own tiny stitch treasures is ever so pleasant. Even though I mainly work with bright and cheerful colours every once in a while I have to let my nostalgic side out to play.  I do love the soft creamy colours.  This altered book will be a good place to house little projects that might otherwise be lost.  I secretly hope that this book might actually be kept by someone in my family.  Having raised three sons the chances are fairly slim.  Oh well, at least I have enjoyed making it.

  When it is dark enough , you can see the stars.” — Ralph Waldo  Emerson

 28 hooped mandalas.  I am calling this installation 'the place between breath'.   Here is my artist statement. In this chaotic time, stitching mandalas has sustained my peace and well-being.  Each mandala is an exquisite sanctuary that holds the transformative power of creativity.   Each stitch is a wordless journey into the sacred.  These mandalas hang as a spiral installation.  A spiral that is expansive. unending and where ideas of healing and meditation can be explored.  I desire to elicit peace if only for a moment, a stillness in the space between breath. I plan to get this submitted today. It is exciting to think of this being accepted and installed. I am linking to https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/

 I have embroidered LOL onto this vintage quilt block.  I inherited many such blocks from a relative.  I have been trying to use them in a way that honours her and my own artistic expression.  I think Aunt Pat would like this one.   I will be swapping this one with a young artist who is about to graduate.  Her grad show will consist of a photograph of her own piece hung beside a piece she swapped for it.  She is making a piece every day for I am not sure how long and then swapping it for a piece that responds to it.  The piece that I am responding to is a vintage hanky.  She embroidered the word panky on it.  Thus my response is LOL.  Fun! This project has got me thinking about words a little more.  I love words even though I tend to use them sparingly.  I am wanting to start a new project in which I embroider words onto something.  At this moment I am thinking about using an unfinished quilt top.  I have st...