10th Annual joint luncheon with River City

For our May meeting, we traveled to Batesville, Indiana, which is about half-way between Indianapolis and Cincinnati, for our annual (and much anticipated!) joint meeting with the River City Figurative Artists' Guild.  We determined that we have been breaking bread together since 2001, which made this fancy luncheon our 10th.  (The meeting was made even fancier by a visit from the Fancy Nancy tea party next door -- four- to seven-year-olds decked out in tiaras and tutus and other such fancifulness!)

The first order of business, obviously, was ordering the food while dolls looked on from both ends of the room.


The Sherman House staff took very good care of us.

After catching up on all the news from both groups, we introduced our challenge dolls.  Every year, one club will challenge the other to create dolls based on a theme. 
 

The 2011 Challenge theme was the Zodiac -- create a doll based on an astrological sign.

This year we decided that we needed prizes, so we each cast a ballot for our favorite.  The voting was almost evenly balanced between four of the seven dolls.


Pisces by Jude Hernly, Scorpio (pin doll) by Liz Marten, Aries by Cody Goodin, and Aquarius by Katie Jones

 

Aries by Mary McNeely, Cancer by Martha Jungclaus, and Leo by Andrea Baughman

With a very close tally, Martha's 'Cancer' doll won the ribbon by one vote.  She was perfectly executed, and really showed off the water sign's attributes with her sea-green costume accented with silver and pearls.

After the challenge came show and tell!  We all brought dolls from recent classes to discuss.

Below is a close-up of the middle of the table, showing off several of Liz Marten's dolls from AFIC classes with Monika Shedden and Leta Benedict.

The picture frame laying flat holds a fabulous beaded face made by Martha J., who has been applying what she learned in Annie Hesse's class to create a beautifully shaded realistic face with bead-loop fringed hair.

The next picture below shows more dolls along the back of the show-and-tell table, including Kathryn Walmsley's wonderful 'Sing a Song of Sixpence' piece from her nursery rhyme series.  Kathryn lives nearby, and so comes to hang out with us when we meet in Batesville as 'a friend of the club(s)'.  She is very gracious and let us play with the hand crank on the table that moves the blackbirds up and down.

After show and tell, we traded pin dolls (which I have no pictures of whatsoever!) and gift bags, and received our Challenge for next year.  River City has challenged us to create a Recycled Doll -- made of reused items or materials -- for May of 2012.

Winning Awards at AFIC

A little more catch-up from AFIC:  after the banquet, there were dolls -- lots and lots of dolls!  (Which was kind of the point of the whole enterprise...)

In addition to making new dolls in wonderful classes with amazing teachers, we also got to show off our previous creations, both singly and as a group.  Cyndy and her set-up crew gave our doll club display a really fantastic space.  It did make all the work of schlepping them there in boxes and suitcases very worthwhile.  They also let us put our club sign and some flyers with our display, which was much appreciated.


Indy Cloth Dollmakers display at AFIC
Dolls by: Jude, Mary, MaryJane, Nita, Julie G., Erin, Andrea, Ann R., Leslie, and Katie

There was also a challenge, called "Look Ma! No Stand", and two of our members entered their dolls.  Denise brought Blu, made from Allison Marano's Gwendolyn pattern.  Blu was chosen as the 1st place winner among the pattern dolls!  (There was also a category for original designs.)


Blu by Denise Dodd

Our other challenge entry was from Leslie, who entered her original fairy and won the People's Choice Award!  Instead of a doll stand, her doll is seated on a vine made of Apoxie Sculpt and wire.

GwynnEllen by Leslie Wright

And finally, because finishing a doll is almost as good as winning an award for it, honorable mention goes to Barbara, who finished her puppet from Esther Becher's class while actually still in the classroom!


Barbara Schoenoff and her Fellow of the Felted Sleeve

We are very proud of our talented dollmakers, and we are forever grateful to Cyndy Sieving and her family and friends for putting on such an amazing convention!!!

The Most Wonderful Time at AFIC

We cannot say enough good things about AFIC, which makes us just like everybody else who went!  Seven of us, all told, made the trip to Columbus, Ohio for the convention.  Our far-flung members from southern Indiana and Illinois came too, and it was delightful to get to hang out with Denise and Barbara and Liz -- we don't see them nearly often enough.

Here's our 'local group' at the Hat and Heels Banquet on Thursday night, wearing very sedate and tasteful chapeaus.  Leslie won an award for the unique placement of her heels (no way was she putting them on her feet!).


Leslie, Katie, Andrea, and Jude

We also had a great time with the planned entertainment of the evening, which was to sew a dolly outfit in as confused and unorganized manner as possible, very quickly.  (Disclaimer: the event was planned very well -- all confusion was solely due to the participants!)

Hard at work



Working on Denise's idea: turn hair scrunchies into fashionable footwear.



Sewing so fast the fabric is a blur!

After not nearly enough time, and a rule change or two, we created this little lovely.  Our table CEO, teacher Patti LaValley invented a utterly impromptu story about our blue-haired granny, wearing her fuzzy slippers and her so-old-it's-retro ball fringe skirt while rocking her grandbaby.

Fortunately, the rest of our creations in all of the fabulous classes came out with a little more style!  Check back soon for more.