In Memoriam

Our friend and club member Bonnie passed away yesterday.
We will miss her, and remember her always. 

Beaded Faces from Annie Hesse's class

Well, it has been a long time since the last post, due to the icky flu and other life complications, like trying to do homework for upcoming doll classes, and there are probably other things I should post first, but... we have fabulous pictures from our Annie Hesse workshop this weekend!


faces by Julie G., Bonnie, and Lynn

We just had Annie here for a 2-day workshop, and everybody finished the beaded face in class (although there may have been some midnight oil burning too!).  Most of us also got most if not all of the doll finished as well.


faces by Leslie, Martha, and Andrea

Annie taught a seated variation of her Spirit Walker doll; the doll is named Garden Party and has wonderfully extravagant ribbon skirts!  She had nice patterns printed up for us, but they are not up on her website yet.

faces by Nita and Liz

Many of the dolls were still armless at picture time, but Ann R. got her doll's arms attached in time to hold Barbara's beautiful-but-bodiless face for the group portrait!

faces by Mary Jane, Ann R., and Barbara

Annie was a great teacher, and we all had a really wonderful time with her!  She had traveled directly from teaching her Raggedy doll in Detroit (we should have asked her the name of the group there) to teaching in Indianapolis.  Even doing two different dolls in two cities in 5 days, she was totally organized.  AND, she remembered every person who had been in a class with her before, and asked about family members and projects and was just super to hang out with.

More of January's show and tell

Just a quick post here to finish up the show-and-tell from January's meeting.  First is Katie, with a 'play' swatch of woven fabric strips, which was then stitched and embellished.  She was thinking ahead to our 2011 Challenge, which will feature a large-scale fabric print, and finding ways to break up a large print for use in a smaller doll-sized scale.

Katie's experiment

Next is another project from Denise.  And yes, that is two finished objects, but she doesn't make the long trek into town every month, so she has to prove that she's busy even when we don't see her!  In theory, this sculpted head is ready to be painted, but it is so awesome 'as is' that it will probably stay this way, at least for a while.

Denise's sculpted head from a Susie McMahon class

Finally, we have not a finished project but a birthday haul!  Bonnie made her first trip back to doll club after a serious illness (just to get the presents?), and we were all so happy to see her walking around again that we brought the good stuff from our stashes at home to share with her.

Bonnie's birthday presents

That's all for January.  Everybody sew like mad so we can have another lovely round of show and tell!

Needlefelting ladybugs!

At the July meeting, Katie taught our mini-workshop.  She made up kits for everybody that included two colors of wool roving (she over-dyed the red to get just the right shade) and a felting needle, as well as a pinback, beads for eyes, and some wire for antennae.

From these fluffy beginnings she walked us through the basics of needle-sculpting.  Fortunately, we did not need the first-aid supplies she brought, as we got through the class without puncturing anybody's fingers!  After an hour or so, our roving had been transformed to this:

Ladybugs!
While most of us were complete beginners, we did have an expert in our midst.  In honor of the class topic, Bonnie brought in a superb little needle-felted bear she had made.  Isn't he perfect?

More dolls in progress

Here are a few more of the dolls in progress from Adele's workshop -- with 15 dollmakers attending, we had a wonderful turnout.

Bonnie may have come closest to finishing her entire costume -- complete with an ostrich feather and veil in the very fancy hat!  Some of the fabrics she used started life as Halloween costumes and curtains.

Lynn is not a club member (yet?) but joined us to make her very first cloth doll ever.  She worked out her theme of Central Asian folk costume beautifully.  The jacket fabric was supposed to be for her, but she's sharing it with her doll.

Next we have another guest, Julie from Illinois, and another new dollmaker, Pam.  Pam's costume is 'in the planning stage' in this photo, but Julie's loose flowing dress is already augmented with ribbon and trim.

Last for this post is Liz's doll, in muted colors but very rich textures.   The plan is to add some of Adele's small ribbon flowers to the lapel next.