September Newsletter

Upcoming Meetings

September 19, 2015

ATC Trading Swap- Make 1 Artist Trading Card to swap

September 26-27, 2015

Traveler workshop with Angela Jarecki

October 17, 2015

Challenge Dolls Due

November 21, 2015

Our 13th Annual Show and Sale

December 19, 2015

Christmas party

Member Birthdays

 Wishing wonderful birthdays to Mary, Kathryn, and Denise!

Katie's sculpting homework

August Meeting Minutes

Members present:  Julie G, Jude, Ann C, Julie W, Andrea, Virginia, Janet, Ann R, Mary, Vicki, Ron, Sue, Sara, Leslie, Mary Jane, and Katie.

Katie's Windows Windows

Business Meeting

The Windows Online Workshop with Angela Jarecki is underway.  We had several great face drawings to show what a great class it is.  Looking forward to meeting Angela in person soon.

The Greenfield Art Center is available for the Traveler Class, so we will start class there at 9AM on Saturday September 6th.  You can bring your lunch or there is a restaurant next door and several fast food places in the area. The Art Center address is below.

Anya and Baby - The Traveler with Angela Jarecki

Saturday & Sunday Sept 26th and 27th

Greenfield Art Center 
2 W. Main St.
Greenfield, IN 46140
Class begins at 9AM Saturday Sept 26

$120 class fee, no pattern or kit fee will be charged

The class is full, but if you have not paid in full, please send the remainder of your fee to Jude.

Julie W's Windows

It's hard to believe, but the November Show and Sale is almost upon us. If you are going to have a table, start gathering your sale items.  Katie and Leslie are working together to make the postcards.  

The next Threads of Time retreat is November 6,7, and 8th.  This is a great time to finish up any Show and Sale items you are making.  Individuals have to make their own reservations at the Threads and Beds website.  

We discussed having another Show and Sale at the Threads of time and didn't come to a conclusion.  Think about it and we'll discuss again at the September meeting.  Do we want to do it every 2 years?  Also, bring your ideas for challenge dolls for that show.  So far ideas are Christmas in July, Halloween or Civil War prints.

Jude's Windows drawing

Our own challenge, Leather and Lace is due at the October meeting, October 17th.  We reminded everyone that it can be real leather or something that looks like leather.  It doesn't have to be real.

We talked about classes for 2016.  It was voted on to host our own Sue Odell in the Spring.  We're entertaining ideas for the fall workshop.  So far the two names that came up were Ute Vasina and Charlie Patricolo.  If you think of anyone you would like to see come to Indy for a workshop, drop Andrea an email.

Vivki's NICU quilts

Show and Tell

Katie is enrolled in an online sculpting class with Deb Wood making a pose-able armature out of polymer clay.  Her Windows face and small quilted frame are done.  She also brought her Australian fabric challenge doll, Kamira.  She embodies the freedom of the Aboriginal woman.  She was the winner of the People's Choice award at the Threads of Time Show and Sale.  Congrats!

Mary's vintage crochet hooks?

Julie W also completed her Windows face and frame, as well as the heart frame Angela included in the class.  Her Aborigianl challenge doll, Miranda, means pretty lady.  All of the little girls at Threads of Time loved Julie's doll!

Julie's Black fish

Ann R attended the UFDC convention is St. Louis and really enjoyed visiting a toy/ miniature museum there.

Ann C's aboriginal challenge were here two maple tree spirits made from Lucy Landry's pattern, all anatomically correct and really cute.

Julie G's beaded fish

Mary found a vintage sewing instrument at a garage sale, nobody was sure what it was or it's function, perhaps a crochet hook?  

Jude brought her Australian challenge doll, Gilly.  She was made from a Lucy Landry pattern.

Janet's Windows

Julie G brought in another beaded fish from Dot Lewellen's pattern from her AFIC class, very fishy!  She also had her Aboriginal challenge doll, Tinka, made from Lucy Landry's Bridgett pattern.

Julie G's Tinka

Janet had her completed Windows faces in frames.  She was one of several "over achievers" in our group :-)

Sara's AFICC dolls

Virginia was a darling pull toy, a black cat rolling on a platform made from Christine Shively's pattern from the AFICC class.  This will be a present for her aunt, Lucky Auntie!!

Leslie attended the UFDC convention in St. Louis as well, a dream come true!  The favor doll was done by Susan Frostnot. The theme of the convention was the Year of the Cloth Doll, right up Ann and Leslie's alley!  Leslie is also working on her Windows class, drawing faces.

Virginia's pull toy

Sara had three completed figures from her AFICC class with Deborah Klopp, Red Riding Hood, Santa, and a Day of the Dead doll.  They are all painted and adorably "weird." 

Mary Jane is into English paper piecing and she is working on piecing together one inch hexagons, tiny work!!

Close up of the kitty

Andrea - this lucky girl inherited a button box from her husband's grandmother, and she made three really cute button bracelets that she is giving various relatives.  She also showed off a beautiful read an blue vintage quilt top dated between 1890- 1910 that she purchased at a quilt show.

Leslie's favor by Susan Frostnot

Vivki's church, Faith United Methodist, has started an all day sewing group that meets on the second Saturday of the month, all are welcome.  They are making small quilts to be given to the NICU at Riley hospital.  She brought in a couple of examples.  You can contact Vicki if you are interested in joining.

Leslie's book from UFDC convention

Mary Jane won the nametag drawing.  Today's program was presented by Leslie.  She demonstrated her method for creating teeny tiny fingers.  Thank you Leslie!

Andrea's button bracelets

Next Meeting

Next meeting is the Artist Trading Card Swap.  Bring at least 1 card to swap.  You can bring more if you like.  They can be any media, not just fabric.  Sue and Virginia will be organizing and running the exchange.  Also, we have decided to do a swap meet.  Bring any items from your studio that you no longer have a need for.

Leslie's Window drawings

Upcoming Challenges

Leather and Lace- Due at the October meeting, make a cloth doll that includes the materials leather and lace in some way.  No restrictions on size or theme.

Fantasy Face Pin Doll - Make a pin doll of a Face that tells a story.  Due at the May, 2016 joint meeting with the Rivercity Figurative Artist's Guild. 

September Checklist

• Nametag
• Class Fees for the Traveler Workshop
• Artist Trading Card - at least 1 to swap
• Swap Meet items

January 2013 - a full house!

Our first meeting of the year, and we nearly ran out of chairs!  This is a very good thing, and we are delighted that our club is doing so well.  We had 19 members (plus one young guest) at our January meeting.

A meeting room full of dollmakers!

Besides just being there, of couse, we did stuff too.  We decided that our challenge theme this year will be 'Mythological Beings', after reluctantly ruling out exotic birds and magicians.  We decided that our workshop with Barbara Schoenoff this summer will be her Three Faces of the Goddess.

Three Faces of the Goddess, by Barbara Schoenoff

And, we had show and tell, of course!  First was Erin, who brought some fun paper samples made with her new Silhouette Cameo electronic cutter, which works with paper, fabric, and even fondant icing!

Next was Martha, who brought the cutest little matryoshka doll, made from the pattern in the November 2011 issue of Soft Dolls and Animals.

We also had some amigurumi, with a definite sci-fi twist!  Leave it to Mary to combine Mr. Spock with super happy crochet cute.

Last in the 'show' part of show-and-tell, Mary Jane brought in two vintage souvenir dolls from Ethiopia, possibly dating from the 1960s or '70s.

Ethiopian dolls, front and back

But wait!  There's more!  We also had 'tells' in our show-and-tell, starting with Katie, who told us about the online class Sculpting a Female Face she is taking with Deb Wood, at Adele Sciortino's 'A For Artistic' website.  And Sandy told us about the camel races in Qatar, where her daughter is teaching.  Smaller jockeys meant faster times, so children were often used as jockeys until recently, but it was dangerous.  Qatar is one of a number of countries who have recently switched to robot jockeys!  Now you know.

Believe it or not, our meeting still wasn't done.  We started our progressive dolls, by drawing our very own doll patterns.  Our job will be to sew them up and bring them to the next meeting, when they will get faces.  There was also one more special and historic item to share, but it will have to go in our next post.

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.