Wonderful Weekend!!!

This past weekend, my local doll club, Yinz Dollz n'at, held our first doll makers retreat, just north of my hometown of Pittsburgh, PA. This was the best time I've had in a long time - creating dolls all day and hanging with your talented friends - how much better can it get! I was lucky enough to to take the class we organized with doll artist, Judy Skeel. She is fabulous!!! Not only is she a fantastic artist and instructor, but we all feel we've made a life long friend in Judy (check out her site at www.skeelhaven.com awesome dolls!)! Above is my head of the doll we were making. Unfortunately I'll have to post pics of her all put together at a later time because I blew out a finger or two while turning them so I need to do a small bit of repair first. I think I've got Judy's repair technique down pat so I shouldn't do too bad. lol
Friday evening when we arrived at the camp, we handed over our brown bags full of dollmaking fun stuff! We had decided we wanted to do a Brown Bag Challenge and had to pick a bag that wasn't our own and make a doll with the items inside by Sunday morning. I chose my bag and didn't actually get to work on it until very late Saturday night. Perserverance prevailed even though I was dog tired (from all that fun we had had all day with Judy!) - we coined these late evenings "Silly O'Clock" since we definitely got giddy and punchy but still didn't want to go to bed. lol The bag I chose was from our club President and excellent doll maker, Emily. What fun stuff she put in there for me to create a doll from. I just love this little guy - "Silly O'Clock" our new mascot! lol He's made from a wooden cart, beads, yarn, doll eyes, a pot scrubber and even a lining for casting of broken bones before the plaster gets put on. It definitely was a challenge and one that I happily took on. If you are a doll crafter and looking for a wonderful and affordable 3 day weekend then contact me at BecauseILikeIt@aol.com and I'll put you on the info list for next years retreat - we've already started planning it and it's going to be awesome! Yinz Dollz n'at is the only doll club in Pittsburgh so if you are in the surrounding area's please come and join us. We meet on the third Saturday of each month and would love to have you! Check us out at www.groups.yahoo.com/group/yinzdollznat

Creation from my Pattern!

This was my first pattern that I offered for free to the gals at Fiber Art Traders (see link to the right to check us out!). I call her Dancing for Joy! We held a trade to create a doll from my pattern and the results were just amazing! Here is the doll I received in trade from Noelene down in New Zealand. She did such a wonderful job and I still get that proud tickled feeling each time I look at this doll. Noelene also sent me a postcard to announce the soon to be arrival of Joy! It came in the mail a few days before the doll arrived and that made me even more tickled! I just grinned and had to show everyone that I could because not only to have a beautiful doll created from your pattern but to have them also create a fiber art postcard from her as well is just an awesome feeling! I just love her and the pictures just don't do her justice but - Here she is!

I Was Published!!!!!

Ok I'm hopping, skipping and jumping for joy!!! I just got the March 2007 issue of Soft Doll and Animal magazine in the mail today and got a great surprise! I had submitted one of my dolls to SDA's "You Did What With That Pattern?" section back before Thanksgiving last year and found out today as I leaped through the magazine that my doll was actually published! I of course had to make all kinds of phone calls to family and friends. I couldn't reach DBf because he had his cell phone turned off but he was on his way home from work anyway, so I met him on our front porch, magazine in hand opened up to my special page. He laughed and danced around the porch with me! lol I'm dancing on air...floating on Cloud 9...well you get the picture! lol I may have posted a pic of her in an earlier posting in my blog, but here she is again pre-publishing and in all her glory on Page 58 of the March 2007 Soft Doll and Animal Magazine - The Goddess of Dragonflies! Thank you Soft Doll and Animal Magazine!!! BIG SUPER HUGE HUGS to Normajean for kicking me in the butt to send it in! LOVE YOU!!

Excitement is running through my veins!

Ohhh I can't tell you how excited I am!

I just finished this doll for a friend of mine and it's a total surprise! Linda M. Poole, quilter, author, teacher/lecturer and Listmom of the Fairie Goddess Mother's Yahoo group will be teaching her Bended Bias Butterfly class here in Pittsburgh later this morning (well it is after midnight at the moment) and I am lucky enough to be taking this class. Though I've known Linda for about the last 2 years from being a member of the FGM's, I've never met her in person before. She is one of those people in life that just touch you as a good soul. Since I've found this passion for dollmaking I designed my own doll (you can see her beginnings in an earlier post) and then decided that I would dress her up as one of Linda's fairies from her Quilted Fairie Tales (see photo where I received my inspiration). I sure hope she likes her! I'll be posting pictures later today when I get home from her class. Let me know what you think!