Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Girls and Dolls - QSC Unique Doll Class 2011

Girls and Dolls  
 I celebrated my birthday this year at QSC -Quilters of South Carolina http://www.quiltersofsc.org/ by teaching a creative cloth doll class.  My friend Donna who also shares an October birthday brought a homemade carrot cake with cream cheese icing that we had at every meal and shared with members of our Swamp Fox Quilting group that attended the annual Pieceable Retreat at the White Oak Conference Center. http://www.whiteoakconferencecenter.info/about
Donna helped make my birthday a wonderful occasion.
Lynne, Rita and Terri posing with their dolls.
Donna took a beading class with Dee Doebler. You can see the beautiful beaded necklace she made. I was supposed to take the class with her, however Kathy Hauser was unable to teach her class and I was asked to teach the class at the last minute. Donna forever the teacher took the chef's teenage daughter under her wing and helped her make a necklace.
 
So I am dedicating this site to a fantastic group of women who shared stories, laughter, knowledge with each other over the weekend.
They summed it up by describing themselves as creative craftswomen who think outside of the box but who share what they know with others.
This is Barbara and her lovely doll. Barbara's doll do had a fantastic array of ribbons in her long lovely locks.
This is Diana's Gorgeous Doll with blue eyes. Notice her butterfly necklace and her heart.
Diana was a group of what I labeled the princesses. I had Princess Diana, Beatrice and Rose.
I have trouble remembering names so I grouped everyone into small groups to help me remember. The Princesses loved their group name the best.  Diana has a featherweight Singer Sewing Machine. These machines can sew the tiny stitches necessary for the doll parts and they have become a favorite for taking to quilt retreats.
These are the television celebrities Paula (Abdul) and Kathy (Ireland).
They lived up to their namesakes in fun and laughter.
The first thing we had to do was paint our doll faces. Everyone was a little nervous about this stage of the doll making, but you will see what marvelous faces these lovely dolls had.
The following day, we sewed the heads on the dolls after the paint dried. We had to be ready by Saturday Night to showcase our dolls and the girls found many creative ways to dress their doll's heads before their final hairdo's were sewed on on Sunday.
This is Kathy's Doll and she had Attitude.
Paula dressed her doll as a flapper and used a peacock feather. Her neck is encrusted with beads. The following day Paula finished her doll's hair.
This is Paula with her beautiful doll finished. Paula shared this picture of me entitled 3 Sisters. The three doll creators were Kathy, Paula and Diana.

This is Terri and Bebe aka Princess Beatrice. Terri and Bebe are daughter and mother and Terri came up from Georgia to share this creative weekend with her mother and to help her mother sew her doll. They were a joy to watch. Terri not only helped her mother on her left but helped Rose on her right as well. Terri worked on her own doll and then helped both ladies sew their dolls.

This is Terri concentrating as hard as she could. We had times of laughter and sharing and times of quiet and the doll makers worked to finish their creations.




This is a closeup up off Bebe's Doll. You can just see the joy and laughter in Bebe's face reflected in her doll.
Terri's doll had this beautiful leafy batik that just was in perfect harmony with her doll.  It was just amazing how much the dolls resembled their creators and how much joy it gave to the artisans.
You can see the small buttons in the arms. This was our method of attaching the arms and giving the arms movement as well.
This is Rose, Rose underwent the most dramatic transformation of all the Doll Artists. She came barely able to use her sewing machine and absolutely doubting that she could make her doll. We showed Rose a lot of love and help especially Terri and Rose's daughter who came in at the end of the day to help Rose.
Rose's gorgeous glamorous doll with the Red Boa.
At the end of the class, Rose spoke of her experiences and how her expectations had changed.....  how proud she was of what she accomplished and she wasn't sure it would have been possible.
Liz shared many great ideas with us. You can see her stuffing the arms for her doll. Hands would be next. Liz's best idea was to use the long doll needle inserted from the top of the head to hold the head in place while you sewed it on. I had used pins but they always stuck me in my fingers. This method keeps the doll head in place and your fingers pricker free.


Liz made a sassy doll. I just love the green flowers and the contrasting pinkish hair.  Her face was just beautiful as well.




Lynne made this beautiful doll. I learned a lot from Lynne and this is the most important hint I learned from her. If you get paint on your doll face which I did on Lynne's then you can use the same kind of fabric as the doll's face to gently rub it off. It really worked. It works when the paint has not set or dried yet but she also waited a little while as well.
Mary is using the method of putting the needle into the top of the doll's head and down into the neck to sew on the head.
Mary's doll hair do was the most whimsical of all the creations.
We finished our dolls Saturday Night except for the hair. Hair was placed on the dolls so they would look wonderful and the doll artisans paraded their dolls throughout the auditorium to share what they had created in the evening convocation.
Pat was our most experienced student having made a doll before but seemed to enjoy the class.
I had a wonderful time bonding with my students and taking on the role of midwife to the girls and dolls.
I taught a lot
I laughed a lot
I learned a lot.

4 comments:

Graham said...

Wow wish I had been in your class!! Looks like a great time was had by all!! The dolls were Great!

Frog Quilter said...

Great post. I have already started my second doll. I only have to stuff one more arm and the head. So much fun.

Nana Time said...

I feel like I took the class after reading the blog. It was nice to get to know the dollmakers and their new dolls.

PS. U R a doll!

Anonymous said...

[url=http://louboutinmart.co.uk]christian louboutin shoes[/url] It does seem like it'll hold up fairly well, too. http://dkgoose.com Jduuogxfo [url=http://csrhelix.com]canada goose jacka[/url]
bezooa 515240 [url=http://www.chilliwackbombersoutlet.com]are canada goose jackets worth it[/url] 197536 [url=http://www.officialcanadagooseparkas.ca]canada goose jackets[/url]