Happy New Year to All

 

2023 has come and gone and it's time for a fresh start. Before we know it, Valentines Day will be here. The high points of this month's meeting were planning activities and events for the coming year, such as assigning enrichment sessions for the monthly meetings and planning a design for a challenge Valentine card that will be due at the February meeting.

Betts got our imagination stimulated by conducting an enrichment session that featured bins full of her "All About Hearts" collection. So many items featuring hearts—including buttons, trims, lace, stamps, boxes, papers, fabric, ephemera, words, sayings, and so many beautiful heart-themed arts and crafts she has made or collected. Then, she handed out to each of us a kit with blank cards, envelopes, and bits and pieces of decorative items we could use in our design. Thank you, dear Betts, for your inspiration and generosity! 

The challenge this month was something "Wintery" and some of the Show and Tell photos are examples that represent the theme.

Harlene made and handed out special LOVE pins to members. Thank you, Harlene, for your thoughtful gift.

Calendar

February 10 Meeting, (Saturday), 10:00 A.M. to 4 P.M. at Marcella's. We will be having a Play Day and a Potluck Lunch (please bring savory and healthy dishes). The Play Day activity will be all about needle felting. A supply list will be sent out to everyone before the meeting. Colleen, Geri, and other members will be supplying some materials, but if you have roving, needles, etc. in your stash, start rounding them up.  The challenge (not an exchange) for February is a Valentine card.

March 9 Meeting, (Saturday), 11:30 A.M. at Marcella's. Drop-in social get-together will start at 11:30 A.M. to 1:30 P.M. Business meeting will start at 1:30 P.M. Harlene will be presenting the enrichment session. 

Show and Tell

Colleen displayed this lovely decorative tabletop piece that consists of melted and fused glass shards that are displayed on a wooden table lamp stand. 

Her spice tin people are adorable and are designed to hang on a wall.

Their sculpted faces are so cute!

Colleen has also been busy with watercolor painting and created these great cards, including two wintery scenes.

Jennifer has been focusing on creating books and experimenting with various techniques such as adding 3 dimensional decorative pieces, using various binding styles, and adding tabs and tags.

One of her books is about herself and her brother and has photos and mementos to capture memories. She is planning another book which will celebrate the life her late father and will be titled "The Edgar Chronicles."

 Barbara has completed a beautiful "soft book" inspired by a class with Anna Corba. It is the first in a series to be entitled "My Little Dresses."  The pages are made from fabrics, and she used her printer to print the vintage text. 

Sue used a Christine Shively pattern to create this dainty cloth doll. She is dressed in winter colors. 

Suzanne models the new scarf she crocheted to keep warm during the winter cold. Harlene made a lovely new vest made from a dresser scarf. What a clever idea!

Donna displayed her watercolor painting of a wintery scene. 

Since we will be felting next month, several members brought examples of felted items they have made. Sue created both of these remarkable items that surely took a great deal of time and effort!

Anne has quite a collection of felted items. Her daughter made some of them (the animals), while others she has made and collected over the years.

Pretty sure two of these (top 2) are collected and the one on the bottom and below are an Anne originals. 

This "wintery" Santa Clause was made by Anne and is an example of the stuffed animals and dolls she made when she worked for the DAKIN stuffed doll company. She designed and made all sorts of dolls, including Santas, bears and a bunny, some in hot air balloon baskets.  She gave this Santa to a friend, and more recently received a photo showing that her friend still had it and treasured it! 

Marcella displayed several of her dolls. They are amazing and include felting. Labor intensive, like most of the Phoebe dolls!

Daisy's "Winter Dragon Rider" is the perfect choice for a Winter challenge and a felting example. So original! Kudos!

Exquisite cards and tags are Geri's specialty. These examples (above and below) show the blend of die cuts and a wealth of special embellishments made from a variety of papers, ribbons, fringe, fabric and a multitude of materials.

Sorry, I'm not sure who made these, but the fringe definitely makes these winter scenes lovely and unique. 

Rosie has been busy sewing more oven mitts, like the one above and those below. Great job! They always make nice gifts!

Donna recently made some more bowl cozies. Two each of these three prints. 

A Joyful Christmas Celebration at Barbara's

 

Oh, what a wonderful day! Our beloved Barbara once again opened her beautiful house and art studio and treated us to a fabulous Christmas luncheon and a special craft session, during which she showed us how to create a peg doll. 

Calendar

January 13 Meeting, (Saturday), 11:30 A.M. at Marcella's. Drop-in social get-together will start at 11:30 A.M. to 1:30 P.M. Business meeting will start at 1:30 P.M. The challenge for this month is any creation representing "Winter." 

The Great Christmas Party

We ate, we played, we had so much fun! Some Phoebes brought and handed out little gifts of candy. Some of the members had met and created Christmas poppers that contained treats and trinkets. Barbara also gave us party favors and brought out many of her beautiful craft materials for us to use to dress and decorate wooden clothespins and turn them into tiny one-of-a-kind dolls. It was a luncheon, play day, and party all rolled into one.

Thank you, Barbara, for your generosity, and the time and effort that went into creating a very special Christmas celebration. 

The following photos are of the dolls that were completed during the craft session. We hope the ones that were not quite completed will be brought to the January meeting and photographed for the next blog post. 

"Something Sketchy" with Deb Shatil

Former Phoebe and well-known doll maker and artist Deb Shatil presented a challenging yet fun enrichment session at our November meeting. She brought paper, ink pens, photos to sketch, and her artistic knowledge to inspire us to learn to make sketches by observing our subject matter while not watching our drawing take form. Above she is seen displaying a very successful finished sketch created by Colleen, followed by two more examples completed by Phoebes, shown below.

Deb also brought to the meeting some samples of the tiny cloth-sculptured pins that have brought her much admiration and commercial success over the years. Each one is an original work of art. Thank you so much, Deb, for the opportunity to advance our drawing skills and add your wonderful art to our collections.

Calendar

December 9 Christmas Party, (Saturday) 11 A.M. to 2 P.M. at Barbara's beautiful home and studio. There will not be a business meeting, but there will be a wonderful holiday party with fabulous food and joyful celebration.

January 13 Meeting, (Saturday), 11:30 A.M. at Marcella's. Drop -in social get-together will start at 11:30 A.M. to 1:30 P.M. Business meeting will start at 1:30 P.M. The challenge for this month is any creation representing "Winter." 

Show and Tell

Harlene has amazed us again with her fabric embellishment skills. She created this long vest from black fabric and added bits of colorful fabric shapes. She then blocked off many areas with tape and filled in the design areas using Paint Crayons that are oil-based paints for stenciling and made by Stencil Decor, USA. They are similar to Shiva stick crayons and are permanent once they have dried.

Anne is continuing to create beautiful ceramic wall hangers like the face above. 

But, she also took a little diversion to have some fun by designing wild and whacky pieces using ceramic clay and various tins. A great sense of humor that is bound to brings smiles. 

Suzanne R. is dedicated to continuing to string bead bracelets that will be added to the dolls that are dressed and accessorized by the ladies who meet at the Cotton Patch fabric store in Lafayette. 

She also volunteers to pack the gift boxes which will be delivered to terminal children in Kaiser Hospital and George Marks in Oakland. 

Barbara and Betts are currently interested in creating books and samplers made from paper and slow stitched fabrics. They have been attending classes offered by textile artists Anna Corba and Mandy Pattullo, who teach in Sonoma County, USA, and in England. Barbara prefers to glue her pieces together, and her technique and her beautiful workmanship (as seen above and below) has won Mandy's approval.

Betts assembled this lovely creation, and the ones shown below.

Colleen has taken to painting, and her colorful and whimsical designs are wonderful!

Rosie is displaying another sample of the colorful dresses she and her group have been making and donating to "Dress a Girl Around the World."

Using assembly line techniques, group members focus on various steps of the assembly process. Rosie has been sewing on labels and stitching various prints together to make pockets that match the dress fabrics.

Rosie has also been making yoyos to adorn the pockets.  

Rosie is having fun teaching her tube necklace class to her students. This is a beautiful example made in her first class.

Phoebes love to collect dolls made by other artists. I think these were collected by Marcella.

This one, and the one below were collected by Shawn.

Caroline, like many of us, has been making dolls for years. These adorable ones are samples of a very successful design she has sold at art shows and church bazaars.

Donna has been tearing apart the silk and fabric artificial flowers in her stash and removing the hard plastic centers, and then reassembling them with paper centers. That way they will be less bulky to put on cards and send in the mail.