One More for the Round Robin

This is the starter appearance of one more doll for the "Queen of ___" round robin.  Cynthia's Queen of Halloween is all set to receive my additions, so I grabbed a quick shot of her before.  And just look at that journal....  Watch for the afters in a few months!

Round Robin start; TAG

The doll group, Tarts and Goddesses, began it's round robin last meeting.  We have five participants, all "built" on a paper mache' mannequin, with a theme of "Queen of ____."  Each participant chooses what her doll is to be queen of.

These are our starter photos, missing just one.  Now that the dolls have been passed on to the first person, we will keep them hidden until the RR is over.  Fun to get to see how they start, though!

Yvonne's Queen of Junk:

Sue's Queen of Chaos:

Diane's Queen of Fortunes:

Debbie's Queen of the Garden:

We are missing Cynthia's Queen of Halloween, but that will be coming along shortly.  Each doll is accompanied by a journal so the other participants can share their part of the story.  Watch for results in November!

A Photo Review of June

Trying to do a little catching up - here's a photo review of the month of June...

 Our first harvest from this year's tomato plants - one cherry tomato plant and one Early Girl.

 Time for a summer wreath on the freshly painted front door!

 Pretty blooms on one of the cacti.

 An "aerial" view of the blooms.

 The fancy dish drainer I bought when the dishwasher died.  I haven't replaced the Spot Bot that also died, and the Keuring is still limping along, but not acting well.

 Cosmo is becoming more and more sociable in his later years.  He likes spending time in my treehouse.

My friend Cynthia and I took a monoprinting class using gelatin plates.  These are my favorites from the class, though I've been playing more and learning more, and have others I like better now.

 Leaves used in each of these prints.

 Not my usual colors.

This "French Mermaid" by Amy Maisel finally got her place on the bathroom wall.

May TAG meeting, other art projects

This will be a photo intensive post, with not much in the way of explanation.  At the April TAG meeting, we worked on Santos Cage Doll kits from Retro Cafe Art.  Some of those photos are posted here.  We've also done the small flat muslin dolls on canvas, pin dolls, and some of us took a weekend class May 9 and 10 from Barb of Joggles to make decorative papers.  Here are the photos - drop me a line with questions!

Yvonne's pin doll sample:

Carolyn's beaded cuffs: 

 Diane's Santos Cage Doll

Yvonne's Santos Cage Doll

Sue's Santos Cage Doll

Diane's flat muslin doll on canvas:

Yvonne's cats:

Sue's accordion journal (from Joggles class) 

Sue's wonky wood houses (from Joggles class) 

February Meeting - Tarts and Goddesses

Once upon a time...there was a small but lively group of dollmakers called "The Dolly Mama and her Fabric Floozies," founded by Rose Vollmer and based out of Gilbert, AZ - but drawing from across the Phoenix metro area.  As these things happen at times, it became difficult to have a consistent meeting place.  (I've seen it happen with all three of the clubs I belonged to in Ohio!)

Lives changed, people drifted, but there was still a need to get like-minded people together.  Some of those original members, plus some new members are meeting monthly once again - usually at my house!  Because Fabric Floozies is also a business name for Rose, we've renamed the group "Tarts and Goddesses," or TAG.  I hope to post photos of things from our meetings (without a lot of words) on this blog for the foreseeable future.

In December, instead of exchanging regular gifts, we exchanged "squishies."  Each member filled a quart-sized zip lock bag with goodies and scraps, and maybe a few challenging items, that could be used by a dollmaker.  Each squishy was put into a gift bag to obscure the contents, numbered, and then everyone drew a number to claim their prize.  The contents were many and varied.

(Example of the contents of one squishy)

At the February meeting, several people had dolls to show and tell, using some of the contents of the squishy bag.

(Created by Maggie)

(Created by Mary)

(Created by Steph, Pattern "Stump Sisters" by Judi Wellnitz)

(Created by Sue, pattern by Ray Slater)

(Created by Yvonne)

Our project for the month was provided by Yvonne Nathanson.  Yvonne stitched together many flat muslin dolls and each member chose one.  We sat together and stitched and began drawing faces and adding other details.  Here are some of the examples of completed dolls, attached to canvases, that Yvonne made before the meeting:

Flat dolls completed by members will be part of our show-and-tell for March.

Other dolls that had been completed, and brought for show-and-tell:

(Yvonne's Santa, made from a pattern in CPS magazine several years ago.)

(Steph's jester)

(Sue's doll from the Kimama pattern by Paula McGee)

Next meeting - "mark making" on fabric!

Happy New Year!

The New Year gave us a kiss of cold weather, and a dusting of snow on the Superstitions.  Lovely vista.  The first photo is the way we see them from our back yard.  The second photo was taken from a dirt road a few miles from our house, but the same angle.

We also woke to a thin sheet of ice on the swimming pool!  That was a surprise.

Also seen through the loft window - our first hot air balloon of the year.