We had a very productive meeting last Saturday!  There were some wonderful dolls for show and tell, as always, including some that will be at the International Quilt Festival.  Between many hours hand stitching tiny yo-yo’s, covering dolls with embroidery, and making many individual pieces of armor attached with teeny tiny brads, we concluded that doll makers are just a little bit crazy!

Our program by Joyce Patterson was so inspiring!  As everyone knows, Joyce is very prolific and her many dolls with quilts are just amazing.  She showed us her resources and tools and gave us some really good tips on making miniature quilts for dolls.

The dolls for our exhibit Block Party II at Quilt Festival were due October 11, 2015.   If you signed up to set up at quilt festival and are bringing your dolls yourself, please email Beth Casper casperbeth@aol.com  and Neva Waldtnagneva@gmail.com with the title of your doll and the quilt block you are using in order for title cards to be made.

All entries for our gallery show Every Figure Tells a Story at 18 Hands Gallery are due at the November meeting.  The forms are on the blog,www.taoda-artists.blogspot.com with all instructions on entering.

Our December meeting will be a Holiday Party, and we will have it in our usual meeting room at the Looscan Library.  More details to follow.

Looking ahead to next year, we are providing the craft activity for Hands on Houston at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft on Saturday, February 7, 2015.  Gwynne Ross has created a fun pop up card for children to make.  They are expecting quite a crowd and we need lots of volunteers to help between the hours of 10 am and 3 pm.  Please email mejanetbodin@aol.com  to sign up and let me know what hours you are available.  This is a fun, easy way to support TAODA and the Craft Center as well.

Our gallery show for 2015 will be at the Galveston Art League!  Dates to be determined, stay tuned.

Janet

We welcomed a new artist member to TAODA last Saturday:  Jocelyn Gracza.  Jocelyn lives in Texas now but for the past 25 years has lived in Budapest, Hugary.  She creates beautiful cloth dolls with vintage fabrics, trims and laces that she finds in the Budapest flea markets.  We were all drooling over the gorgeous costuming of the dolls she brought for show and tell!

Gwynne Ross gave a wonderful program on creating a very sturdy as well as pretty box for your doll, which is perfect timing with all of our fall/winter show opportunities coming up.

Speaking of which, your dolls going to the Sugar Land Art Fest, as well as your Quilt Festival dolls are due at the next meeting, October 11.  Questions about Art Fest should be directed to Sally Stevenson: sallystevenson@gmail.com.  Questions about Quilt Festival should be directed to Beth Casper: casperbeth@aol.com

The Prospectus and Entry forms are now available for our December show at 18 Hands Gallery.  Those are attached here. The Prospectus and  the Entry Form

Happy creating!

Today's meeting was inspiring and productive!  If you were unable to be at the meeting you missed some truly outstanding show and tell:  dolls from ODACA, UFDC, ADAA, dolls going to NIADA and Quilt Festival, and more.  Then for our program Marsha Krohn demonstrated how she constructs pedestals for her dolls.  It was creative and interesting and very useful!  Marsha always gives a great program.  Gwynne Ross has planned some excellent programs for us in the next few months as well. 

Next, we had a very fruitful business meeting.  There are lots of opportunities coming up.  A couple of things I'd like to highlight:  dolls for the TAODA "Block Party II" exhibit at Quilt Festival are due at the October meeting, as well as dolls for the Sugar Land Art Fest.  Our 2014 gallery show, "Every Figure Tells a Story" will be held in December at 18 Hands Gallery in Houston.   I need photos now of dolls you plan to submit to this show for advance publicity!  Please email me your photos!

Be sure to read the meeting minutes (which will be emailed to you next week) for all the details on these shows and other TAODA opportunities and goings-on.  Here's to a creative and inspiring fall!

Janet Bodin

I want to thank everyone who came to the TAODA meeting today.  We had some great Show & Tell and I enjoyed giving the program on Making and Setting Handmade Eyes in Cloth Dolls.  Thank you Tere Perry for pitching in and taking the minutes.

We had some good discussion also.  It was decided that because it was so well received last year,our Quilt Festival exhibit this year will be titled Block Party II, with the same theme which is to incorporate a quilt block in the doll you make.  Beth Casper is taking the sign up list, so please get in touch with her about making a doll for this show.  casperbeth@aol.com  Insurance forms are due August 1. 

There are still a few tickets available for the ODACA Day luncheon,Wednesday, July 16 at the JW Marriott Hill Country Resort in San Antonio.  The souvenir doll, which each luncheon attendee will receive, is by our own Angela Jarecki!  Reason enough to attend right there!  There will also be a centerpiece doll for each table, which one lucky person at each table will win.  There will be many raffle dolls which you can buy tickets for.  Plus an artists sale before and after the luncheon.  It should be a fabulous day!  You can find all the information and buy tickets on the ODACA website:  www.odaca.org

Some TAODA members are talking about carpooling and going just for the day.  Linda Butler has offered to drive.  If you are interested in going for the day, contact Linda: LCB4710@aol.com

Finally, I need your input about the July TAODA meeting.  Because of summer vacations and other commitments, we voted not to have an "official" business meeting in July.  However, we do have the library meeting room reserved (10 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, July 12

 at the Looscan Library).  If there is enough interest, there can still be an informal meeting with show and tell, perhaps working on projects, and general visiting.  Please let me know by the end of this month if you are interested in attending an informal meeting at the library in July.  If there is not enough interest I will cancel the meeting room.

We will definitely be back in full strength at the August 9 meeting.  We should have some wonderful show and tell with all of those doll conventions this summer!  Bring your dolls from ODACA, UFDC, ADAA, and those you plan to take to NIADA.  Marsha Krohn will present our program: How to Build a Pedestal. Marsha says, "With this technique you can make a pedestal any size to suit your doll, whether she will stand on it or sit on it or even recline on it! Decorate it to suit your theme."

Stay cool, have fun and be creative!

Janet Bodin

We had a great meeting today, with Neva Waldt’s program on armatures.   She brought lots of reference materials and examples of different armatures.  She explained how to achieve balance in the pose so that the figure can stand on its own.  She showed us the “Neva method” and we each got to make little armatures using her techniques.

There was lots of good discussion at our business meeting too.  We talked about what kind of project we can submit to HCCC for Hands on Houston (a free craft-activity open house on the first Saturday of every month at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft).  This will be our community outreach/education project this year.  Gwynne brought several examples of projects we can consider and gave us some inexpensive wood figure blanks to decorate and bring to the May meeting.  If you have ideas, bring them to the May meeting.

Also, we need your ideas on a theme for this year’s Quilt Festival exhibit.  Please send them to Gwynne atgwynne713@aol.com   and we will vote on a theme from your suggestions.

We voted in a new artist to our membership:  Anne Oliver, from Dallas.  Check out her beautiful work: http://lollidolls.wordpress.com/  Welcome Anne!

Don’t forget to come visit us at Gathering of the Guilds at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, 4848 Main Street, on Saturday, April 26.  We will be there from 10-5 with dolls and demos!  Thanks to all those who signed up to man the booth.

I hope to see you at our meeting next month, when yours truly will present “Making and Setting Handmade Eyes into Cloth Dolls”.

Janet Bodin

We had a wonderful meeting today!  For those who weren't able to come to the meeting today - we missed you!  The show and tell was fabulous.  A great program on felting was given by JoAnn Luco.  And we had a very productive and interesting business meeting in which we decided on a charitable project and a community outreach/education venue.

Our charitable project will be to sew stuffed animals or hearts to turn into the Common Thread Circle, who will then stuff & finish them and distribute them to patients in area hospitals.  Gwynne Ross provided us with patterns which we can use (or we can use our own).  If you would like to participate, these sewn pieces will be due at the June TAODA meeting.  If you have questions or need more direction, please contact Gwynne at gwynne713@aol.com  Gwynne will bring patterns again to the April meeting.  I hope we will have lots and lots of sewn animals and hearts to donate.  Our last charitable project was in 2012, when we made over 100 pocket dolls for the Dress a Girl Around the World project, so the bar is set pretty high!  But since we don't have to stuff them, we should be able to easily meet that goal.  If you are outside the Houston area and would like to mail some in they would be most welcome.

For our education project we decided to participate in Hands on Houston once again (a free craft-activity open house on the first Saturday of every month at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft).  Lots of good ideas were discussed at the meeting.  If you have an idea and can present it at the April meeting, we would like to choose something that we can then present to HCCC and pick a date that works for us and them as well.

Finally I want to remind everyone about Gathering of the Guilds on Saturday, April 26 at HCCC.  TAODA always has a booth at this event.  We have a sign up for manning the booth, and have openings for the 2-5 p.m. time slot.  If you can volunteer for TAODA at this fun event, please email me:  janetbodin@aol.com

I look forward to seeing everyone next month when the fabulous Neva Waldt will present the program on Armatures.

Thanks,

Janet Bodin