I belong to a neat little group of artsy bloggers and once a week we share links.
I love checking out what everyone has been doing each week. Hope you’ll check them out, too!

10 Reasons to Photograph Your Quilts
Mary Emma at Quilting and Patchwork lists ten reasons for preserving your quilts with photographs…this can apply to other crafts, too.

Doll Festival for Girl’s Day
March 3 was Girl’s Day in Japan. It’s time for little girls to be celebrated and wished good health, and all good things. Traditionally a gorgeous display of heirloom dolls is arranged for the Doll Festival that accompanies Girls Day. Noreen has her own way of celebrating Doll Festival….

Help for left handed crafters
Are you a lefty who has problems with embroidery patterns? Check out this tutorial of basic embroidery stitches - made specifically for left handed embroiderers.

How to Rescue Family Heritage Photos
Eileen just completed a photo restoration class and made an exciting discovery in the process.

Layers Upon Layers
All this month, Cyndi will be featuring book artists and book making projects!

Providing Bird Nesting Materials
The best materials to provide, plus a creative way to house them.

(image source: Noreen Crone-Findlay. Copyright, not to be used without permission)

Mermaid and Merwomen in Black Folklore

A juried exhibition for art quilters/ doll artists, February 20–March
31, 2009, Avery Research Institute Center for African American
History & Culture at the College of Charleston

Description

Some of the first tales of mermaids and merwomen were brought to
America by Africans enslaved along the coast of South Carolina. Many
of these folktales were stories of African ocean and river goddesses.

Because of the rich oral traditions of these peoples, few if any of
these stories were written down until they were recorded by
collectors of folk tales at the end of the 19th century.

You are invited to share your visual interpretation of a Black
Mermaid/Merwoman in an art doll or art quilt.

SPECIFICATIONS

We are seeking work that is original and innovative. No kits,
quilts or dolls made in a workshop with the aid of an instructor.
Quilt must be multi-layered and joined by stitching. Dimension in
any direction must not exceed 50 inches. Dolls may not exceed 32
inches in height. If dolls are to be displayed on a stand, the
artist will be responsible for providing the stand. If dolls are to
be mounted on the wall please make sure it has the necessary hanging
apparatus. We welcome both small and large works. Only quilts/dolls
created after December 31, 2006 are eligible. Preliminary acceptance
will be granted based on the acceptance digital images. Final
acceptance will be granted upon the receipt and examination of
quilts/dolls. We reserve the right to omit from the exhibition
accepted quilts/dolls that do not contain the same qualities as the
submitted images. The exhibition coordinators’ decision is final.

Calendar :

Deadline of entry receipt

Tuesday, January 20, 2009:

Tuesday, February 10, 2009 notification by e-mail of acceptance

Accepted works posted online at

cofc.edu/avery/

February 10, 2009

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Shipping instructions will be e-mailed

Tuesday February 17, 2009 -February 19, 2009

Works accepted at Avery Research Institute Center for African
American History & Culture at the College of Charleston
(quilts/dolls will not be accepted prior to February 12, 2009

Opening reception Saturday February 21, 2009 at 4:00 p.m. Avery
Research Institute Center for African American History & Culture
at the College of Charleston , Charleston, South Carolina

Tuesday March 31, 2009

Exhibition closes

April 1 through April 5, 2009

Return of non-touring works

I love ‘cross pollinations’ in which I can bring together my various yarnie passions.

Crochet, tatting and spool knitting are so dear to my heart and VERY harmonious to combine.

I really enjoy making flat multi-media dolls to embellish garments and accessories.

Here are a few of the flat dolls that I’ve made with tatting, crochet, spool knitting, using everything from handspun angora  to wire:

They’re stitched to a tote bag that I bought at a second hand store. (love it) *G*

Have you caught the link yet for the fun fur crocheted monster dolls on the Lion Brand site? Very cute!

I’d love to know who designed them! Lion Brand doesn’t share that info, and I know lots of people would REALLY like it if they did. Well, whoever the designer is, they hit the cute button right on the mark.

Here’s the link: Monster dolls 

This morning, a lady posted a note to one of the lists I am on, saying that there’s a new Barbie doll that’s all about knitting.

I needed to go see that!  :o)

Confession time…. when I was 10, 11 and 12, I designed and knitted clothes for my Barbie, and sold them to my classmates at school. I loved it, my friends loved it, but the teacher gave me royal blazes for sneaking my knitting into class.

I kept myself in yarn, and got myself grounded in my life as a designer by designing and knitting wonderful Barbie clothes.

I still have my Barbie and my Barbie paperdoll:

I still have my Ken doll, too. I also designed and knitted lots of sweaters, scarves and hats for my friend’s Ken’s, too. But my real fave was knitting elaborate lace gowns.

Did I keep any of ‘em? Nope.

Did I make lots of clothes for my daughter’s Barbies? Yep, but she was more of a fan of her ‘My Little Ponies’ than plastic dolls.  The dog kept eating her Barbie’s, which was  quite off putting for her.

Speaking of dogs doing silly things to Barbie, my cat came over as I was taking pics of my good old Barbie, and gave her a huge whack on the side of the head and then tried to lug her off.

Have a little respect, KittyCat! That Barbie’s an old gal now!

Besides, she worked hard all those years ago, modelling all the knitted extravaganza’s I came up with !

Oh! the link for the collector’s version of the Knitting Pretty Barbie is: Knitting Pretty  and I think that they should commission me to design some knitted clothes for her!

You know, I am willing to bet that somewhere, there’s an 11 year old girl out there that is about to launch her life as a designer with the quite wonderful retro Barbie dolls……Image Source:  Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Oh rats! I have been waiting to post about the

Doll Celebration in Japan. In the back of my mind, I was convinced it was May 5. I figured that I would just google it to confirm that, and wailie, wailie! The doll festival was March 3!

Ah well, today, May 5, is still cause for celebration. It’s Children’s  Day in Japan.  (Used to be Boy’s Hero Day, but now it’s more family oriented)

So, even though I missed the Doll Day festivities  (note to self: March 3! March 3! March 3!), I figured that Children’s Day is still cause for  Celebration on Hankering for Yarn!

There are a million ways of having fun with yarn and kids on Children’s Day:

click some of these links:

Definitely check out the links for spool knitted projects!

How to make a small cardboard loom (weave hacky sacks and amulet bag/penny pouches)

How to make a small loom from a foam food tray (weave bookmarks and friendship bracelets)

My tutorials for teaching kids how to weave with yarn on the potholder loom is a really good resource:

Potholder Loom Weaving part 1 

Potholder Loom Weaving part 2 

My book:

Potholder loom weaving: 1, 2, 3, Easy as Can Be,  is a great place to start weaving with kids. Fun, easy projects that will have them hooked on weaving! I only have a couple of copies left.

And, when I was checking to see if I did have any copies of it left, I discovered that I still have 2 copies of my

        Peggetty Loom book… oops… I thought that I was sold out of it.  But, anyhow, it’s a really good book for starting weaving with kids, too.

And, if you would like to make teddy bears WITH kids OR FOR kids (of all ages):
There are all kinds of teddy bear projects on this blog:

There’s the Easiest Ever Teddy Bear to knit

MORE EASY KNITTING: The easiest ever Angel to knit, easiest ever baby doll, easiest ever monkey,  easiest ever kitty, easiest ever bunny

On my website:

There’s my potholder loom book of Teddy Bears

and my crocheted Teddy bears

and Comfort Bears - very important!

OH! speaking of bookmarks!

Here are a HEAP of ‘how to’s’  on how to make BOOKMARKS

And, don’t forget friendship bracelets:

Friendship Bracelets 

and FINGER PUPPETS!

There are a million ways of celebrating the children in your life…. and luckily, there are many more Children’s Day celebrations coming up.  These are just a few easy, quick, simple, earth friendly, eco positive things that you can do with children.

Some of my most favorite ways of celebrating  children is to make donations of mitts, caps, and toys to the local women and children’s shelters.

We also donate regularly to the                                      Stephen Lewis Foundation. His foundation works with the Grannies in Africa who are struggling in unseemly difficulty to raise their grandbabies.

Happy Children’s Day…. may we bequeath them a planet that is healing, healed, whole and holy!

Please remember that everything on this site is copyright protected.  

Image Source: Noreen Crone-Findlay (copyright) 

Here are the links for my mixed media woven dolls:

Woven Earth Listener Angel  Doll

Dame Julian and Neni 

Three young spritely spirited mixed media dolls 

Mixed media dolls with found objects 

In my last posting, I showed pictures of my woven mixed media dolls, Neni and Homage to Dame Julian of Norwich.

These dolls are more whimsical:

I spun the yarn and then wove them on potholder looms and combined them will all kinds of mixed media: Leather, wood, stones, metal, wire, buttons and more….

Next posting:

More whimsical mixed media woven dolls.

Some of my readers are on dial up so they’ve asked me to not put toooooooooo many pix in each entry.

Image Source: Noreen Crone-Findlay(c) 

Yesterday, I posted pics of my latest mixed media woven doll, the Earth Listener Angel Doll (click on the name to see her).

Several people asked if I had pics of any of my other woven mixed media dolls. Why yes! Here are some:

Homage to Dame Julian of Norwich. I wove her on my inkle loom and several small vintage looms. Her hands and face are crocheted. I used cotton and linen to make her. Her body is wood that I carved before stitching on the weaving and attaching her armature.

This is Neni. She’s another Earth Angel doll.

I wove her on the vintage equivalent of Butterfly Looms.

I carved her head, hands, wings and shoes from wood, and drew and burned the face and patterns for the wings.

The buttons came from Grandma’s button jar so are more than 50 years old.

In my next posting: More mixed media woven dolls

Image Source: Noreen Crone-Findlay(c) 

My friend, Gwen found a notice about  a gorgeous doll workshop by Denise Marie Doll art being offered in Sante Fe NM:           Doll Workshop

Lovely!