Going to the Floral Follies - 
February 2015

The original doll making conference was held in 2013, in Australia. At that event Gloria McKinnon invited elinor peace bailey, Patti Culea, Barbara Willis, Betts Vidal and Sally Lampi to give classes on doll making techniques. This time the event was held in Costa Mesa. All the original teachers (except Sally Lampi, who was recovering from a serious accident) were able to attend, and I was lucky enough to be a student.

This time the event was held at Piecemakers Country Store in Costa Mesa, California. The Floral Follies, with 45 students, was apparently the largest event they have hosted so far.

I believe the original conference had allowed each student a day with each instructor. This time each instructor had only half a day. The challenge for the teachers was to create an original doll that could be put together by their students in the 3-½ hour class. It was also decided that there wouldn’t be time for the students to draw a face from scratch, so each kit included a pre-drawn face.

The introduction was held the evening before in a big tent outside the store The walls of the tent had been covered with beautiful handmade quilts and the room was decorated with antiques. At the first meeting each teacher was introduced and talked a little bit about herself, and then showed us the dolls we were going to make. Only Gloria McKinnon was not able to speak, as she was getting over a cold, but her friend talked about her (nicely). Sally Lampi's doll was introduced by a teaching team. There were tables set up with samples of the projects and related merchandise. Piecemaker's staff supplied a light supper and door prizes, and gave everyone a packet of Piecemakers doll-making needles.

The students were divided into six groups, and each group took turns going from teacher to teacher.

Piecemaker's provided lunches and door prizes each day, and we all had time to shop at the Piecemaker's Country Store, which is full of tempting supplies for embroidery, quilt making, knitting, crochet, needle tatting, doll making, cooking, bead work, and other arts and crafts. There were also special demonstrations from outside artists during the noon break. Tripadvisor might not agree, but I consider Piecemaker's a store worth going out of the way to visit if you are interested in fiber arts.

I really enjoyed meeting the teachers and talking to fellow doll-makers. I met people from California, Australia, Hawaii, Oregon, and Colorado. Even though I haven’t finished all the dolls, I think I learned a lot.

We had been given a list of supplies to bring, but each teacher also supplied a package of special items needed to make the doll they were teaching. Each instructor had her own way of doing things. For example, although four of the dolls had cloth faces that were cut out and wrapped around a separate base, each teacher did that differently. I also ended up using five different kinds of fabric glue.

  

Patti Culea taught us a doll called “Dahlia”, a small traditional cloth doll with tiny arms and legs.

Dahlia

Sally Lampi was not able to attend, but Di & Donna taught her “Eukie the Gumnut” doll which had a simple cloth body in an organza sheath, crepe paper for hair, and a fabric seed pod.

 

GumNut

elinor peace bailey taught a doll she called “Bleeding Heart”. This was an unusual doll with an pre-made elaborate wire frame that that we transformed.

Bleeding Heart

I haven't finished the last three dolls, which were all "flat" dolls. This is not the kind of doll I usually make, but making them introduced me to several new techniques. 

Gloria McKinnon is known for her ribbon embroidery and beadwork, so her doll was a flat doll with ribbon embroidery and beadwork. I hadn’t done much ribbon embroidery before, so this was a good learning experience.

Gloria McKinnon's doll, in progress

Barbara Willis taught a doll called “Primrose”. It is a flat doll, but has a lightly stuffed canvas body to make it more three-dimensional.

Primrose with picture of finished doll

Betts Vidal taught us how to make a “Queen Anne’s Lace” flat doll. She also made a beautiful name badge holder for each person in my group. 

Name Badge for Queen Anne's Lace Group

 

Queen Anne's Lace flat doll

                 

(Some of this material previously published in Stipple, an APA publication.)

Trip Report - Our Big Trip - August 18th and 19th - Around London

We had a little time after the convention to do some more sightseeing. One day we went to Tower Bridge and walked around looking at famous landmarks like the Tower of London and St. Paul's.

Another day we went to the Exo Center and took a sky tram across the river.

View of the Exo (Hedgehog) from the Sky Tram

The end of the audio spiel was "Thank you for
flying Emirates!"

Crabbie's Ginger Beer at Nicholson's

On a pedestrian bridge, an artist was adding
designs using chewing gum.

Looking back towards the bridge.

We saw several "book benches" - this was one of my favorites.

Pub lunch

The last meal of mushrooms and black pudding.


Home again. Now that I've finished this trip report I guess the vacation is over. Darn.

Trip Report - Our Big Trip - August 14th to August 17th - WorldCon

I was very glad that we had picked up our registration packets for the World Science Fiction Convention the day before, because this is a photo of the registration line on the first day.

World Science Fiction Conventions" or "WorldCons" are held every year, but because they are run by volunteers, and in a different location each year, the content may vary. Usually there are many panels and events, although sometimes the big thing is just getting together with other fans. Last year's "LonCon" had a final attendance of 7,951, which is more than usual. Many new conventions are starting up each years, and there are complaints that we WorldCon attendees are getting old and stodgy. That's fine with me.

This convention had some great fan exhibits, panels, and demonstrations.  

Ball jointed dolls from Max Chamberlain's collection

A display of childrens' art

A line-up of samples for the Chocolate tasting panel

A snack at one of the many bid parties.

Trip Report - Our Big Trip - August 13th - Harrod's, Hyde Park, Great British Beer Festival, First View of the Convention Site

My opinion of the hotel improved at breakfast, as they served a buffet-style "typical full English breakfast" with stewed mushrooms, black pudding, and the like. I became awfully fond of the stewed mushrooms.

Then back to London proper. First stop was that venerable institution - Harrod's.

Exterior of Harrod's

I made a pilgrimage to the Food Court

What is interesting about the huge "Food Court" is that there is nowhere that you can eat the food you purchase. Although there are a few small eating places throughout Harrod's the food on display at the Food Court is intended to be taken elsewhere. I'm assuming that that is where 'downstairs' comes to purchase snacks for the folks who live 'upstairs'. 

The famous Egyptian escalators.
At the bottom is the Di and Dodi memorial.

After tea and scones at Gran Caffe, we walked towards Rotten Row and Hyde Park.

Harry taking a photo at the Serpentine

Pigeons having a picnic

We spent most of the rest of the day at The Great British Beer Festival, sponsored by a group called CAMRA. (Campaign for Real Ale). This was at The Olympic, a large open convention space, full of booths featuring hundreds of beers, ales, and ciders. For a modest fee you rented a beer glass or pint, and then paid for samples at each of the booths.

The theme was "circus" and the different areas
were labelled with the names of different circus
performers - acrobats, jugglers, etc…..

We sampled a variety of ales, beers, and hard cider. My favorite was something called "Beast of Bodmin" and Harry got a large glass of a beer called "Brains". After a few glasses  I was emboldened to try an infamous 'pork pie', which proceeded to descend to the bottom of my stomach and sit there like a lead weight. A little more ale poured down my throat helped dissolve it.

I'm sure this is the inspiration for
Dibbler's 'meat pies' in
Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels.

Trip Report - Our Big Trip - August 12th - Paris to London - I Am Reunited With My Luggage

In the morning it was clear, and we had a little time before our Eurostar departure to London, so we had a last snack at a sidewalk cafe, and stopped at a wonderful bakery to buy some pastry "for the road." We also stopped by the train station to be sure we could find the right track. We couldn't find it at first, then realized that the departure lounge was upstairs in an area called "London Hall." There was a small waiting area with a few shops and eateries, and then you walked down to the tracks to get on the train.

Delicious!

Trip Report - Our Big Trip - August 11th - Paris - Nobody Here But Us Tourists

A restful night, a good breakfast, and we were ready to hit the streets of Paris. We had gotten word that my luggage had been found and would be forwarded to me in London, since we were leaving Paris the next day. This was a great relief to me!  I had washed my clothes out the night before, and hung them out to dry. In the morning they were mostly dry, but even with the help of the hair dryer, the socks didn't completely dry out. Also, one of the 'souvenir' umbrellas was now held together with a safety pin, so our first order of the day was to get some new socks for me and a sturdier umbrella.

We went to the nearest Metro stop, bought a packet of carnets (transport tickets), and headed to Galeries Lafayette. This domed department store is worth seeing, even if you don't buy anything. I bought a t-shirt/pajama top from Tonic and some new (dry!) socks from Oysho. We also bought an umbrella that looked as if it might last.

Artwork hanging in the dome space

On the top floor of the Galleries there is a lovely viewing area

Map stop

Coffee!

After that we stopped at a cafe to plan the rest of the day. We decided to find out how much of Paris we could see, in a day, by walking and using public transport.

We walked towards Rue de Rivoli, looking at shops, monuments and museums.

A shop window in the Arcades area
near Rue de Rivoli

Outside Gar St-Lazare - a statue
of a tower of suitcases

A chocolate tiger in the window of one of the Patrick Roger
chocolate boutiques near La Madeleine

From Rue de Rivoli we took a bus West on a route paralelling the river, past the Eiffel tower, and got off near the art decco entrance to one of the Metro stops. From there we walked south across the Seine.We stopped for a bite at the restaurant Le Regalia near Pont Mirabeau. We walked along the Seine along the Quai de Grenelle towards the Eiffel Tower, seeing both modern office buildings on the right and antique canal boats on the river to the left.

Line for the Batobus. You can see it is starting to
cloud up.

Trip Report - Our Big Trip - August 10th - Amsterdam to Paris, and an Unfortunate Event

The ship had docked in Amsterdam in the early morning. After a last good breakfast, we fastened the color-coded bags on our luggage (different colors for those who would be staying for an 'after-cruise stay' in Amsterdam, for those who would be being picked up by bus to be taken to the airport, and for those who were departing by taxi or on foot.) We could see the train station from the ship, and we stopped to tell the desk clerk that we were going to walk to the train station to make sure we would be taking the shortest route when we rolled our luggage to the station. The luxury part of our vacation was over, from now on we would rely on public transportation.

The desk clerk told us to leave our bags by our rooms, so we did. We walked away from the dock for a few blocks, then circled back to the train station. It was still early morning, so not many people were about. At one point, thinking of Amsterdam's reputation for drugs I said "I'm disappointed, we've been here fifteen minutes and I haven't seen anyone smoking a joint…"only to immediately catch the whiff of marijuana smoke. At one point I looked into a front window to see a man dancing, dressed only in a leather loincloth. When he noticed me staring, he blew me a kiss.

We went into the front entrance of the train station and checked that we had the right platform and departure times, then walked back to the ship, although we still had a few hours left until our train left for Paris. There was a pile of baggage on the dock, and Harry's bag was there, but mine was not. Then followed a nightmare of searching everywhere, even moving the other bags, one by one, to make sure I hadn't somehow missed my relatively small suitcase. Nothing. I was terrified. I had done the terminally stupid, which was to have left most of my prescription medicine in my suitcase, thinking "what can happen, we are only going for a short walk."

Finally, there was nothing left to be done and we could delay no longer, so we walked back to the train station and caught the Thalys Express to Paris. It felt strange to be getting on a train without luggage, and I wondered what would happen next.

In spite of my concerns, the train trip was very pleasant. There were wide, comfortable seats instead of the cramped confines of tourist class, and the attendant gave us snacks and beverages soon after we sat down. Later they served us a full meal, and they offered city maps and also offered to arrange to have a cab meet us when we arrived.

We got out at the Paris North Station and walked a few short blocks to the Hotel Ibis Styles. This was a 'no-frills' hotel we chose mainly because it was only a short walk from the train station and we would only be in Paris for two nights. Checking in, I explained to the desk clerk why we only had the one suitcase between us "The tour company lost my luggage" I complained, and the desk clerk replied "You're not the first" which helped me put things in perspective.

The room was small, but clean. There were no storage cabinets to speak of,  but room to put down the one suitcase and there was a nice bathroom and hot water.

I had inventoried what I was carrying with me and it turned out that I had both of my asthma inhalers, and Harry had a few extra of another medicine we both take, and he offered to share. I was still missing most of my over-the-counter pills, and the medicine I take for arthritis pain, but I wasn't going to die. I tried calling the ship to see if they had somehow found my suitcase, and wasn't able to reach anyone. By this time I knew the ship was sailing the long stretch of the Rhine back towards Cologne. I also sent an email to what I thought was corporate headquarters asking for guidance, only to find out days later that it had gone to their marketing division instead.

Pedestrian crossing, Amsterdam

We walked over to the Paris East Station, and at a pharmacy there I bought some small necessities, then we took a walk in the neighborhood of our hotel. This was in the 10th Arrondissement, not a popular tourist spot, but there were some nice parks and a lovely walk along the Canal St. Martin.

When we had taken French in adult education classes, our instructor had told us that in the first two weeks of August every Parisian who can goes on vacation. We found this did indeed seem to be true, as many small shops had notices which Harry translated as "back on the 15th of August." Even the MonoPrix around the corner from our hotel was closed.

A canal near the train station, Amsterdam

The Madonna Steak House, Amsterdam

Bike next to "Don't park bike here" sign in Amsterdam

Thalys, Amsterdam to Paris, much
nicer than flying.

Lunch on Thalys to Paris 

View from our Paris window

Our room in Paris

Canal St. Martin

I had seen many locks fastened to fences,
this was the first time I had seen stuffed animals
fastened to fences. Young love?