The Fairy Doll Mothers

About thirty-or-so years ago, I attended my first Quilt Market. At that time, Quilt Market was not an international event--it was held in the Shamrock Hotel ballroom, in Houston Texas, right around Halloween each year. Even though it was small in comparison to what it now is, it was a magical event for me. As I walked each aisle, I was awed by the variety and sheer talent of the quilters and doll makers, pattern companies, thread and fabric companies who exhibited there. It made a huge impact on the direction I would take in that industry. During one of those early years, I saw the Victorian Doll by elinor peace bailey (she prefers lower case). It was the most wonderful thing I ever saw. And when I met elinor, she lived up to everything I had supposed. This dazzling woman not only defied 'rules' of sewing and making things, but became the world leader of cloth doll making. Her attire included dolls who ornamented her clothing, hats, and her life!

elinor at Quilt Market, dressed up as a nurse on Halloween

Virginia Robertson's outer appearance wasn't as colorful as elinor's, but she was equally accomplished--she held a Masters in Art and had taught at university, and was a well-known quilter--AND she had business savvy, which is something that many artists lack.

Her own quilt shop was housed in an old church in Kansas, and was a thriving business. Virginia designed doll patterns, wrote books about how to give dolls life-like faces, and gave her Aunt Cora eternal life as a wonderful cloth doll. Her 'arthritis' dolls and spirit dolls were colorful and mystical. She also created several wonderful lines of her own fabric.

One of Virginia's many publications

Aunt Cora

These two women formed a great friendship, and I was lucky to call them both friends. When I came across this old photo from the 'good old days,' I knew I had to make a painting of these dear women. So, that's how this all came to be.

Virginia Robertson and elinor peace bailey

My painting mentor, Del Parson once told us that we should 'never use a bad photo.' Bad was defined as a photograph that didn't have good contrast, lighting, shadows, etc. This old photo was as bad as it gets, and I should have steered clear. It was a difficult journey trying to create depth and proper detail of faces and bodies, but I stubbornly kept working on it until I was happy with it.

The painting itself shows my two friends with fairy wings, and a clothesline of dolls in the background. The dolls are based on an 'Eve' doll elinor created for her book, 'Mother Plays With Dolls.' The black and white doll is one of the 'Arthritis' dolls made by Virginia. The third little doll is one I made up, as a symbol of the many things I learned from these two artists.

Mother Plays With Dolls

Later on, I was able to curate a wonderful exhibition of one-of-a-kind cloth dolls, called Dollmakers Magic.  Each year, I invited fifty doll artists to create a cloth doll using VIP Fabrics (Cranston) and Fairfield Processing stuffing products. The show premiered at fall Quilt Market each October. Each summer, the Museum of American Folk Art, in New York City, sponsored the show at Rockefeller Center in the Cafe. I was bombarded by doll makers who wanted to participate. The show ran for five years, before I decided to move on to other projects. I talked to a publisher--Quilt Digest Press--at Quilt Market, and we decided to do a book on doll making; thus, my first book was 'born.'

This was the beginning of a whole new thing for me. I loved this experience, and was heartbroken when Michael Kile, the owner died of AIDS. The publishing company was never the same after his death, and several years later became a subsidiary of The Chicago Tribune. Other owners, including the present owner, McGraw-Hill worked with me, and I was contracted to do another doll making book:

(I also wrote a book for C&T Publishing called "Whimsical Animals.") I also tackled other subjects, including paper crafts, quilting, wedding decor, and then another doll book, with Jo Packham (publisher of Where Women Create), for Sterling Publishing:

These books were a great joy to write--and create the projects within. I always knew, however, that a painter was lurking inside me, waiting for the right moment to pop out. While I was raising children, I knew I already had too many projects and clients, but once they were raised and out the door, I started yearning to paint. In about 2008, I went out with my cousin Mary and we painted some of the local scenery at Snow Canyon (near St George, Utah). I was simply terrible, but it unleashed the painter inside me, and I kept at it, doggedly trying to learn technique. I hadn't painted canvases since college--a good many years ago. Not to say I hadn't been painting things, for one of the many hats I wore was doing display at a local arts and crafts store. That included window display, Christmas trees, home decor, and fabric crafts. It was like playing for a living. Loved it, and still go a little mad around Christmas!

Close-up of the three dolls on the clothesline