A Very Busy Week

I had a whirlwind week last week.  So much so that I’m still not caught up and only getting around to posting this now 🙂  Last Monday I had the chance to visit with Rainie Crawford,  she is a wonderful artist and doll maker, who designed an entire line of cloth doll and teddy bear patterns.  You may remember seeing her ads for mail order patterns in many women’s magazines over the years.  My friend Joy and I spent an entire day with Rainie.  She gave us a tour of all of her collections and we had a lovely time talking about doll and bear making, among many other topics.  The day just flew past.  I took lots of photos of Rainie’s collections and dolls which I will be sharing in a later post.  Rainie is going to be selling her prototype dolls.  They are all of the models used in her magazine ads.  She has not worked out all of the details just yet, but if you would be interested in adding an original Rainie Crawford prototype cloth doll to your collection, you may contact me at paula@asweetremembrance.com and I will gladly put you in touch with Rainie.

On Friday, a group of friends and I braved the rain to go to the Country Living Fair in Rhinebeck, NY.  We had a fun, but very wet, day and came back home with a head full of ideas and bag full of treasures.  I have been wanting to go to a Country Living Fair for several years, but hadn’t been willing to drive to Ohio to attend.

The rain finally cleared enough on Saturday for me to go to an antique show in Harwinton, CT, which is held at the local fair grounds.  That meant I was traipsing around poultry and livestock buildings two days in a row 🙂  I’ve been going to the Harwinton show, which was previously held at the polo grounds in Farmington,CT, for twenty years.  Unfortunately the show is much smaller than it was in it’s heyday.  The show has been plagued with bad weather for quite a few years, which may have kept some dealers away.  Even though there was less to see, I did enjoy looking at the offerings presented by some great long time antique dealers, and managed to unearth a few wonderful bits of doll clothing and accessories.

On Sunday morning it was back to the Elephant’s Trunk Flea Market for my weekly antique fabric hunt.  I shop all summer long, searching for enough antique fabrics to tide me over through the lean shopping months of winter.  At times I feel like a busy squirrel, frantically burying seeds in every possible nook and cranny.   Needless to say, my studio is now piled high with stacks of tattered quilts, bits of lace, well worn linens and the surviving remnants of once beautiful antique garments.  All of them waiting for me to gently take them apart, wash and air them, then fold them safely away and store them on the shelves in my studio, where they will wait until I bring them back to life as part of my dollmaking.

I promise to share photos of some of my best finds in upcoming posts.  Until then I wish you all luck with your own summer treasure hunts!