Sasha Festival 2024 DollMum's donations to the baby and Gregor raffles

I made two items to donate to two different raffles at the 2024 Sasha Festival.

A baby doll raffle was compiled Florence from the USA. She needed toys for the baby, so I made one of the push along duck toys I had originally designed for the craft workshop I ran at the 2017 Sasha Celebration Weekend. 

Push along duck for the 2024 baby doll raffle

Push along duck for the 2024 baby doll raffle

The Gregor raffle was compiled by Dawn in the UK and she said the boy had clothes but not many toys or accessories. I created a version of the ostrich marionette I had designed for the craft workshop at the 2016 Sasha Celebration weekend. I had one spare hand controller from that workshop but did not have any spare body parts, with no time to make another body, I searched through my stash of wooden beads and devised a variant of the 2016 design using a large red wooden bead plus a small red wooden bead. I still  had the packet of colourful feathers which some people had used at the workshop to decorate their ostrich marionettes, so used some lime green feathers for his head and tail.

The 2024 version of the bird marionette, made for the Gregor raffle doll

The marionette controller, all I had to do was add the strings as the controller was made in 2016

Florence collected the push along duck from me soon after we got to the hotel and I found Dawn in the room where all the special doll raffles, helper raffles, displays and Children's fund auction items were being set up on the Thursday afternoon, so was able to hand over the marionette to her. Later, when she was setting up the raffle display she was entertained by the ostrich marionette it is possible to make him 'walk along' by moving the controller.

 

USA 2017 - Sasha festival part 4

After viewing all the Dress a Sasha entries and voting on Friday afternoon, some of the children asked to be allowed to swim in the hotel pools - there was an indoor and outdoor pool.  So Fran and I went to watch and chat as they had fun in the outdoor pool. 

Having fun in the Marriott hotel swimming pool

Then after a quick shower and hairwash for my girl, we had an early dinner in the hotel restaurant, though I went to pack away our Dress a Sasha entries while we waited for our food as the voting had finished and the rosettes were being put out.  Each entrant was given a tiny Sasha necklace in a clear ziplock bag to thank us for entering.  I will blog about the other entries in another post.

The Children's Fund Auction is the event which most people at the festival look forward to keenly as it is fascinating to see how high the bids go for all the wonderful donations.  We came in to the ballroom where it took place just as they were finishing announcing the Dress a Sasha results - my girl won First prize for her entry (she had no competition, however people said many kind and complimentary things about her scene and creativity).

Pin the Tail on the Donkey with its first prize rosette

I had taken some photos of the first few CFA entries but didn't manage to complete the set (see Theresa's blog for the whole set).

Lots 1, 2 and 3 of the Children's Fund Auction

Lots 4, 5 and 6 of the Children's Fund Auction

Lots 7 and 8 of the Children's Fund Auction

The children love to help with the Children's Fund Auction which this year was conducted by Sheila as Marti was unwell so unable to attend.  The children take it in turns to bring up an item and hold it up for all to see while the bidding takes place.

Sheila welcomed us to the Children's Fund Auction

Expectant audience for the CFA

View of the first lots in the Children's Fund Auction from my table

My girl holds up lot 6 (doll not included)

I hoped to bid on a couple of items but the bidding went so high on the items I wanted (mainly anything smocked for my girl!) so my paddle went down.  I hadn't managed to look at or photograph all the items either, however Theresa did a great job of blogging every item after the festival.  I sat and recorded in my list what each item went for as I had brought over donations from Lorraine (Henry's Yearbook) and Gregorpolis (knitting by Lorraine) and my own donation of hand made toys for Sasha.  It was interesting to watch and sometimes when the bidding went very high, it became very exciting.

Holding lot 16 (doll not included)

Lot 41 (Henry's Year book for 2016)

The slides for Lot 41 (Henry's Year book for 2016)

Evening dress outfits - Lot 52 (dolls not included)

Lot 55 was Halloween themed

The toys I had donated to the auction (in lot 57) were the 3 kits from the Sasha Celebration weekend (2015 train engine and tender, 2016 marionette, 2017 push-along duck), a wooden sailing boat (Horizon) and an item I had made specially for the Festival, which is one of only two I have made.  It was described in the list as a wooden rocking horse, however it was not a rocking horse, it was a 'Little Wooden Horse' on wheels, along with a new hardcover copy of the Ursula Moray Williams book 'The Adventures of the Little Wooden Horse' which had inspired this creation.  I made one horse to donate and one to keep for my Sasha family.  It is entirely made from wood, with brass screws to hold the wheels on, stiff thread for its tail, and is painted in bright enamel paints.  Below are the photos I took of it to send to Marti for her slides.

The little wooden horse, right side

The little wooden horse, left side

The little wooden horse, right diagonal view

The little wooden horse, left diagonal view

The little sailing boat Horizon

The sailing boat with its box

The Little Wooden horse with its box and the book

The complete set of toys for Sasha by DollMum in Lot 57

At the festival my daughter took lot 57 up for the bids.

Lot 57 on display

My daughter holding Lot 57 (with a towel over her shoulders as her hair was still damp!)

Sheila auctions Lot 57

I was delighted to see the bids go up and up for lot 57 to $95 and was very pleased that Anne S (who had restrung Mabel for me earlier in the day) was the winner.

The Children's Fund Auction raised over $11,000 for children's charities, which was fantastic. 

After the auction, my girl could be found playing chess with her two Sasha festival friends in the hotel lobby with the giant set of chess. I could imagine the Sasha dolls using that set to play 'Wizard Chess' from Harry Potter but we didn't set this up as there wasn't any time during the festival.

The girls playing chess

It had been a long, fun and interesting Friday at the 2017 Sasha Festival.  The next post will be about Saturday at the Festival.

You can read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of the 2017 Sasha Festival in separate posts.

Sasha Celebration Weekend 2017 - part 4

Saturday morning at the Sasha Celebration weekend has become the time to hold the craft workshops.  After breakfast those of us running the workshops were given time to set up our tables before the crowds of eager crafters came to make what we had prepared for them.  We each had been asked to make up 50 kits so that even if people couldn't get everything done in the 3 hours, they could take away a kit or the pattern for the craft.

In the Maypole/International exhibition room Emma, Judith and I set up our tables, in the Favourite doll/Raffle room Jane, Janet, Brigitte and Frances had their crafts.  Emma's project was a felt jacket with braiding, Judith's project an apron, Janet's project was a wool rug made via the progging method, Jane's project was some miniature paper gift bags, Frances had some beautiful decorated bags for people to make and Brigitte was teaching people how to make leather satchels for Sasha.

My project was another toy for Sasha. Months ago Janet had suggested a push along toy to me and mentioned she had a push along duck as a child.  I investigated lots of design ideas and eventually decided to buy some laser cut wooden ducks and some round wooden discs for the wheels.  To cut 50 duck shapes in the workshop would have taken me far to long and they would not have been accurate. The duck shapes I bought were too thin for the push along rod hole so 5 weeks before the Celebration weekend my girl helped by gluing pairs of duck shapes together with me.  When they were dry I drilled holes in them for the wheel axle and for the push along rod, drilled all the wheels, cut the rods (bamboo skewers) and bought some coloured beads for the end of the push along rod from local charity shops. My husband cut the axles from phosphor bronze rod and I filed the ends. My girl assembled the prototype duck for me after she had coloured it in with felt tip pens.  It did not take her long to do and she enjoyed it, which was a good test of the kit.  I wrote up the instructions and assembled all the kits.  We also decided that duck webbed feet could be imitated by gluing short lengths of ribbon around the rims of the wheels. Not even Janet knew exactly what the toy would be - she just knew I was doing a toy again.

The push along duck

The push along duck showing the wheels and flappy feet of ribbon

The parts of the kit for the push along duck

The push along duck craft table awaiting crafters

Miranda and Edmund with the push along duck

On the day Miranda and Edmund showed off the push along duck on our table. My girl was able to look around the other tables and decided what she wanted to make on the day as she had already made the duck. She also collected some of the other kits to make later.

Emma's table awaiting crafters

Colouring their ducks

Colouring in the ducks

Making aprons at Judith's table

Emma explaining how to make the felt jacket

Felt jacket making

Making leather satchels

The doll wearing the leather satchel on her back

Janet showing how progging the rug works

Making rugs

Jane with her paper bag crafters

Making the little decorated bag

Rug making

Discussing ducks and Sasha dolls

Iris draws eye lashes on her duck's eyes

Assembling the push along toy

Emma demonstrates getting all the pattern pieces out of the felt

Showing off her completed, very colourful duck

Colouring ducks as Miranda and Edmund watch

Enjoying the ducks

Two more unique ducks completed

Sewing the apron with Judith's advice

My girl receiving some experienced advice on how to set the sleeves in the jacket

Jackets in progress

More duck making and Janet enjoying her finished duck

Showing off his completed duck

The wobblers in the wood play with their new push along duck toy

Testing the push along duck rolling along the table

Assembling her duck

Very proudly showing off her duck

Watching a duck being coloured

Discussing a soft bodied baby while the last duck is made

My girl made good progress with the felt jacket (which was a long complicated sewing project), she will finish it at home.

I enjoyed explaining and advising how to make the push along ducks during the workshop and seeing the unique colourful ducks which people created.  No two ducks were alike.  There was a lot of chatting and happy laughter around all the craft tables during the morning, with everyone absorbed and enthusiastic about what they were making.  The challenge for those of us who volunteer to run the craft workshops is to work out what to create for the next Sasha Celebration weekend which will be just as appealing.