USA 2022 - Sasha festival part 5

On the Saturday morning of the Sasha Festival in Syracuse the Sasha Sales room opened at 9am, though the stall holders had been busy long before then setting up their wares. I didn't take any photos of the sales room, I was too busy looking at what was for sale and making choices within a tight budget! I did buy a few items.

The theme for the lunch was A Christmas Story, the 1983 film, which wasn't familiar to us though is a Christmas tradition in the USA. Our table hostess was Chris K, who gave us lovely little denim bags she had made, inside the bag was a Christmas apron she made, and she also gave us jingle bells on red ribbon. I had changed Melanie into the Reindeer outfit I had bought from Kurt at the sales, so she ended up wearing the green apron and the bell over her reindeer nose, while holding the bag and other tiny gifts which people gave out (thank you to all those generous people who gave little gifts over the weekend).

Saturday lunchtime

Melanie in the reindeer outfit with Laura still wearing her 'Once in Royal David's city' choral outfit at lunch on Saturday

The festival souvenir for Saturday lunchtime was an amazing red snowsuit with knitted scarf and mittens (threaded through the sleeves) all beautifully made with black boots in a gift box. Ralphie, the main character in A Christmas Story film wears a red snow suit in the film apparently. 

Souvenirs

Our Saturday lunchtime Sasha festival souvenir gift boxes containing the snow suits

Souvenirs

Our Saturday lunchtime Sasha festival souvenirs of red snowsuits, hand knitted scarves and mittens, plus snow boots

The Helper raffle draw took place again at lunchtime. After lunch, there was an open meeting about future festivals which everyone was invited to attend. Although we already knew the 2023 festival was being arranged in Portland, Oregon (details had not yet been announced) there was no organiser or venue yet for the 2024 festival. There was some discussion about what is involved in organising a festival, with Heidi explaining she was updating Ann Chandler's festival organiser advice document. Then Diane D announced that Petrana was offering to run the 2024 festival in Milton Keynes, England! Most of the Sasha Festivals have been held in the USA, with only 2000 (Huddersfield, England) and 2012 (Stratford-upon-Avon, England) held elsewhere - it seems a pattern of every 12 years from 2000 onwards the Festival goes to England. As a local, I offered to help Petrana once she calls for helpers.

I cannot quite believe I didn't take photos of all 6 Raffle dolls! I had meant to but somehow never got a good moment to do so, which means the only two I've photographed properly are the wonderful Christmas Eve in the child's bedroom ensemble by Julie Ruleman and friends, and the Susanna Lewis ensemble which I had helped display. 

Raffle doll

A night before Christmas themed Sasha girl's bedroom raffle doll, co-ordinated by Julie Ruleman

Raffle doll

Many of those wonderful outfits (all the smocked ones) were made by Julie Ruleman

Raffle doll

This Sasha doll is very lucky as she has many lovely toys, a beautiful bed and some superb outfits to wear

The other four Raffle doll ensembles were:

• Baby's First Christmas organised by Fran (to which I had contributed my abacus toy)
• Sasha Alphabet with an item for each letter of the alphabet
• Sasha and souvenirs from the 2021 Sasha festival donated by the Bolland family
• A year of Sasha/Seasons of Sasha with an outfit for each month of the year

We had free time on Saturday afternoon after the Future festivals meeting, so we took the opportunity to use the hotel laundry, then prepared for the festival banquet that evening.

The theme for the banquet was 'A night before Christmas'. Once again the food was served buffet style in the lobby to the large conference room, there was a choice and what we had was delicious.

Our table hostess was Fran, who gave each of us a pretty Christmas dress she had made plus a miniature elf on the shelf in a gift bag.

Table hostess gifts from Fran

Florence and Miranda (who didn't attend the festival) wear the Christmas dresses made by Fran, with the miniature elf on the shelf toys and the gift bags.

On the Saturday evening only there was an exhibition of dolls featuring outfits made or designed by Susanna Lewis, but I didn't manage to photograph that either!

At the hotel one of the staff members had commented earlier in the week when Diane D first arrived with Curly and Helen that she also had a Sasha doll, from her childhood, but had never met anyone else who had a Sasha and was amazed that there was an annual festival featuring these dolls. On the evening of the banquet Stacy brought her doll, called Sasha, to the banquet to show everyone, by that time several Sasha people had given her some new clothes and shoes for her Sasha, who was wearing a lovely yellow ensemble. Diane introduced her and said that as Sasha had not met any other Sasha dolls in many years, tonight she would visit each table so we could take photos of her meeting our Sasha and Gregor dolls and share them in the Sasha Morgenthaler Facebook group.

Diane explains

Diane introduces Stacy and her Sasha

Diane, Stacy, Sasha

Diane explains about Sasha meeting the Sasha community

Meeting

Sasha came to meet Timothy and Laura at our table

Welcome

"Welcome Sasha, it is really good to meet you, we are Timothy and Laura all the way from England"

Hello

"Hello Timothy and Laura, I am pleased to meet you, welcome to Syracuse" said Sasha

Usually at the end of the banquet meal there is a presentation or talk of some kind, this year the format was slightly different because Sharon and Carol explained that the programme was our recollections of Susanna Lewis so everyone was invited to contribute. The microphone was handed around to those who had something they wanted to share about Susanna, resulting in several interesting anecdotes about Susanna, her artistry as a fibre artist and her well researched knowledge of Sasha dolls, plus some early recollections of Sasha festivals especially from Dorisanne Osborn and Anne Votaw who were both sitting at the dinner table with us.

Dinner

Jeanne, Peggy, Mary and Dorisanne at our table.

Dinner

Marti and Anne at our table, with Fran's Sasha wearing the rainbow dress she got in the Children's Fund Auction on Friday night.

Programme announcement

Sharon at the podium invited recollections of Susanna Lewis.

Dorisanne

Dorisanne Osborn recollecting Susanna Lewis and Sasha festivals.

Anne

Anne Votaw talking of her memories of working with Susanna on the three Sasha books.

Our final festival souvenir gifts were given out and proved to be an astonishing achievement of fine sewing and smocking - imagine making 100 almost identical hand smocked white dresses and underwear. The maker had asked to remain anonymous but many of us guessed.

Souvenir dress

2022 Sasha Festival souvenir hand smocked Christmas dress and underwear by anonymous and shoes by Marge Truax

Souvenir outfit

The white underwear, shoes, socks and ribbon

There were four different smocking designs, we received two of the same design, so swapped the next morning with one of our breakfast companions, Florence G, so we had one dress with the candy canes and one with the Advent/Christmas wreaths.

The final Helper Raffle items were drawn then came the big moment when the 6 Raffle dolls draw took place.

Susanna Raffle doll

The Susanna Lewis tribute doll changed into her Christmas dress, a copy of a dress Susanna Lewis wore for Christmas one year, when she was given two little rag dolls (miniature versions of which are just in front of the tribute doll.

Susanna Raffle doll

Wearing her Susanna Lewis Christmas dress, just before the raffle draw

As a gift for helping at the Children's Fund Auction, each young helper was given named raffle ticket to put in their favourite raffle doll paper bag for the draw. The younger teenagers and children helped with the Raffle doll draws. First it was the Sasha doll in her bedroom.

Draw 1

Drawing the first ticket, opening it and reading her own name in amazed excitement! It was brilliant that this raffle doll was won by the child who drew her own named ticket from the previous evening's Children Fund Auction thank you gift! Her joy was a delight to behold.

Draw 2

Next was the draw for the Susanna Lewis tribute doll and her wardrobe. This was won by Carol who was one of the festival organisers.

Draw 4

The children clustered around Fran's Baby's First Christmas raffle for the fourth draw. This was won by Tricia, who generously shared her wonderful prize with the two young brothers who were attending the festival.

One of the teenagers won a raffle doll (I think it was the Alphabet one - draw 3), but I didn't take a note of who won the other two raffle dolls.

Susanna Lewis Raffle doll winner

JoAnn, Carol (the lucky winner) hold the Susanna Lewis doll, me holding Reuben wearing the Shakespeare Dream Coat for Sasha, and Marti just before we took down the display of the Susanna Lewis tribute raffle doll.

Some of us had brought our SCW Charity course dolls to the festival, so after the Raffle we arranged a group photograph.

SCW Charity course dolls

Four SCW Charity course dolls and their proud makers at the 2022 Sasha Doll Festival - me, Monica, JoAnn and Beth

On Sunday morning we all had breakfast together in the conference room before Sharon and Carol gave out thank you gifts to those who had helped at the festival. For helping at the Children's Fund Auction my daughter received a set of four beautiful notelet cards with the illustrations by the late Mary C Krupp, whose tribute was printed in the festival journal. One of the cards was the image on the front cover of the journal and had been used on the postcard announcing the details of the festival.

Notelets

The Notelet cards illustrated by Mary C Krupp and the Festival journal article about her.

Announcements

Sharon and Carol doing final festival announcements.

Smiling

After breakfast with our cheerful breakfast companions as we awaited the announcement of the next Sasha Doll Festival

Karen and Kurt came up to the podium to announce the theme, date and venue of the 2023 Sasha Doll Festival as the postcard with all the details was handed around to everyone. The theme is 'Sasha Rocks' as Sasha enthusiasts celebrate 40 years of the festival. The festival will take place from 27th - 30th July 2023 at the Holiday Inn on the Columbia River, Portland, Oregon. Karen explained that she had been challenged at (I think) the Arizona festival to put on a Sasha festival on the western side of the USA, as so many of the festivals have been in the Eastern or Midwestern states, so this festival was several years in the planning, delayed a bit by the pandemic.

Sasha Rocks

The official Sasha Rock group announcing that 'Sasha Rocks' in Portland, Oregon, July 2023

We wish we could attend, but it overlaps with a musical event in which my daughter will be playing violin plus the distance and cost is another factor for us unfortunately. Good luck Karen and Kurt with all the planning, we'll come up with something to contribute which fits the theme even though we won't be able to attend.

Wishing

Florence, Melanie and Reuben wish they could attend 'Sasha Rocks' next year

And so it was time to say goodbye to all our Sasha friends as the 2022 Sasha Doll Festival in Syracuse came to an end, which is always sad. Several people congregated in the main foyer during the morning and lunchtime as they awaited transport to the airport, some of us were not leaving until the next day.

Thank you Sharon and Carol, and all their helpers for a wonderful 'Christmas in July' Sasha Festival 2022.

USA 2022 - Sasha festival part 1

The much anticipated Sasha Festival 2022 had finally become reality.

We arrived in Syracuse, New York State on the Wednesday before the Sasha Doll Festival after 2 days of travelling and visiting friends (including Dorisanne and her daughter Jeanne) in the USA. We soon spotted a few doll friends in the hotel lobby and enjoyed a quiet dinner in the hotel restaurant after a busy day. 

The festival didn't start officially until the Thursday afternoon so we had a leisurely morning getting settled before going to festival registration. Soon I was helping JoAnn set up the Susanna Lewis doll raffle prize while Fran set up her 'Baby's first Christmas' raffle doll nearby. I contributed an abacus I had made from parts I had left over from the SCW workshop in 2018 to Fran's raffle baby ensemble. I had brought the Shakespeare Dream Coat, a print out of the blog post and JoAnn had printed out the picture of the original wearable art by Susanna Lewis to display on the table with the coat (later she also printed out a picture of the embroidered quote on the inside of the coat). My Reuben (Caleb) wore black and modelled the coat in the display, standing with his face to the wall for the next 3 days.

JoAnn and I had so much fun setting up the display, which was one of 6 Raffle dolls at the festival (usually they have about 3), there were some wonderful donations to the Susanna Lewis doll reflecting Susanna's life and likes, at the last minute I made a miniature festival name tag for her about of some thin card and a spare piece of ribbon I had with me to go with her shirt, shorts and glasses outfit that the raffle doll wore for the first day (the outfit was based on a photo of Susanna at a previous Sasha festival). 

The completed Susanna Lewis tribute raffle doll display, with Susanna wearing her usual festival clothes of shirt, shorts and nametag

The Shakespeare Dream Coat, plus some wonderful other outfits inspired by Susanna's clothing style in the Susanna Lewis raffle doll collection

Susanna the Sasha doll in memory of Susanna Lewis, fibre artist and Sasha doll expert

Some knitwear for Sasha (pink and green set, plus the red dress with white blouse) made by Susanna Lewis and donated by her daughters, also the pale blue dress made by JoAnn as a copy of the dress Susanna wore one Christmas as a child

We had some food then joined the 'meet and greet' which was the first 'event' of the festival, at 6pm. This was held in the same large conference room as all the raffle and auction displays were set up in. The theme of the Festival was 'Christmas in July' with the theme for the 'meet and greet' set as 'ugly Christmas sweater'.

Our dolls (l-r) Edmund, Russell (our SCW Charity doll), Louisa, Melanie and Florence in their 'ugly Christmas sweaters'

People had brought their dolls dressed in fun Christmas clothes, some of them even dressed up for the occasion themselves. We caught up with friends we'd made at the 2017 festival and met some new friends (people I had previously only communicated with via the online Sasha groups).

Some Sasha dolls (and friend) in their Christmas wear

A Meowy Christmas sweater on this lovely Sasha

Santa's little helper

Another fun 'ugly Christmas sweater' worn by this Gregor looks like it has taken this Sasha by surprise

Red knitwear and an ice skating sweater on this Gregor and Sasha

Lots of decorations on this girl's sweater

Gingerbread and ribbons on this boy's sweater

Dark warmth and a Christmas tree sweater for these two

A later Gotz girl with repainted eyes wears her Christmas tree sweater proudly

A sweet little dress and hat on this little Gotz Esther toddler

The sweater girl rocks her gingerbread man dress

The famous Curly had his hair done in red Christmas bows by his friends, even his gavel got a bow.

This girl wears a wonderful printed Christmas pinafore dress while the toddler sports a knitted Christmas playsuit

After the 'meet and greet' we returned to our room to redress some of our Sasha dolls in readiness for the 'Dress a Sasha' competition the next morning.

Shakespeare Dream Coat for Sasha

JoAnn and Marti decided to dedicate one of the raffle dolls for the 2022 Sasha Doll Festival in Syracuse New York to the memory of Susanna Lewis, a fibre artist, Sasha doll expert, educator and author who died in July 2021 following surgery at the time of the postponed 2020 festival. 

The Susanna Lewis raffle doll needed outfits and accessories so JoAnn and Marti asked the Sasha community to provide them, inspired by Susanna's own knitwear designs and the profile of her which Theresa had featured on her blog a few years previously. During one of the conversations in a Sasha Morgenthaler doll Facebook group, I mused about the possibility of re-creating one of her wearable art creations. I was particularly taken by her Shakespeare Dream Coat (1977) which featured in a huge book called Art to Wear by Julie Schafler Dale, Susanna's galleria. 

Following encouragement from JoAnn (and also Susanna's elder daughter Alexa), I started researching what I could about the coat. It is in private ownership, I don't know who owns it and the only published photo of it is the one in that book, though someone had put the picture from the book on Flickr which I studied carefully (it was helpful to be able to zoom in and I printed it out). I eventually bought a second-hand copy of the book (shipped from Germany), it is huge, heavy and filled with interesting wearable art plus the text describing the meanings and inspiration behind each piece. The section on Susanna Lewis covers several of her works, but only that one photo of the Shakespeare Dream coat, so there is no front view or inside view. I had to guess based on the way it is displayed. The paragraph describing it is as follows:

"Shakespeare Dream Coat (1977) is a result of Susanna's interest in the nineteenth century American double-weave and jacquard coverlets done by immigrant weavers from Scotland and other parts of the British Isles. These journeymen set up shop with their large and complex looms throughout the Eastern and Midwestern states. Susanna used their coverlet patterns as surface decoration, translating woven designs into knitted ones. She incorporates a pine-tree border from a coverlet belonging to her family as a framework to surround a small appliquéd landscape. The farmer sowing crops suggests the beginning of a cycle of life, as does the quotation from Shakespeare knitted along the interior edge of the coat. Tombstone angels once more float in the heavens, near the shoulder section - suggesting the end of a life cycle - topped by a crescent moon dangling from a separate hood." (pp89, Art to Wear, Julie Schafler Dale)

I charted a pattern using an Excel spreadsheet grid (adapting an earlier cardigan pattern to help with sizing), then knitted the main body of the coat in plain wool just to test that I had the coat shape and size right. In hindsight it would have helped to have used a lighter colour wool for that test piece, which was dark green and hard to count the stitches(!). I had ordered the various colours of wool (spindrift) from Jamieson's of Shetland (Buttercup, Wild violet, Easit, Ginger, Cocoa, Amber, Rust, Spruce, Grouse) and was all set to knit the coat when I got covid-19 in early February. I isolated from the family, limited to my working from home tiny office/craft room and the spare bedroom, masking up when I ventured to the bathroom. We ventilated the house (windows open in winter) and the others did not get the virus thankfully. After the acute sore throat and headache had subsided somewhat, I was well enough to sit up and do things in isolation so picked up the knitting and worked on the coat while watching the Winter Olympics on my working from home computer screen, with the Flickr photo on a second screen and the charted pattern on the laptop screen (I use 3 screens for my day job).

Reuben worked as my sizing model for checking progress and fit.

Knitting the coat at the laptop, with pattern, printed out picture and knitting progress, February 2022

Reuben modelling the body of the coat once I'd reached the shoulders, February 2022 (grainy phone photo)

Back view of the coat, February 2022 (grainy phone photo)

The main coat, without hood, was knitted by the time I flew to South Africa a month after having Covid-19. I did a little work on it while in SA as I was starting the fabric embroidered tombstone angels by then.

'Wrong' side of the coat, showing the stranded nature of the knitting

'Wrong' side of the bottom of the coat, showing the picot edge

'Right' side of the bottom of the coat, before the picot edge was stitched in place

I used an embroidery hoop and three different fabrics for the basis for the tombstone angels, all from my fabric stash - a pale blue shirt I wore for work about 28 years ago, a pale pink sheet which used to be on my younger daughter's childhood bed and an offcut of a pale yellow patterned fabric (Humphrey's corner) which I had used to make her baby bedding - the sun shapes were stitched over for some of the angels.

Embroidery of the tombstone angels in progress (June 2022)

Angels pinned onto the coat

Embroidery in progress on the yellow fabric

I knitted the hood, it took some experimenting to get the shape right. I chose to stitch the hood to the coat rather than have it as a separate hood.

There was some hand embroidery direct onto the knitting and some bead work once the angels had been stitched in place. The tiny rust colour glass beads are used on the bottom edges for the little flowers, they are on yellow felt circles, with embroidery leaves. There are yellow glass beads around the crescent moon.

Close up of the crescent moon and the top tombstone angels

On Susanna's original coat is a farmer sowing seeds in his field at the bottom of the middle back, I embroidered an impression of him directly on the knitting. I did not line the hood (or the sleeves).

Close up of the bottom of the back of the coat, showing the farmer sowing seeds in his fields

I had knitted the front edge of the coat in Buttercup yellow, however I embroidered another colour (Wild Violet) into it then stitched brown velvet ribbon on the back to give it some additional thickness and firmness as the rest of the coat was thicker than the front edges due to the stranded pattern. I used two wooden buttons  and 3 strands (2 Buttercup, 1 Wild Violet) plaited for a fastening at the top of the coat as I did not know how the original coat was fastened and I did not want to make buttonholes.

Close up of the fastening at the top of the coat - two wooden beads and a plaited wool bow.

I decided that knitting a quote from Shakespeare in small scale was not practical, instead I embroidered it on the lining fabric (the pale blue from my old shirt). I was not able to find out what the quote was that Susanna had used because neither her profile in Theresa's blog, nor the Art to Wear book mentioned what it was, and there are no publicly available photos of it. In a nod to the 2012 Sasha Doll Festival held in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, which had a theme of 'A Midsummer Nights Dream', I wanted to pick a suitable quote from that play, but Puck's speech didn't talk about the cycle of life, or dreams in few words, whereas Prospero's speech at the end of The Tempest very much did refer to both life cycle and dreams.

"We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep" (Prospero, The Tempest, William Shakespeare)

The inside of the finished Shakespeare Dream Coat for Sasha, with the embroidered quote: "We are such stuff as Dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep" (Prospero, The Tempest, William Shakespeare). 

View of the tombstone angels and crescent moon

Side view of the coat, showing the hood shape 

The back view of the Shakespeare Dream coat for Sasha, July 2022

Reuben models the Shakespeare Dream Coat for Sasha, in tribute to Susanna Lewis

It took many hours to make this Shakespeare Dream Coat for Sasha, but it was an enjoyable challenge and I hope a fitting tribute to Susanna Lewis.

Reference:

Julie Schafler Dale, Art to Wear (1986), Abbeville Press, New York ISBN 0-89659-664-8