next meeting: Sunday, March 8

Please join us on March 8th from 3-6 p.m. in the Harrison Center gymnasium to chit chat 'n' craft.

Harrison Center for the Arts
1505 North Delaware Street
Indianapolis, IN 46202

Last time folks were having trouble finding us since the doors at the HCA are locked on Sundays, so please have a cell phone handy to call Allison or Amanda if you cannot get in at the Delaware Street courtyard entrance. We will post someone there to open the door for the first ten minutes, so please try to arrive right around 3.

The agenda:
We need to do a lot of important shop talk at this meeting.

- We will hopefully (fingers crossed) hand out shirts if we have them in hand.

- Discuss the "Craft Mafia" gallery show for June to see who is realistically interested in creating pieces for the show.

- Discuss the outdoor textiles art installation we are doing for June.

- Give anyone interested info on applying for the INDIEana Handicraft Exchange in June (vendor applications due by March 14)

Also, we will be doing a mobile workshop as the main portion of the meeting. Allison Ford will teach everyone how to make paper crane mobiles, and we will discuss a possible future project, potentially for Riley Children's Hospital, or another children's charity, involving the cranes.

For the mobile workshop, everyone needs to bring their own:

- magazines to recycle

- scissors

- long sewing needle

- needlenose pliers

We will provide:

- wire

- fishing line

The meeting following this one will be on Sunday, April 26, also at the Harrison Center for the Arts, from 3-6 p.m. This will be our Contemporary Quilting Bee, with guest speaker Susan Fletcher Conaway. Her work is amazing. The image below is one of her pieces. You can read her blog and view additional images of her quilts at: http://fiberartalmosteveryday.blogspot.com/
Indianapolis Monthly will have a preview for this event in their April issue.


In the meantime, we would like to start having informal, small-group, breakfast, lunch, dinner or coffee meetings. Just spur of the moment (or relatively so) get-togethers at homes, restaurants or coffeeshops to get to know one another better and work on ongoing projects. If anyone would like to propose/host meetings like this, email the info to IndyCraftMafia@yahoo.com and we will post the info on our blog and/or email the info to all members ASAP.

And lastly, please add IndyCraftMafia@yahoo.com to your email address books. We want to be sure all members, and folks who are interested in soon becoming members, receive all info about our gatherings and projects.

Hope to see you all on the 8th!

our AWESOME bird's nest chair

Well, we've completed our chair and have turned it over to the Care for Kids foundation for their silent auction. Big thanks to all who came out to the Harrison Center on Feb. 8 to help us work on the project. It turned out wonderfully. We used an old Papasan chair and went with a bird's nest theme, complete with giant bird and eggs. The finished piece is really quite amazing. And comfy. We let Allison's daughter, Harper, give it a test run and she didn't seem to have any complaints.

All individual artists or groups who donated to the silent auction will receive two tickets to the event. We will give the two we receive for our group to any of the folks who worked on the chair, and who are willing to attend the event to represent the Indy Craft Mafia. First come, first served.

If anyone else would like to purchase tickets to attend the charity event, the information is below. Please come to check out our chair, as well as to see our competition.

***If you cannot attend the event, the Care for Kids Foundation will be bringing our chair, and a couple others, to Allison's studio at the Harrison Center for the First Friday gallery event on March 6. They will be selling tickets and handing out info for their organization, and Indy Craft Mafia members are welcome to stop by and hang out for a bit. Bring your knitting or crochet projects and sit and chat with us for a while. Allison's studio is downstairs, near The Underground. We will be talking to anyone who expresses interest about what the Indy Craft Mafia has done, what we would like to do, and who is in our group. We'd love to see you all there!***

-Amanda, Candice, Allison & Amy, www.IndyCraftMafia.com

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Care for Kids Chair-ity Affair

www.chair-ityaffair.com

Friday, March 20, 2009
6 pm to 10 pm
The Car Room at The Stutz
1060 North Capitol Avenue
Indianapolis, IN 46204
Ticket Price: $50/person

Emcee: Joe Staysniak, WIBC - 93.1 FM

The Care for Kids Chair-ity Affair is a special evening that brings together the arts community, businesses and citizens for a live and silent auction that’s all about CHAIRS! The Car Room at The Stutz will be filled with a variety of chairs including original chairs from the homes of national and local celebrities as well as artist chairs where artists and decorators turn ordinary chairs into original works of art. All chairs will be unique conversation pieces and will make great additions to a home or business. The Chair-ity Affair will feature a strolling dinner, live entertainment, and of course, the live and silent chair auctions.

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INDIEana Handicraft Exchange - accepting vendor apps now!

hello all. we are currently accepting applications for the Saturday, June 13, 2009 show.

the summer craft fair will run from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. in conjunction with the IMAF (Independent Music and Arts Festival) which brings out a crowd of 4000-5000 people each year. the event will be held at the Harrison Center for the Arts at 1505 North Delaware Street, Indianapolis, IN 46202. www.harrisoncenter.org

if you would like to apply to be a vendor in the fair, please send an email to:
indieana_handicraft_exchange@yahoo.com indicating so. we will email you the application and info sheet. we are currently working on our website, and hopefully soon the applications will simply be available for download there to make the process easier.

the deadline for application submissions is Saturday, March 14.

thanks. we're looking forward to receiving your applications and seeing your work!
-amanda
www.IndieanaHandicraftExchange.com
www.myspace.com/indy_bitchcraft
www.IndyCraftMafia.com

Chair-ity Affair Patchwork Party: Sunday, Feb. 8

Apologies for the late notice, but we'd love for you to help us decorate our chair for A Chair-ity Affair, put on by the Care for Kids Foundation. We'll be working on the chair from 3-6pm in the Harrison Center gymnasium. Sunday, February 8.

Free to members. $5 for non-members.

OUR CONCEPT: A Craft Nest.

OUR GAME PLAN: Have each member (and non-member) contribute a portion of the chair. We'll have some spare fabrics and notions for you to dig through. But, if you have something specific in mind, come armed with your choices of thread, needles, notions, etc to make your "patch" for our patchwork nest. All of the patches will be sewn together and will represent our organization. We'll also need a couple of volunteers to create the pillows that will accompany our Craft Nest. We're thinking egg or bird shaped might be appropriate. Felt? Perhaps. Any other ideas are always more than welcome.

So, come armed and ready to dig in and have a great time. It's for a good cause and it's a great way to promote the ICM. And, heck, if our chair wins a prize, the ICM can put money in the bank to go towards upcoming workshops and events.

RECOMMENDATION: When you're thinking about your design, you may keep in mind that portions of the design could be cropped when assembling the overall design. This would effect any text used in a design.

LOCATION: The Harrison Center for the Arts
1505 North Delaware Street, Indianapolis, IN 46202
317.727.6446