Quinlan Doll & Teddy Bear Convention

I hadn't been to a doll convention in years but this year I participated in the Quinlan Doll & Teddy Bear Convention, Show & Sale in Essington, Pennsylvania. It was wonderful. If you are interested in dolls or bears or both, this is the place you should be next year. The talent was astounding. I did have a table of my dolls set up and have ideas swirling in my head for next year. It will be bigger and better. I saw an old friend there, met new friends, got lots of business information, networked, and had a lot of fun.

Here I am with the kids.

A view of my whole table. It turned out better than I'd hoped.

This is a needle felted bear by artist Stevi T of Alpaca Encounters. www.stevit.etsy.com

And this is her pirate Steampunk rat.

There were many panel discussions and this one was on How to Find, Create and Encourage New Collectors. The panel included Agnes Intellicato, Christine, Donna Nielsen, Debbie Weimert, Cindy McGuire, and Amy Thornton.

Christine Shively-Benjamin also gave a talk for someone who couldn't make it. It was called, Dolls in the Smithsonian's Museum of the American Indian.

Me and Christine. We've been friends for a very long time.

Lillian Alberti, Diane Troutman, and me.

Some of the wonderful people I met at one of the yummy meals.

Mark Dennis. Love his work. He won two awards the last night.

Here's Christine again. She's a lovely lady and avid collector. I'm going to have to do this in two parts.