Has anybody seen Abigail? She's been missing since 1996.

She's 5 inches tall and carrying around a slate and a school bell like an old-fashioned schoolmarm. Riderwood resident Shirley Neilson wants her back.

Neilson, a member of the congregation of Providence United Methodist Church for nearly 30 years, is the taskmistress who keeps the United Methodist Women's crafts group at the church churning out meticulously crafted items for the church's annual bazaar in November -- including dolls such as Abigail.

All proceeds go to local charities or to the church at 1318 Providence Road, which has a congregation of only 87.

"Without Shirley, we'd run amok," said Karen Stine, of Parkville, who at 56 is the self-described "baby" of the crafts group, as well as the president of the UMW chapter.

Neilson, a Maryland Institute of Art graduate who made a career in interior design, is 77. Flora Chrest, who has been a member of the group since 1975, is 86 -- and Norma Seitz, Shirley Steel, Ida Moore, Jean Day, Charlotte Hawkins, Mary Lou House and Sally Cartwright all are up in age.

But thanks in part to their hard work, the bazaar raised $7,000 last year.

Each year Neilson has designed a different "Maid of Providence" doll for the crafts group to produce for the bazaar. Sometimes the women put together 75 of them, sometimes almost 100. This year it took them from March to November to get the dolls ready.

The dolls are intricately crafted from wooden clothespins and dressed elaborately from head to toe with gathered skirts, full aprons, lace-trimmed pantaloons and ribboned bonnets.

They are tiny triumphs of mind over myopia that have been a hit since they made their debut in 1986.

"We were looking for something to bring people back to the bazaar each year," said Chrest.

The first tiny Maid of Providence that Neilson designed was Joy, who carries an even tinier Christmas wreath.

As with all the Maids of Providence, a tag sewn in the under seam of her skirt provides her name, the year she was created and the initials of the church.

Faith, with a candle, arrived the next year followed by Martha, with a plum pudding, Hope, with a baby and Charity, with a basket of food.

In 1994, it was Priscilla with a bread warmer. In 2006 it was Heidi cuddling a tiny fully formed furry lamb with black hooves and eyes the size of periods on a page. This year, it's Marcia holding a cherry pie.

Abigail, the 1996 doll, has eluded the reach of her creator. She is missing from Neilson's collection of what should be all 23 dolls.

"Somehow it was mixed in with the dolls that were sold." Neilson said. "I don't know who got it."

Since Neilson buys and donates all the fabric and components for each doll, there is a good chance that Abigail is in pieces somewhere in her craft closet and that all Neilson would have to do is assemble her. "But I never get the time," she said.

But the women all remember Gretchen best. She was the 2002 doll carrying a Black Forest cake.

When Neilson saw that there was no plate under the cake -- "Nobody carries a cake with their hands," she told them -- she took apart all 98 cakes and glued a button under each one so it looked like a plate.

"If it isn't quality, we don't sell it," Chrest said.

The women take an assembly line approach to putting the dolls together -- tiny stitches "and glue, lots of glue," Chrest points out.

"By the time we make 98 of them we are ready to throw them out," she said. "It's tedious work."

Stine has been after the group for years to raise the price of the dolls, which now sell for $9. "We're giving them away at that price considering the hours and hours of work it takes to create each one," she said.

But it's "a labor of love," according to Stine.

"We do it because we love doing it together. We chat and have a wonderful time. It's therapeutic.

"For a while we were calling it 'Shirley's therapy session.' "

Like some members of the group, she's up in years, Chrest said. "But we'd be reluctant to die -- we'd have to finish the dolls."

If the bazaar draws people to the church, the dolls draw people to the bazaar, Chrest said. "When you see how people appreciate the dolls, it's amazing."

As tiny as they are, they hold their own among the equally well-crafted ornaments, the flea market items, the silent auction, the Hot-Diggity-Dog Cafe and the arrival of Santa Claus on a fire engine.

When the double doors open at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 22, people will rush in, money in hand, and run to the rear corner of the fellowship hall, Stine said.

That's where the 2008 Maids of Providence will be waiting.

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