Blog & News

We had a busy demonstration period this fall.  Now it has wound down and been replaced by holiday season.  There is so much to be thankful for as we reflect upon our lives.  So here is my NELG list:

1. I am thankful for everyone who joined the demonstrations this fall.  We managed to cover nearly every day at the Big E as well as Old Sturbridge Village and Plimouth Plantation that overlapped it.  We are not a huge group, and I am always amazed that we manage to cover everything at once.
2. I am thankful that we have so many small groups that meet outside of the NELG meetings in Sturbridge.  These smaller groups help to promote lace by connecting people who love lace.  Often this allows members who cannot travel to Sturbridge to connect with the group.  It also lets people who are just starting out on a technique to get informal help from others.
3. I am thankful that Jim, our VP, has put together a great schedule for us this year.  Our "field trip" on October was great fun, and I think we learned a lot about silk in New England.
4. I am thankful for Jill in England who continues to support us by maintaining our website.  She does a wonderful job of it, and I think we have one of the best as a result of her work.
5. I am thankful for all of you who do travel to Sturbridge for the NELG meetings.  The last one was a very large meeting which was great, but even those very small meetings are important.

So enjoy your meal tomorrow.  I know the holidays will be busy for most of us, but if you can, please come to the December meeting.  We will be celebrating the season with an optional gift exchange which is always fun as well as lots of food.  To make it easier to fit into your schedule (we hope), it has been moved to the second Saturday, December 12.  I hope to see a lot of you there.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

I'll be bringing 2 lace pillows to the November meeting to sell on behalf of Carolyn Samonds. One is a Princess Lace Loom roller pillow (green velveteen cover, with original 1904 instruction manual, a 1911 catalog of laces, and an Italian lace magazine) for $35 and the other is an antique grass-stuffed bolster pillow with red stripe cotton cover over a natural linen cover (just the pillow, no stand), for $15.  See you then!

I had the opportunity to view a little of the current exhibits at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston yesterday.  If you have the opportunity to go, there are a couple of exhibits with lace interest.  The current major exhibit, "Class Distinctions: Dutch Painting in the Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer" has a number of paintings with well depicted early bobbin lace.  The other exhibit with a very interesting contemporary lace piece that was brought to my attention by Doris May is "Crafted Objects in Flux".  Both are well worth the trip.  The first ends January 18.  The second ends January 10.

Hi folks,

http://www.antiquepatternlibrary.org/html/warm/main.htm  may be a great resource for our Links page.   These are patterns that are out of copyright date.  

Visit her website......

http://walldecor-laces.weebly.com/lace-with-coconot-shell1.html

This is only One of several collections...  

Tremendous work

For those of you who would like the Patterns from the Idrija School of Lace, Slovenia book by Bridget M Cook and Metka Tratnik go to the following website to get a reprinted copy that Bridget is selling:  http://www.bridgetmcook.uk

Last month the Italian Needlework blog had a piece on the use of needle lace by Ferragamo on his shoes.  There are some good pictures of a couple of pairs that are delightful as well as a translation of an article that Jeanine wrote for Giuliana Ricama.  See the September 15 post on http://italian-needlework.blogspot.com/ .

Enjoy!

Need to take about six minutes out to watch this amazing bobbin lace creation......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1&v=

Truly a gift.......... interesting artist.....

I had a great time as usual!  Great to introduce folks to lace making.  Next Year they are celebrating  the 100th year.   Hmmmm  needs to think about this!!  

Opening dates of the fair 9/18/2016 to 10/04/2016....   read more about it  at  http://www.thebige.com/ese/news/ese-begins-countdown-to-100th-anniversary/

The following email was sent to us by the Director of Public Events at Old Sturbridge Village:

 

I just wanted to take a moment to send all of you a big thank you for our inaugural Craft: Beer and Trades at Old Sturbridge Village.  I just came from a wrap up meeting with our upper management and they asked me to pass along their thanks as well.  From all standpoints we considered the event a great success and hope you enjoyed being a part of it as much we enjoyed hosting it.  I heard nothing but positive comments from our guests regarding the event and a large percentage made it a point to tell me that we need to do this again,  Our social media has been on fire about the event as well and we certainly seem to have hit a chord that resonated with our guests. So with that being said I am pleased to tell you that we plan on offering and expanding  this event in 2016.  I will be in touch  with invitations early in the year but for now please save the date of September  10 & 11 for our second annual Craft event.   Again , I can’t thank you enough for helping us make this unique event so special.  I couldn’t have done it without you.