Studio Time at Jill's

This past week we had studio time again at Jill's.  Nancy, Jeanne, and myself visited at Jill's and made some lace.  I was working on Shelby's blanket.  It's getting closer to done now and a bit exciting.

Studio time is great for me.  It's chance to share events, patterns, books, the famous UnDo's, news in each of our lives. 

We all discussed our great success at the New England Fiber Festival held at the Big E in Springfield, MA two weeks ago.  It was a great time.  Jill noticed that the festival arranged to have 'four hour workshops' available to those attending the event.  She had emailed me on this earlier and said ... 'think about it'. 

We discussed it a bit, we could set up a small project, like a pin that could be completed in the time allotment.  Those of us that demonstrate often times bring a 'try-me' pillow so that event attendees can actually handle the bobbins and make some lace.  I bring along my snake pattern pillow - it's multi-colored and kids really enjoy making lace.

Thanks to Jill for Studio time.  I'm considering taking a lesson or two on some really interesting point ground laces.  (yes I know - not till next year !)

Fiber Festival at the BIG E

It was a wow Festival!  Great job to the folks at the Big E in Springfield, Massachusettes. 

NELG was invited to have a gratis booth at the two-day show.  Thanks to our members and Jill's coordination with them, we staffed it  with demonstrators.  Extra thanks to Jill for the creating and printing of the new NELG banner.  (I need a better camera and remember to take pictures!)

I was there for the Sunday show. Since I did not change my clocks the night before, I was there an hour early!  I did appreicate the extra hour of sleep today.

There were lots of vendors with all sorts of roving and yarns and assorted items.  What was different here, is that the farms brought their critters so we had lots of sheep, alpacas, bunnies and goats in the north side of the building.  Once I figure out how to do sound here, I'll do a the alpaca humming I learned or maybe not.

Our booth was busy - lots of folks stopping by and wondering about what we were doing.  There was only a few exclaimations of  "oh that's tatting".  I had a simple Bruge lace pattern on my pillow and a try-me snake pillow.  Bryce had her beautiful Swedish pattern, Barbara K. brought ancient lace on her pillows and our newer member, Linda showed folks about tatting! 

We handed out our brochure, talked about the advantages of membership in the group.  I must say - without really any coordination among us, we were working great together with enough variety to show visitors what lace is about.  About half way through, we noticed that none of us had any English on a pillow and missed out showing spangled bobbins.

I'm looking forward to next year already - so mark your calendar - 1st weekend in November!

CT Lace Group Meets - We are Artists!

We had a lovely meeting last Saturday at Boo's home.  Surprisingly it was Labor Day weekend and we had over 14 of us partake in the name of making lace, conversing and enjoying company.

Boo and her husband and two children were the greatest hosts.  As we do, we organize the lunch as a 'bring a dish' as requested by our hostess.  This time, I brought a cheese tray. 

It's not a regular meeting for NELG, more so it is a chance for us to gather for a few hours of making lace or some other fiber interest.  I took the opportunity to get some ideas about a flyer that came across my desk from the Hartford Public Library.  It is their call for Artists for the ArtWalk.  I spoke with Mary and Marian of HPL about the project.  Generally it appears that they only want one artist.  With reading the outline, maybe several artists(lace makers) would be within the confines of artists they would be interested in.

I thought it might be a good project if the group thought so.   I received good feedback.  I'd be looking for already completed works, antique works that inspired current work.   Once I get a chance to talk with our President and her thoughts, I'll be back to the Library to find out about if they would accept an exhibit with more than one artist? 

Either way, it would be a way to get our work out into a larger space and educate the public about lace making.  It would allow us to have an exhibit that could be posted in various libraries and exhibition spaces.

Meeting Jean Leader

Sunday night some of our lacemakers met at the Rainbow Garden on the Milford Green for a very pleasant evening of lace conversation and all else that is important to us.  They had just finished lace classes with Jean Leader sponsored by NELG.

Thanks to Jill for making these arrangements.  Since I was unable to take Jean's class,  (everyone raved about it), having the opportunity to meet Jean in person was a real treat.

Some of the classmates were already beginning a sample of lace that they learned in class, some took the balance of Sunday off to just relax from the 2-1/2 days of classes.

If you'd like to see some more of this great teacher, visit Jean Leader Lacemaker.  She still has two weeks of classes, one the end of August and one in October if you'd like to hop across the pond to attend.