Festival of Trees & Traditions

Is it officially the Holiday season?  Now we can get to the traditions of the holidays.  It's the traditions that can make the holiday time warm and lovely.  Whether its the annual office party, good food and drink shared with love ones, or a stroll in the nippy cold (up here in Connecticut) to see the lights - its a season to enjoy.

There's one tradition at the Wadsworth Antheneum Museum of Art celebrated each year - now in its 37th! year.  The Festival of Trees and Traditions will open on Thursday, December 2nd, at 5:00 pm in conjunction with First Thursdays. 

What an evening this First Thursday will be.  NELG's tree will make its debut for the first time.  Some lucky person will be going home with a tree filled with hand made lace fans.  The picture above was our tree from last year.  There are 40 fans, each one with hand made lace on them.  There's bobbin lace, tatted lace and crochet lace.  The fans are different colors and so are the pieces of lace.  Thanks to all the members of NELG for taking the time to produce the lace and to Mary L. for putting all the fans together.

Back to the celebration.  First Thursday - it's going to be a WOW of a night, with music, food, and all the decorations.  There are over 200 artists entering their holiday decorations into this event.  The museum will be looking rather festive and grand.  The decorations will be for sale that evening and throughout the event.  I wouldn't wait if you see a tree, wreather, or other holiday bauble that takes your fancy.  They go quickly.

I urge you to attend as it will be a great night.  If you can not make it then, come on by - the Festival will be open through December 13th. 

See you First Thurday!

PS  all decorations stay on display during the festival.  You can pick up your's once the festival is over.

Connecticut Lace Day - At Barbara's!

This past weekend was our group's Christmas gathering.  Held at the home of Barbara, it was decorated for the season.  In the dining area, the big old wooden beams were hung with a hundred crochet snowflakes - each one different.  The table was set in Christmas Spode, enough for our very large gathering.  Off to the other room, was Fine Threads from Vermont with lots of wares for you to choose from.  I did make myself available for another book of patterns and some fancy thread.  Lunch was just lovely, great breads from this bakery near Winann's and a condon blue cassarole, salad, carrots and beets from Boo's garden.

Of course there was dessert - and dessert is more serious than the meal.  Besides lovely chocolates that were passed around, Boo made two hedgehog cakes.  Yum Yum and a white cake with raspberry and white chocolate frosting. 

What an amazing day.  Barbara is quite the creative one.  Throughout her home was many samples of her lace making and other fiber projects to admire.  There was a plastic beach bag she crocheted, that got my interest and I'm going to give it a try.   I took a fancy to the snowflakes and became reinspired once again in my thread work.

Before and after lunch we enjoyed each others company, worked on our projects that we brought along and visited the "shop" for those extra goodies a lace maker could not be without. 

On this occassion, there is a gift swap.  Your gift goes in the pile and you can then take a number.  So a basket with numbered slips of paper was passed around the table.  As it went by me, I put my hand in and whispered on the louder side...".... ah Christina...." and pulled out my slip.  Wouldn't you know, I got the slip with the #1 on it.  Oh no! and lots of laughter was heard.  I asked if we could reverse the order so I would go last.  No problem.  Phew!  See I won the lace lessons, the Christina pillow, and a couple of other items( gave them back) at the 25th Anniversary.  That was my first meeting and this was my first attendance at the Christmas luncheon.  I ended up with a piece of lace and a frame to put it into.  One thing that surprised me is that the gift swap was no where near the " oh $10 - $20 range" for the gift.  IMO my gift didn't measure up - note for future - find a better gift!

Before we left, Barbara had one more surprise for each of us.  She handmade two dozen ornaments, each different, all with some kind of lace on them.  Each one was even better than the last.  We all gasped and awed at her creativity and originality to each ornament.  It was a lovely day - so many creative people to be with. 

PS - another 25 Round 4 mofits are complete!

Pretty Fabrics bring back the days of Sewing

This time of year I get inspired.  The craft stores are filled with lots of pretty christmassy type fabrics and yarns.  I begin to think about the time I used to sew.  Today I needed to get another couple of skeins of yarn for a project so I was chasing them down in Michaels and JoAnns.  There was the fabric, all glittery and the colors and textures are just spectacular. 

When I went off to sixth grade, my mom made me a acqu blue dress for the first day of school.  I remember the dress well.  It was pretty special with ruffles on the sleeves.  Sometime after having that dress, my mom began to let me assist her in picking out the fabrics, patterns, pinning and cutting, and eventually the use of the machine. 

From that point on, I was sewing.  As time went along, my talents improved.  Mrs. Burnas, she lived behind us, and worked in a sewing room at Warners would come over and give me a few hints.  My NatNat (grandmother) and Mrs. Palasky (across the street) worked at American Fabrics triming lace off the big machines.  I guess you could say that fiber has been at my fingertips for most of my life.

As with much of my life, I need to improve it so I took to designing patterns myself.  I'd mix and match different pieces to really come up with an original.  I can say that I never went to a school dance and found myself looking at a classmate with my dress on.   

A few funnies:

I'd forget a few pins in the living room carpet - i.e. the cutting room.  Dad would invariably find them at 6am in bare feet with a very loud (&#(*&#(# ouch.

The hem was never finished until the last hour before I was running out the door.

I would ask "Hey Mom - does this look okay as I held up a half finished portion?"  Mom would say " of course it does",  Dad would say "  I guess so" .

Iron the seams - but remember to turn off the iron - oh my goodness such details!

Anyway, it was nice to walk the aisles of many fabrics and notions.  Now I need to invent some real time to be able to continue my crocheting, lace making, and sewing.

A Day at Winann's

What a lovely day for Connecticut Lace Day. Winann was our hostess for this month's gathering. We had great stories, news about the exhibit at the Wadsworth, discussion about the trip to RISD, and a little news regarding THE JACKET!

The Jacket will be 'unveiled on December 10th - tickets are not yet available. Soon to be announced. This is the Jacket that was begun at Plimoth - a recreation of a 17century jacket . This blog will give you a bit of the end of the story of several years of making this jacket. We at NELG had the opportunity to have a representative from Plimoth speak to us at one of monthly meetings. Some of our members have worked on making the lace and did some of the embroidery. Here's the list to those individuals that help create this jacket

I'm looking forward to seeing the jacket!

Passing down your Craft / Art supplies - Estate Planning

At a lace day some time ago, we were discussing what happens with your lace stuff when you are now on earth any longer?

Interesting thought? What does happen to your hobby, supplies, collections, etc.? Is there a favorite child or relative that is going to get them? Actually does the favorite child or relative actually understand what this passion you enjoy is all about?

About a week ago I was attending an award ceremony for a friend and another person I hadn't seen in awhile said - "oh we came across the bag of stuff - like yarn, needles and stuff and that reminded me of you". While not overly complimentary, we all laughed and the point was made. Mind you, the "stuff" belonged to her mother. Do you get my point?

I've lots of bobbins, pillows, and books related to lace. Then the crochet collection of books, hooks, etc. The OTT lights, and tables and chairs that I use for this. It does make an interesting question in planning your Estate.

Having recent experience with cleaning out a friend's home, at the end, whatever was left after the sale was thrown out. Since I like textiles, I purchased some great crochet pieces from the sale. Had I not, it would have been tossed out to the land fill.

So what are you to do? Get out a piece of paper, or if you are more techy a camera or video and write and or take pictures or both, of it all. Tell the individual you selected to be your executor/trustee about the collections. Would it be best that they are given to a musuem, craft guild, or to a specific person? If you are amending your will, you may very well make mention of these type of items so it is not lost.

Keeping or passing the passion of your hobby, craft, collection to someone who will appreicate it is priceless.

Shelby's Blanket

If you saw my blog a week or so ago, you saw the blankets for Shelby's older sisters. It's become tradition - and now it is Shelby's time. She picked out her blanket, colors were approved and I'm on my way!

The basics is that the blanket is comprised of 154 squares with 7 rounds each - the 8th round is the joining round. So far this is where we are:

The first round - lite pink is complete! All 154 of them! The second round - adding a burgandy like color is on about 130 of them so far. Progress!