It's Been Awhile!

It has been awhile since I've posted anything here and I almost forgot how lol. Things do have a way of coming back at least momentarily. So let me see ....... what has been happening in my life since attending my first Lace Days retreat. The first thing I should say is that my bobbin lace teacher and I agreed the project was a bit too deep for a beginner ..... and I am a beginner although I've been lacing a full year now. I can't believe it has been a year since I began my newest stitching journey. Well, back to my lacing project. I scrapped it .... for now. I didn't throw it away or anything that drastic. I just retro laced (undid the work) and put the pattern aside until I have more experience under my belt.

So what am I lacing? Well right now I'm doing another handkerchief edging (just like the first one I did but with some minor changes. I really did a lousy job (MO) on turning the corners and the "sewing" where the beginning and the end meet and asked if I could try again. My teacher thought it a good idea and that is what I'm doing. But I'm also "playing" on my own.


Here are the first five examples in my Introduction To BOBBIN LACEMAKING by Rosemary Shepherd, an Australian lace maker. She calls these beginner pieces "braids". My teacher calls them "bandages". If you look closely you can see the gauze like look of the cloth bandages. The first one is worked in a red and pink #70 tatting thread. The second piece is worked in a pale orange #70 tatting thread and the third is worked in a dark orange and the pale orange #70 tatting thread. The last two pieces are worked in a lace thread - #30 machine embroidery by DMC. You can see how much more lacy looking the lace thread is. Since these are just "playing" bits they will all wind up on some cq squares sometime in the future.

I didn't tell you about the passing of a dear, dear friend and knitting student of many years. Just two weeks before her death she invited me to her home and gave me all her remaining knitting and stitching supplies. She had previously given me all her quilting supplies and much of her knitting yarns. Among those stitchng supplies were several kits, and baggies of DMC floss plus one of the floss caddy boxes full. The Santa pictured below was one of kits. It will be one of the "new" ornaments on my tree this year.



Another "new" ornament for my tree this year is the "soldier" stitched on a scrap of linen (I don't throw anything away .... at least thats how things used to be, I'm being more selective now), added a pinstitch hem with fringe. I cut a small piece from a thin dowel for the hanging rod and used a single strand of the gold DMC metallic thread for the hanger. The knot in the hanging thread doesn't show because I slipped it inside the pocket on the dowel.

Another "first" for me happened back in August after a trip with a group from the senior center and our annual visit to Scott's Family Resort in Deposit, NY. Everyone that goes on these trips are dancers .... line dancing for me. Well, this year, the fella that teaches the daytime ballroom dance sessions went with us and got me out on the dance floor. I've never done any ballroom dancing but with his instruction I found him very easy to follow. So to make a long story short .... I started ballroom dance sessions on Tues. afternoons at the center. I've met some very wonderful people and am enjoying this activity very much. So much that in September the center has a couple who teach ballroom dancing on Friday nights. Guess who is there with dancing shoes on????? You've probably all seen the tv commercials that say dancing is good for the heart ..... well, not only good for the heart, its wonderful all around exercise and just plain downright good fun!!!!!!!!!!!! My pastor and the choir tease me about appearing on Dancing With The Stars but this great grandma would break a leg just thinking about some of those moves! Never watched the show until I started dancing and the other dancers told me about it. A good bit of that doesn't strike me as true ballroom dancing so the show is not all that impressive. Too risque for me. I feel lucky when I can pick out some of the steps I've been learning.

Now its time to get back to my lacing project. TTYL

Lace Days at Sweet Briar

Lace Days at Sweet Briar took place June 21-27, 2009. This was a week of bobbin lace making with lace makers from all over the county. Sweet Briar is a women's college located just north of Lynchburg, Virginia and only an hour and a half drive from home. My teacher and I were roomies and she drove. I must say we were very compatable roommates.

The first photo shows some of the goodies we received at special meals. Now there is one exception .... the bobbin. This bobbin is a commemorative one especially made for Lace Days participants by a person, in England, who specializes in commemorative bobbins. It is made of wood, hand painted and then spangled. A bit pricey as compared to other bobbins but well worth it because of the event it represents. The tassel along with a DVD of patterns were table favors at our Friday evening banquet. The tassel has been attached to my thread scissors that I use for my bobbin lace. The porcelain item next to the tassel is a cat pin cushion and I will use it on the pillow that stays at home to hold my divider pins. Oops, forgot to take a photo of the divider pins I purchased ..... well, have to save something for the next time LOL BTW I am not a cat person but this was my door prize and it is kinda cute so I'll keep her. The bottom item is a hand-knitted hedgehog .... a symbol for bobbin lacers. One of the ladies in my class made them for all the attendees. Hmmmm, need a name for "hedgie".

Since my class piece of lace is far from finished I decided to post the "goodies" I purchased. My teacher, Susan Wenzel and her husband, were vendors for the retreat and they carried supplies for knitted lace and tatted lace as well as for bobbin lace. A lace makers dream shop!

Up until this retreat my favorite lace making technique was knitted lace with tatting a very, very close second. Before the retreat was over bobbin lace was working hard to knock tatting out of second place. Did she succeed? We'll just have to wait and see LOL I did purchase three books on knitting lace shawls. Besides knitting lace in some of my socks, knitting lacy shawls is my No.1 thing.

Aha! I cannot possibly attend a bobbin lace retreat without purchasing books on the subject. Being a bobbin lacer only eight months my "library" consisted of only three books. Anyone knows that is not near enough to have a good working knowledge of any needlework subject. Besides that the books are filled with patterns. The red book in the above photo is filled with easy Christmas lace pieces and the green book in the next photo is also full of beginner pieces. Both of these books have several pieces that would be suitable to attach to my crazy quilt blocks. The Bobbin Lace Stitches book was recommended by my teacher as a "must have". She also suggested the Point Ground Patterns from Australia.

The book in the above photo came recommended by a lacer that I met online and my teacher agreed. The last one is a book of bobbin lace jewelry. Now I may not make the necklaces but the earrings look very promising for me and the projects are again small enough to use for cq.

I could not possibly come away without purchasing some of the most luscious looking threads I'd ever seen. Just wish I had unlimited funds for threads LOL Some of them were purchased with tatting in mind although they are definitely useable for bobbin lace. The tinest balls above are size 80 tatting thread. Several were on sale .... the yellow and shaded orange just below the yellow. The lilac (might appear grey) has a silver thread wrapped through it and is a Turkish thread highly tooted by tatters around the world. Just had to have a spool to try. The other two medium size spools are the new Lizbeth threads carried by Handy Hands Tatting.com. Decided to try a couple of colors for some colorful butterflies before I place an order. The three spindles and one ball are a luscious soft mint green and was packaged for the necklace taught by Susan. Fell in love with the color but know I won't use the thread for the necklace.

Can you guess a couple of my favorite colors are in the teal and purple families????? These colors will be used to make special lace bookmarks for my granddaughters and daughters-in-law as they are all avid readers. They may not all get made this year but I will work on those until all five have a bobbin lace bookmark made just for them. The three spindles and ball in the lower right corner are shades of autumn ... another of my favorite color groups.

In my last post I shared a "challenge" stitch from Lesa, of CQForNewbies, Heavy Chain Stitch. The second part of the "challenge" was to add a favorite embroidery stitch. This past week I added Herringbone on both sides, using size 8 brown perle cotton. The chain stitch itself is worked in size 5 perle cotton. I don't think there is a third part to the challenge but I've already decided what I want to add to this stitch and eventually planning to use it as a seam treatment for a cq square in the future. Next time, if my idea works, I'll present this stitch horizontal instead of verticle.

Before I forget (again) here is the fabric part of the hugemongous squishy I won on the first ever quiz presented on SAM (Stitch Angels Mentors) a Yahoo group I recently joined. All the other goodies included may be seen in my previous post.

Well, that's all for today. See you next time and may all your stitching be blessed.

Antique and Vintage bobbins and More

June has been a very busy month as I prepared to attend my very first Bobbin Lace retreat to be held at Sweet Briar College near Lynchburg, Virginia. First of all I had to learn some new techniques prior to my class. In the meantime on one of my lacing sites a lacer was having to give up this part of her life and was offering tools and books for sale. An opportunity for me to purchase some really nice bobbins at a good price. These are the dark wood bobbins I purchased ..... already spangled .... something that takes time.

Here are the light wood bobbins also already spangled as the previous owner had used all these bobbins plus many others for quite some time. The more they are used the better the patina, so I was quite happy with my purchase.

The lone bobbin on the left was left off of the group of light wood vintage bobbins. The four on the right are antique bobbins possibly early 20th century. All of these bobbins had been purchased from Christine and David Springett, lace suppliers in Rugby, Warwickshire, England by their former owner. They are all of the Midlands type which is what I've been learning to use. They were the only type that I felt comfortable enough to purchase. More on bobbins in my next post.

As I said before, I needed to learn new techniques before attending the lace retreat. Here I'm practicing my left and right picots. Although they could be a little tricky the only problem I had was grasping the pin in the proper position ...... at the head. After a week of practice my teacher said I had a good grasp on the technique. The other technique I needed to learn was how to add gimp .... a heavier thread used to outline a portion of the design. Forgot to take a photo of that which is on another pillow. On the upper right is a biscornu that I made for myself. My teacher fell in love with it so I made one for her.

The front side is the same pattern that I worked on mine .... a traditional Bulgarian design. On the back of mine I cross-stitched my initial and a butterfly. On the back of the one for my teacher I worked her first initial and a simple embroidery vine and flowers pattern that I would normally use as a seam treatment for a crazy quilt square. She was very pleased with the finished product .... sorry
no photo.
On my CQForNewbies group Lesa, one of our list moms, issued a challenge. We were to find a stitch we had never done that began with the first letter in our name to work. Well, believe it or not there are no embroidery stitches that begin with N so I went with the first letter of my last name and came up with Heavy Chain Stitch. I used 18ct ecru Aida in a size that will fit my stitch journal and used size 5 gold DMC perle cotton. As I worked the stitch I tried to think of ways to use it and one idea that popped out at me was "cattails"! Using 2 strands of floss as the stem or outline stitch for the bottom part that would be in the "grass" and a single straight stitch, also 2 strands of floss, coming out of the top the #5 perle cotton would give just the right amount of depth for the cattails.

The second part of the challenge is to add our favorite embroidery stitch to the challenge stitch. The whole idea behind this challenge is to get us out of the rut of using the 'same ol' stitches all the time.

These next three photos were all part, ooops I forgot one of the parts, of my prize--winning squishie. Back in May I joined the Stitch Angels Mentors (SAM) and StitchMAP (MAP) groups. SAM is an educational group endeavoring to encourage newbies in a variety of needleart skills. The Angel part deals with sharing stashes when and where needed. The MAP portion has mentors paired up with apprentices .... the more experienced stitcher helping the newbie. Lyn of these groups has regular contests on her own blog and held the very first one for the SAM/MAP group early this month. It was a two parter contest and I was lucky enough to win part one.

Lots of different kinds of fibers here including several packages of stamens which honestly I never thought about using with cq so I'm definitely going to find a way to use them; a package of white rickrack, several skeins of different 'brands' of flosses including a vintage one. Some fancy knitting yarns and a big group of red feathers. They will be interesting to work with!

In this photo there are many different laces - cottons, rayon, braids and other fancies as well as a very nice length of 'hen and chicks' tatting.

Here you will see several crocheted motifs as well as a very nice selection of 'silkies'. Now silkies are something I've rarely had so was much delighted with that addition. The photo I forgot was a humongous selection of fabrics ..... guess I'll have to post that next time. The gallon ziplock baggie was jam-packed!!!!

I would like to invite any readers to check out SAM/MAP as well as their brand new blog .... official TODAY! I don't know how to add the coding but if you search yahoo groups for Stitch Angels Mentors; StitchMap; and google for K.N.A.S.S. I'm sure you'll find all of them.
BTW K.N.A.S.S. stands for Keeping Needle Arts Alive By Sharing Stitches

Hope to see you there.
Until next time keep those stitches flowing.

Bits and Pieces

It has been quite a few weeks since my last blog post but I've been very, very busy. On my CQ4Newbies list we've just completed a Grand Motif Swap. This is a big event with this group and although I don't exchange as many baggies as some of the gals, this is one event I look forward to as I am always amazed at the creativity of this group. The top photo shows the goodies I received in exchange for my tatting bits and pieces.

Finally completed another pair of knitted socks that I began back in September 2008. I used a Beaded Rib pattern for the leg and instep and knitted from the toe up. The pattern shows up better when they are worn.

On my last post I showed a couple of "nekkid" bobbin lace pillows ...... well, they are now covered. The wine one above is known as the "one-and-only" because of the interchangeable parts. It is supposed to be the one and only pillow you'll ever need. Now do you know any needleworker that is ever satisfied with a "one-and-only" tool of any kind?????!!!!!! At least not me LOL I will use this pillow for my next bobbin lace piece as this is the pillow I'll take to my lace retreat in June and I need to try it out.

Of course, a new pillow needs a new carrying bag. I had on hand a nice piece of upholstery fabric that would compliment not only my "one-and-only" pillow but also my new roller pillow. There are open outside pockets on each side and the bag has the top portion folded down inside as this is the size I need for this particular pillow.

Here is the carry bag expanded to its full size. The pattern was originally intended to carry up to a full-size quilt but it works great for my bobbin lace classes.

Here is my newly covered roller pillow for my bobbin lace. The braid around the roller opening is also around the circumference of my "one-and-only" pillow.

My teacher's roller pillow with my current piece of lace in the working stage. This is just my second piece of lace and I learned how to make spiders, as well as cloth stitch and half stitch diamonds on a rose ground background.

My second piece of lace finished! I had to tie off this piece by myself and tried a fringe tying technique. My teacher hasn't seen this piece yet as my next class is Monday, April 20th. My first project will be started then. I already have my bobbins wound, including gimp (I'll be using a color accent for this) and I'll be learning how to make picots. Picots in bobbin lace are quite different from picots in tatting or crochet. Knowing how to do gimp and picots are necessary for my lace retreat class in June. I'm nervous and excited about my first lace retreat, but my teacher is working hard to get me up to snuff and she assures me the teacher is excellent and always glad to have newbies in her classes. Until next time we meet be blessed.

Bobbin Lace Update

Doing a happy dance! Yippee! A finished piece of actual bobbin lace! Made by me!!!! This "sample" goes into my special notebook for bobbin lace. The four bobbins in the center were made by my teacher's husband and were a Christmas gift. The first ones ever I spangled and since they were my first bobbins I took apart an old necklace and spangled them all alike. I'm very pleased with my first piece and so is my teacher! Oh, there are mistakes but after all this is a learning piece and unless you are a lacer you probably wouldn't pick up on them.

Some more bobbins to be spangled ..... I think I have about two dozen more to do and I'll need most of them along with the ones I've completed to work my next project. I've purchased four dozen wooden bobbins which with the four specially made for me and the dozen plastic ones gives me a total of 32 pair of bobbins. A far cry from the sometimes hundreds of pairs needed for some patterns. I won't need to worry about having to use that many bobbins LOL

The bobbins I've finished. The dozen brown ones are plastic bobbins. The bobbins I've worked with were plastic so thought I'd order some for myself. The two pairs on the upper right were the original wood ones that came with the kit I purchased. My teacher's husband cut them off to the proper size and drilled holes for spangling. These bobbins will be used when I add gimp to my work. Gimp - heavier thread than the lacing thread and is used for accent .... I'm already beginning to learn and understand some of the "language" associated with bobbin laceing.

You may not be able to see the pattern pinned to this roll pillow ... another item borrowed from my teacher. She is making sure that I am familiar with all types of pillows so that when the time comes for me to branch out and lace on my own I'll have a good working knowledge of a variety of tools.

Here is an uncovered roll pillow that originally belonged to "Becky" a friend of mine when we were EGA members together many years ago. Becky is deceased and this pillow was given to Sandy one of the lacers in my class of three. She is of course much more advanced than I am. Sandy purchased a roll pillow and gave this one to me. I am so fortunate to have such wonderful friends that share out of their abundance. Now I just need to cover this and I'll have my own. I have to finish spangling my bobbins and fill them with thread before I can even think about covering this pillow.

As a beginner, my teacher suggested that I purchase a "One and Only" pillow. This pillow is made up of several different components so that if the squares are inserted it becomes a "cookie" pillow. The two rectangles may be substituted for one of the squares .... also making it a "cookie" pillow. A "cookie" pillow is the one most often used for bobbin lace. The cylinder makes this a roll pillow. The idea of the removeable squares/rectangles means that I can move portions of my lace very easily. These parts must also be covered before using and I've already purchased the fabric to cover both of my pillows. BUT the bobbins come first! I must be ready to begin my next piece when I go to class on Friday the 13th. Good thing I'm not superstitious!

"Ugly" Quilt Blocks and Bobbin Lace Update

A recent newbie to the CQ4Newbies Yahoo group commented that her first attempts at piecing cq squares were "ugly". Lesa, the list mom commented that one of the other members had purchased some really "ugly" blocks at a yard sale. These blocks were farmed out and when the blocks were finished with embellishment and returned they were set together and made a definitely not ugly wall hanging.

The top photo is also using "ugly" pieced squares that were picked up at a yard sale and given to me. When I first saw them I thought "what on earth can I do with these?" I laid them out on a white bedspread, spacing them as if they had sashing between and the result was garish. Then I placed them on a blue bedspread, again, as if sashed and the tone was a bit subdued but still not the color choice for setting them together. Next I laid them out on the plaid fabric that looked like it had been pieced. Voila! I liked the result .... the "ugly" squares were definitely toned down but still exciting in their own right. This is a full size quilt and will be traditionally quilted as I'm sure that was what the maker had intended. In looking at the squares it seems to me the fabrics are post depression .... say, 30's to early 40's.

Here is a close-up of one of the squares. I haven't quite been able to place the pattern. In fact, I think it was photographed upside down LOL I'm thinking the blue is a flower in a yellow flowerpot. What I'm trying to say is that what may look ugly to begin with can change into something quite pleasing after a bit of attention.

I won't be quilting this anytime soon as I have quite a few WISPs to take care of first, second, third, etc., etc.

Now I had not planned to show my bobbin lace progress until my first actual piece of lace was completed but I couldn't wait. Since this photo was taken, I've turned the second corner and am almost halfway through the design. It will go in my sample book.

Here is a close-up of my work in progress. There are a couple of errors, but then, this is a learning piece. My teacher is well pleased with my work and has noted a big improvement in my tension .... Yeah!

Right now I'm using borrowed equipment but I am acquiring unspangled bobbins of my own. A Christmas gift from the husband of my teacher are the four handmade wood bobbins on the left of the pencil. I put the pencil in to show a comparison dimension. The dozen wood bobbins on the right are ones that I purchased. Half are totally plain and half have carving on the end. I bought two packages of those. When these are spangled (weight added to the bottom) I will have 14 pair which is not quite enough for my next lesson. So I ordered another dozen, but this time some plastic bobbins (which I'm currently using) to do a comparison test to see which fiber of bobbins I prefer working with. There is no way I will ever acquire the number of bobbins my teacher has (several thousand) .... after all she has been doing this type of lace for more than 20 years. One of her current projects uses 144 pairs .... you always use pairs of bobbins in this type of lace making.

It has taken me about 20 years to actually get up enough nerve to try making this type of lace. The first type of lace I did was crochet, then tatting, knitting and finally bobbin. I love lace making and enjoy seeing all types even if I don't know how to do all the different ones such as needle lace. I probably won't try needle lace, I just want to get good at bobbin lace.

A New Year with beginnings and endings

I guess I ought to start off with the endings LOL The only New Year's Resolution that I make is to "finish" one WIP before beginning something new and so that is what I've done. This odds and ends hat was started in 2007 and then put aside until last week when I pulled it out and finished it ... it will be among the items I will make this year for the fall bazaar held by the senior citizens. If by chance it doesn't sell then I will place it among the items our church will wrap for Christmas presents for a low income housing unit sponsored by the Salvation Army. This past Christmas was the second year we have provided light refreshments, singing of carols and gifts for about 108 men and women who basically are forgotten by society. What a joy it is to bring a bit of cheer into the lives of these men and women.

Another WIP completed. This seed stitch scarf was not begun by me but I did complete it last week. Quite often estate stashes are brought to the senior center and the needlework items are given to me. For instance a daughter who did not knit nor want to learn brought her mother's incomplete items and fibers to the center and I have been busy going through them and dispensing the best I can. Among the items were two wide striped extra long neck scarves and they were among the gifts to the unit I mentioned. I've also completed several lapghans that will be given to a local nursing home. I'm not showing pics of them as they were completed a couple of months ago. I usually wait until I have at least six items before going to the nursing home.

So already I've fulfilled my New Year's Resolution and the new item I've started is a Prayer Shawl. At the moment I am the designated person in charge of establishing this ministry at church. Mainly because on my own I've made and given several of the prayer shawls to hurting church members. Since I've just begun the knitting I'll not post a photo. We will hold a brief meeting to establish guidelines such as when and how often to meet, where to meet and decide on materials to use on Sun. Jan. 11 right after church before a group of us begin our Bible study. This is a most rewarding and fulfilling ministry.

On an earlier post last year (I'm not sure just when I posted) I shared information about a band sampler round robin that a small international group of us are working on. The first photo shows Mandy, the owner's, stitching worked in Blackwork. The next band is incomplete as that stitcher had to drop out due to life taking a rough turn. The bottom section is what I've stitched. The top portion resembles Blackwork but is counted cross-stitch. I worked 7 sections. Section 1 is cross-stitched with Ginny Thompson Flower thread (100% cotton) and then the top and bottom of the section is back-stitched with Stef Francis 100% silk thread. The main design is also stitched with Ginny Thompson Flower thread. One strand of this thread equals two to three strands of floss. Just below this is another row of cross-stitch using two strands of hand-dyed silk floss by Vicki Clayton in a beautiful green that compliments the Ginny Thompson green. The next section is long arm cross-stitch using Sassa Lynne hand dyed perle cotton. The next big section is back stitch Greek Key pattern worked with a single strand of hand dyed silk floss also by Vicki Clayton. I finished the band with another row of long arm cross-stitch using the Sassa Lynne thread. The Greek Key pattern doesn't really show up that well but is a compliment (IMHO) to the main design.

I tried to get a clearer photo of the Greek Key backstitch pattern but it just wouldn't show up that well.

There is a couple who attends the line dance group with me and they are always bringing me some kind of needlework. Just before Christmas they brought a bag of latch-hook rug/pillow kits ... some finished and others unfinished, several pieces of counted cross-stitch work ... some finished and others incomplete, a very nice kit, and a box of 20 vintage crochet pieces and one doily edged with tatting. The doily shown above is a jersey type fabric that is poor quality, holes already appearing, so I want to figure out a way to removed the tatting and put it on a piece of linen which I happen to have.

The photo above shows some of the vintage crochet pieces. After washing and sorting, I hope to frame several of the pieces so they may be hung and enjoyed. There were several items I have yet to figure out how they are supposed to be used LOL

Here are two more pieces of the vintage needlework, with the top piece folded over on one end. This piece I will use as a table runner and there is another runner piece in the box. I may make the bottom piece into a bell pull and give to a daughter-in-law. Haven't quite made up my mind about that yet.

Oh, a bit of organization (thanks to an Australian stitching sister), I have started a spreadsheet on my desktop to help me keep track of WIPs. I don't have too many listed yet as I've just started locating them. As you can imagine they are in various sorts of places. At any rate this will keep me busy quite sometime and I may not start too many projects this year . Until next we meet have beautifully blessed days.