Creating Lace...

I spent a wonderful weekend learning all about Romanian Point Lace from an excellent teacher, Bart Elwell, who came from Tulsa, Oklahoma to teach several of us from the Austin Lace Guild. It was a fun weekend and I learned so many new needle lace stitches that I am bursting with new ideas. Romanian Point Lace is made by first creating a crocheted braid which is stitched down to a pattern and the needle lace is done in all the sections formed. What's really great (for me) is that the needle lace stitches can also be used in my embroidery pieces. Here are some pictures showing the group of us and some of the teacher's beautiful work. Click on the images for a close-up view.

some very happy lacers

Bart made this piece in honor of the marriage of William and Catherine

Bart's Black Eyed Susan

Bart's orchid

Bart's peacock sitting on the table

 I am working on the Black Eyed Susan in some wild colors. I'll post it when it is finished. We did a lot of learning in the class and practicing new stitches. Four of the students had taken a class with him before and made good progress on their pieces. I spent most of my time trying to learn as many new stitches as possible.

When I came home from class, this reflection of an old piece of my grandmother's crocheted lace showed up on the kitchen cabinet. It is tacked to a small window in my kitchen that is close to the ceiling.

 Lots of the stitches I learned are going to show up in the embroidery work I'm doing in Karen Ruane's class. Will post some of those pictures real soon so please come back.