Last week I was going to write about the opportunity I had to demonstrate bobbin lacemaking at the 25th Hanseatic Days Festival which was hosted by the city of Tartu, but unfortunately I was busy doing other things & preparing for a weekend guest.
Tartu has held a Medieval Festival close to Tartu Day (June 29th) since 1996, but this year was to be special. The city would be host to the largest gathering of representatives of the Hanseatic Towns. Everyone who wants to dons medieval attire for the occasion. I made an impromptu roller pillow that fitted in a basket, then wound linen thread on some bobbins that my father had made for me many years ago & started a pattern out of Brigitte Bellon's Reticilla lace book. My bobbins were all different shapes & sizes but had that rustic look. Here is a photo from the Tartu City web-site that shows the president of the Estonian Bobbin Lace Society (Eesti Niplispits Selts), Kristiina Halberg, making lace on a roller pillow. <http://www.tartu.ee/index.php?page_id=2931&lang_id=2&pic_id=804> Kristiina & her husband, Priit, were our guests for the weekend & she had made their costumes. On Saturday morning Kristiina was pressing out the wrinkles in my sewing room when she realized that right in front of her were 2 shelves full of bobbin lace books. What a wonderful distraction! Kristiina was in heaven with not enough time to look at them all. But a wonderful reward to look forward to after demonstrating all day. There were some pillows & bobbins wound with coloured thread for those people who wanted to try BL. And we were able to listen to the music & folk dancing on the stage near us. And after experiencing thunderstorms during the week, we were fortunate to have good weather during the 3 days of the festival. Lots of people from Estonia & other Hanseatic towns had a wonderful time. On Saturday I visited the booths where the major Estonian towns were promoting themselves. I received a very warm welcome at the Narva tent from Olga Kublistkaja whom I met last April. She had some beautiful lace embellished scarves for sale. At the Pärnu tent, Eeva Talts was making a simple bookmark. On Sunday we had a photo taken of all the 8 lacemakers who had been there teaching & demonstrating. I thought that was quite a good turn out for such a small group which was only started 10 years ago. BTW if you have access to "BBC World" on cable, there is a travel program called "Tales from Europe" which is featuring the Baltic Countries, with the reporter visiting Estonia in the last program. Next Monday we are visiting Pärnu for the day to view an exhibition of lace. Then there will be just one more week before I fly to Chicago for a few days before flying to Denver. I think I better start packing my bag. Time to get some lunch, Pene
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