It was wonderful. It was marvelous. It was exhausting and every bone in my body aches, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
It was at least a day too short (just as my first one was at least a day too long <g>) -- time flies when you're having fun.
Sunday: Ever seen a feeding frenzy?
I had a carefully prepared list of things I *needed*, to stop myself from overspending and the pocket snake from hyperventilating. None of them were urgent, so I planned to let the first wave pass before I ventured into the sales room. Man proposes... :)
I was peacefully puttering in our room, when my blind-date roomie (Barbara Morrow; we'd corresponded, but never met face-to-face before the Convention) walked in with a large box and a feverish look in her eyes. In the box was a Simon Toustou roller pillow, and it was a thing of beauty... *Naturally*, I was down in the sales room in a flash coming back with one of my own; the pocket snake had a hissy fit, and went into a coma <g>
On the way back to the room, I came accross Ms Loehr and discovered that I needed to add pricking board and plastic blue film to my shopping list, and those couldn't be put off till later, so it was back to the sales room. Stopped at the IOLI stand to order my commemorative bobbin, and saw that they had some in stock. One in particular was appealing, since it had not been pictured in the Bulletin as being available, and they only had a single one in that style (Bayeux). Mine, mine. At Susan Wenzel's stalll, while queuing for the pricking board and blue film, I espied the perfect match to that bobbin -- same style, same artist, different design (though also commemorating the 50th anniversary of IOLI). Mine.
And so it went, all week long, even though I tried to stay away from the sales room... I am now "all rinsed out" as they say in Poland (meaning no money left)
Monday: Class starts.
Snowflake Quilt, with Ulrike Loehr. Fabulous! Deserves a separate posting, and will get it (probably <g>)
Tuesday: Breakfast (VERY early, I agree, Tamara)
The official breakfast (even earlier) was on *Monday* :) And you forgot the Anniversary Cake cutting ceremony/desert in the evening, after the Tat-Off (I know you stayed awake long enough to attend it; I saw you there, and got a photo to prove it, even though the camera was acting up <g>). The table I sat at (Jeri kindly reserved a seat for me) was all-Arachnean, so that's where I planted the Arachne Spider.
By that time, the critter had been christened (by Adrienne Kattke and Pene Piip): Lu (for the miniature boater hat from the Luton Museum) Heshe. Heshe (not to be mistaken for sushi) because it looked like a "he" from the front (Lenka Suchanek's @, with a spider within the a, made in Milanese lace on its chest, and a straw hat tilted to show the face), but like a "she" from the back -- hearts mat (from Burkhard's "50 New Patterns in BL"), and lacy band to the hat, "dripping" down...
It served as a gathering sign for other Arachneans who joined us after the desert. Debra (the IOLI Bulletin editor) took a photo of us all, so, perhaps, we'll see it there in the near future. Unfortunately, not all the Arachneans who were at the convention joined us at the table and for the photo-op. Crossed wires in communication, perhaps, though Janice (Blair) and I *did* try to notify as many people as we could find. The most-missed was Lenka -- the inspiration for Lu's "breast plate"...
Wednesday: Not one, not two, but three different tours at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and speed shopping before the bus arrived to take us back to the hotel.
Your priorities and mine weren't the same :) We arrived at the Met at 9AM... My Costume Institute tour wasn't till 11 (I decided to pass the "Museum Highlights" tour; figured I could do better with Devon Thein's "lacy walk" in my hand), so I dragged Tina (Allen-Wright) straight to the biggest gift shop <g>. *She* managed to come out of it unscathed, but I took advantage of the snake's poor health, and dragged my big bag of goodies with me for the rest of the day. At that, I missed a book I "must have" (mine, all mine <g>) -- only discovered its existence on the bus back (Robin Panza bought it -- Art Nouveau tiles; a spectacular source of lacy inspiration, since it's my favourite period in art).
The Costume Institute was interesting particularly because of a suitcase (one of 3, speciallly made for the purpose) full of shoes. All made to the same pattern, all decorated with scraps of antique laces and fabric (shudder at the sacriledge)...
A quick lunch, then Tina and I tried to find as many of the "lacy" paintings and sculptures from Devon's list as we could. Got momentarily distracted by a sudden discovery of one which hadn't been on the list. There's a (temporary) exhibit of engravings by Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617) and, since we were passing right by it, I stuck my face into every one of them, looking for traces of laces (caps, collars, etc). I was richly rewarded -- there was a series of 4 prints (4 Seasons) by a student of Goltzius', Jan Saenredam (? my pen was misbehaving, and I can't read my own handwriting now <g>), and one of them (Summer, I think) had a lovely lacemaker, surrounded by 3 "applicants" for her favours... The print is on loan from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam so, once the exhibit is over, it'll disappear from the Met -- go see it while you can.
The tour of the selected laces in the Antonio Ratti Textile Institute (at 14:00) was spectacular; possibly too much to take in and savour properly. When we left it, at about 15:30, I was dead on my feet, and punch-drunk. There was half an hour left till the bus home, but I didn't have the strength to continue the "Devon's tour" -- sat on the front steps of the museum and smoked instead :)
Thursday: Classes, luncheon and I won a prize in the raffle at the business meeting.
So did I :) A very nice Midlands bobbin; can't remember the name of the maker to save my life.
Friday: Last classes (boo hoo) and the banquet. I won three more raffle prizes!
I didn't, but then I only bought $5 worth of tickets... <g> OTOH, I got the second prize for my competition entry, which nicely covered my other (after the Toustou roller pillow) "excess" -- a miniature, black stone, BL pillow on a stand, with 6 bone bobbins and a length of tiny, hand-made lace. The lace was made by a lady who was in my class, and the stone-carver, her DH, spoke Polish -- what better souvenir.. :)
All in all, a wonderful week. Many, many thanks to the "triangle" of organisers of the event: the Metropolitan Chapter of IOLI, the Lost Art Lacers of New Jersey and the Cranberry Lacers. Y'all have done a spectacular job of getting everything together "just so"; even though the week flashed by much too fast, I'll remember it warmly for a long time
----- Tamara P Duvall mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Lexington, Virginia, USA Formerly of Warsaw, Poland
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