I did a torchon heart pattern with a black ground and red workers, to match the black and red of the fabric. The worker was two threads, one plain and one metallic. I strung red beads on the worker thread and then left one at each pin, outlining the red heart with red beads. Next time I'll do the beading some other way, so I can learn to curse the difficulties of that method instead. :) You use the beads and the thread up at different rates and can't get more thread off without either tangling the thread in the beads or unrolling the lot and carefully pushing the beads up higher, re-wrapping the solidly beaded string with is too bulky to fit well and then trying to find a space for the thread you just freed up. Oops, forgot to push a few beads forward to do the work with. Unwind and try again... I'm sure that the fourth time I spilled the cup with the beads in it so I could sew them in instead, I'd be thinking this wasn't so bad.
Still, for all the trouble the beads were, it was a nice simple piece that I took with me on vacation on my little travel pillow (the one made using a camp-mat to stiffen a fabric sided box, with a pool-noodle roller) I took it to Ohio to see my sister 2 summers ago, so I wasn't too late in making the lace.
Fast forward a year when my lace teacher was reminding me of pieces I could put into the state fair. I mounted the piece and wrote a note about having promised lace to fit the pin cushion. All that satin and shiy thread and beads makes it a bit more boudoir than my usual style...
AND I got a first prize with it. In 8 years of lace making, this was my first first. Mind you, first means here, best quality, since more than one piece can earn it. Still I am very pleased to have gotten one and am tickled that it was for the pin cushion. As if I needed more gift than the smell and joy of making!
So. Thank you so much Pauline Norris for the pin-cushion and the opportunity. I really did enjoy the making of it, complaints about the beads aside. I at least learned one way not to include beads in my work! :) And I do like the finished piece, as so did the judges! Thank you again. I'll try to get the cushion and my Christmas camera together in the same place TODAY and get the picture posted on Lace Fairy, where it belongs.
Thank you again Pauline, and the rest of you for goading me into the report I've owed you for so long.
Linda in Lexington, MA
where the kids have the week off from school, so we are building elaborate Lego structures and unclogging drains we hadn't noticed before were running slow...
- To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
