I know it is a little early to be thinking of next summer and another great convention, but I did want to let you all know that next year there are 3 Arachne members on the co-host committee and they will be planning our get-together. We are hoping that there will be a concession stand where we can pick up our lunch and meet in a private room, but we will have to see what works out.
It was great to see everyone, including Janet Goodacre. She and I met over 10 years ago when I visited her on Vancouver Island and also met Bev Walker and the rest of her guild. I have met so many Arachne members over the years. We had a great contingency from overseas at our get-together this time. Lots of prizes in our free raffle. I won a tea towel commemorating Queen Elizabeths jubilee which was contributed by Janet Theaker. It was so nice to meet Janet and her husband and they were having a great vacation with Sallie Owenby and her spouse. Janet and I exchanged Christmas cards last year on Arachne, and this time she won a little humbug sewing bag made in spider fabric I had contributed to the raffle. I know I mentioned this in a previous email but that one was supposed to be a private email and I goofed so you all got it. My convention was really good. I didn't seem as harried as last year. I am on the IOLI committee and arrange the teacher agreements and info that appears in the Bulletin and online, and the Teacher Showcase. Did everyone like the fact that I included a more detailed class description, photos and supply lists, where available, online last time? If so, I will do it again but I have not received much feedback on that. A good deal of convention time is spent in meetings for this year, including the Teacher Meeting and those for 2015, 2016 conventions. I did miss the 2017 meeting, but I didn't miss any class time. My time on that committee is up next year and we are always looking for someone to shadow me for a year before taking over. Any volunteers? I took Ipswich with Karen Thompson. I thought that would be easy as it just looks like Torchon but in black silk. No, not simple, you really need to study the excellent diagrams she provided to make sure you didn't go wrong. I did go wrong a few times and did retro lace quite a bit. I was able to work a full repeat in one sample using 35 pair of bobbins, and started my second sample which includes Kat stitch ground. Something I had not done before but once I had it established, it is a nice ground to work. I think the host group did an excellent job and everything went smoothly, apart from my buying a book by Ulrike Voelcker that I already had on my bookcase at home. The only thing we could complain about was housekeeping as one day they never did tidy our room. We can live with an unmade bed but to have no coffee for the morning was bad. Good job our friends in an adjoining room had spare. I bought a couple of books, more thread than I can possibly use in a year, only one bobbin, and a commemorative square bobbin with California orange poppies on it, but I did a lot of eye candy shopping. Wish I had unlimited funds, but then it just means more for my family to get rid of when I pop my clogs. Tomorrow I am going to the San Bernardino History Museum to meet up with the Cross Twisters. They demonstrate there every week and I guess we get to gossip about lace and stuff when no one is visiting. Sunday will be a picnic at Mission Bay in San Diego with the three lace guilds from the area. A chance for DH to meet some lacemakers and their families. Life is good in sunny southern California. Janice Janice Blair Murrieta, CA, 60 miles north of San Diego www.jblace.com www.lacemakersofillinois.org - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
