There's also a fertility handkie pattern in I think, Amy Dawson's book, but if memory serves me correctly, it's not the most accurate of patterns. I know mum worked it one time for a gift for a family member, and I recall there being some 'quirks' in the pattern. Don't know if this is the same one as Christine Springett's and she redrew it and trued it up. I think the Dawson pattern is a fairly traditional pattern. I know Christine did a pattern for a heart insertion that has wheatears in the centre of the heart - I've worked that one as an insertion, but I believe it also has a corner.
I always thought it was the wheatears in the lace that symbolized fertility. It's an interesting question that you've posed: what makes it a fertility lace pattern? For an older bride you could do a nicely framed monogram in lace or a horseshoe that she can carry for good luck (English tradition that us Aussies, and I suspect some other countries, like NZ have adopted as well), or a fan, or even a nice bookmark or something for a bible if the bride is devout. And finally, what projects am I working on? I am almost half way along a table ribbon (that never got completed for the 2006 IOLI Convention contest), and am about 1/2 to 2/3 way complete of my class project with Holly Van Sciver when she came out to Seattle in November to teach a class to the LPS. I decided to do a Lester Eagle's head motif. I'm at the point where I'm discarding more than I have to add, so I'm getting there. I just finished "Christmas Star" designed by Robin Heupphauff [sp?] of Western Australia (pattern was in Lace (96)), in late January, so I'm thinking about what I want to do next. I have a wide torchon pattern I've always wanted to try, so I will do that maybe once I free up more bobbins. My other project has been to start photographing each of my bobbins and organizing the photos into folders by maker (where I can ID the maker, and if not, it's a 'Anon A" or US maker A or some other label), so that there's some record of what I have in the event of disaster. It's also an intellectual exercise in some way - the librarian in me is enjoying 'cataloguing' the collection :-) Cheers, Helen, another 'Liquid Sunshine' day in Duvall, WA, and who's heart goes out to the people of Japan and is hoping the lacemakers there are OK. - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003
