A great lace-endowed week has ended. The experiences are now memories, and
my bank account is a bit diminished. I "really" didn't need that new
pillow, but it kept tempting me all week. The 10% discount sign towards
the end of the week was too much to resist. Yes, I got it. It's small,
and will be dedicated to bookmarks, thus saving my bigger pillows for the
bigger projects. (See, you can always find a reason. <G>) Getting
everything packed in my luggage without going over the 50-pound weight
limit was a real challenge. All the books, papers, heavy things, and sharp
pounted things went in a small case. I guess all those points, and the
heavy weight of a small bag was too much for the TSA because I found an
inspection notice in it when I got home -- and everything rearranged.
I understand this was the second largest IOLI Convention. The hotel was
swarming with us. The elevator had to work overtime to transport us up and
down from rooms to classes, etc. "Go early" was the rule.
Most people I met had a smile and a greeting. I put a few more faces to
names and got to renew previous friendships. There just wasn't enough to
time to talk to everyone, though.
The Lace History class with Devon was great! The computer controlled
pictures let us look at many laces and enlarge them so every little fibre
was visible. How did some of the antique lacemakers even see what they
were doing? Some of the threads were unbelievably fine. We also got to
look at various antique lace pieces up close. Magnifiers were available
for real close up viewing.
My other class was Rosalibre -- Cathy Bellville's new flower lace
technique. I wore my little motif of flowers and leaves to the banquet,
but didn't get my butterfly quite done. It's still waiting for me now. I
loved her informal terminology, such as the 'dubious move' when shifting
colors to their desired locations. Sorry -- only the policitally correct
language is in the book. You have to take a class in person to get the
more interesting terms. <G> I did find that the creative approach to using
the threads to shape the flowers and leaves encouraged further
experimentation. Cathy had some of Tamara's variations to show us, and a
picture of the techniques incorporated into a larger motif from South Africa.
For those of you not able to get to a formal class, the book is extremely
well detailed on Cathy's techniques. There's a couple minor printing
errors (as in many books), but nothing that you can't figure out. Don't
be shy to give it a go by yourself.
The Arachne luncheon drew many of us together. I didn't count, but would
guess we had 50-80 Arachnians present. I did take pictures of the
roomful of people and hope I got everyone.
There's much more to tell, but DH wants me to go somewhere.
Happy lacing,
Alice in Oregon -- where it's hot and sunny.
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