Blog & News

One of the NELG members emailed me about looking for some old thread i.e. out of production. I read the email at the local fast food joint one day and thought 'I don't know what she is talking about in English' letting alone finding a shop or explaining in French what I am looking for "Fat chance of this I thought"....... Nevertheless a challenge is always good so off I trekked armed with the notes from the email. As luck/ God would have it, the first shop a big one on Wollenstraat for those of you who know Brugge sort of an old factory type shop wooden floors and pictures of lacemakers from the last centuries in the window was the one I tried. It looked promising as it was big. I faithfully cornered a saleslady about my age and repeated as close a translation as I could get. She said 'ah yes' in French of course rushed to a hidden drawer underneath a big display of lace and presented a drawer full of little bags  filled  with skeins of thread. Hmmm I thought now what??? which little bag????
She asked me some technical questions like how thick? what was I going to use it for? all of course which I had no idea of not being the eventual user of this item! SO then she said she really had no idea either it was her daughter who knew about all of this and we peered together at an equally Greek like chart with numbers and presumably sizes on. So we agreed we knew nothing and I would write back describing what I saw in the little bags to the lacemaker searching for this item and she would ask her daughter and I would return the next day. THe whole interchange was quite comical!
     In a few days I returned with the decision, the finest and the whitest now that was reasonably simple or so I thought, the finest was not available as some other lacemaker a few months  ago had bought every skein of the finest they had had! You have to remember that this thread is no longer made so it is not exactly like a reorder is possible! Then of course white is relative ( it all looked off white to me... ) But what they had they had and this was it so I bought the whitest and the finest of what they had. Now mind you this is not the cheapest stuff so how much to spend when you are spending someone else's money.... even as a nun one does want to be responsible but again it is not like I can come back next week and get my friend the lacemaker more. So I decided on two skeins oh yes she had said skeins so again the mother and I mused over what exactly constituted a skein since this thread comes in packages and is sort of tied together with little read threads. and again the decision amounts  to spending $3.00 or $33.00 dollars depending on one's  definition of skein. So the mother and I had quite a time analyzing this problem and at last I decided on what seemed to us at least a reasonable amount not knowing what she was making or how much she wanted to spend!
  Suffice it to say the skeins were safely tucked into my suitcase ( thread is light Thank God ) and  are actually sitting beside me ready for mail. I must admit I have a desire to see these threads in the finished lace product! I think I will ask..

More adventures tomorrow
SrMadeleine

Hello All

I am home but for whatever reason  my Kindle would not allow me to post even here so I am now at my trusty convent computer and there is so much more to tell about my trip to Brugge and Laceland! God Bless Patty for her yeoman's duty in posting as much as I could send her. All my posts and emailing were from the trusty 'Fast Food Joint' run by a busy, energetic and I might add quite gorgeous Scandanavian. Nuns had not been  in her scope but she came to be quite friendly and fascinatedas I frequented her cafe.
So on to Kantcentrum..... I have pictures snuggled in a residential sector of Brugge beside a Crusades era church it held two classes each morning and then demonstrations meaning anyone nearby could come and work on their lace and there was a monitor who would help you. I think you had to pay for this but I do not know. Tourists then or at least a few who wandered far enough from the center of Brugge to visit the Lace Museum attached  to Kancentrum could then see the real thing happening Hee Hee we were the real thing! I loved it! There were 15 in my class 6 Belgians, 2 Dutch, 2 French, 1 Chinese from Hong Kong and 1 Japanese who lived in Germany and 1 American nun.The reference was always 'oh you are from America' no separation of Canada Mexico or Brazil! So as you can see I was the only native English speaker. Chantal the teacher spoke several languages which buzzed around me no chance to learn by listening to others.... I could not understand anything!
I was almost in tears the second day as I had the least experience of  the group with 4 years in at lacemaking.But I persevered valiantly trying to figure out what she was talking about with the word junction. Sometimes the words she used I did not even get in English! Oh well miraculously after 2 or 3 nights of carting my pillow home to my cell at the convent guesthouse and working diligently I had a basic Flanders and felt again a part of the group which was much like us at Sacred Hearts laughing, struggling eating lunch together and at last day pictures and ice cream crepes at the local cafe by the canal and a nostalgic good bye until next year as of course one does not really learn enough in one year! Hmmm we shall see.

The museum with old laces was exquisite there are no other words and a little shop around the alleyway that claimed you could purchase old laces and receive a certificate of authenticity needless to say I did not go in but... it looked interesting. There was also a Folk museum nearby which I did go to having a display of the lace making diorama like from the 17th and 18th century. These were fairly common in different place as Lace making was such a part of the women's and sisters' history of this area.

Another post tomorrow. Happy Labor Day
Sr Madeleine

As in all organizations, we have change.  Today, our last day of the fiscal year, it is also the changing of the guard in your officers.  We are all intertwined and we make the fabric of NELG.

I'm finishing making my arrangements to be in England to attend the National Christmas Lacemaker's Fair  this December 1st.  I have heard of it, saw some pictures from the past event that piqued my interest. So across the pond I shall go. 

I'll have the opportunity to visit with our very own Jill - she and her husband, Bob are getting settled in to their new digs.

At this event, there will be an exhibition presented by The National Needlework Archive called 'Archives and ArteFacts'.  It should prove to be interesting as they cover all types of fiber arts.  

If you are going to be in England - let me know and we can have a spot of tea!

I thought I would post along some amazing links that I just saw in the Lace Digest I got from Arachne.  All links are current,  so much lace to see.  Most of the sites linked below are in French or Dutch.  Be wild and click on the links, great surprises exist all over these sites.  You may have the translate widget installed on your browser so these sites do translate to English quite well.  If not, the picutres are really fun, great ideas, inspiring,  viva la lace!  ......... so here they are.

World Congress of Lace - 2-13 July 2012 - Caen France

World Congress of Lace - continues

Passion-dentelle.over-blog.com

Les Dentelles de Sophie

Lace-attidude.over-blog.com

The Passions of Josidentelle

Lace and Cats  .... les chats

Kantklossen

Here's more...

One of the ladies here knows Holly {van sciver}.  The lace lady next to me has shared 5 patterns with me which I intend to share when I return home.  She was delighted to think a pattern of hers would be done in the USA. She's using her grandmothers bobbins.

The lace makers and visitors seemed to be genuinely happy and surprised over the interest in the USA of something to do with  Belgian lace, interesting!

One day I went to a small lace art exhibition.  Again have pictures of lace done in rope, telephone wires, and ribbon. These are Kantcentrum teachers who turn lace into art, very creative and original - quite cool. Some have paintings behind them, like the ocean an then two are done in LCD with copper line, like gimp.

I started lace class yesterday. It is a 1/2 hour walk each way.  Jammed on my way home, no one at the fast food wifi cafe in the morning.  The walk is formidable as the french say meaning wonderful.  The walk home is like the indy500 avoiding or not the tourists. Perhaps the best pictures I took were the ones of the empty streets in the morning and same street at 5pm!

The lace class is in Flanders and there are 15 people.  There are  5 Dutch, 1 Chinese German, 1 HongKong Chinese, 2 French, 5 Flemish and 1 American sister hmmmmm{sitting with her lace pillow in a pear tree. - I couldn't resist}. Only the teacher speaks English and the French ladies are not too friendly. I nearly cried today but one of the teachers that I had met at the exposition came by and smiled and said "...courage it will come". Well I was not so sure. Fighting both the language and the lace barrier was a little serious.  I'm happier now at the end of the day. I'm definitely the slowest but I am getting there! Tomorrow, spittle and brutes and my search for ancient thread.

Ciao & doors close at 6:30 pm!
Love and lace blessings to all,
Sr M.

Thank you to all that have entered into the Craft Adventure / BIG E this year so far.  Yesterday I recieved an email from Jane, at the fair grounds, and she reports that we have 44 entries of Lace!  Yahoo! While it is a few short of last year's record of 52 entries, it is still a great showing for members of NELG and lacemakers.

You can still enter by faxing the entry to fax number 413-205-5104 or sending the form via email to cadventure@thebige.com.   You then need to mail your entry fee in ASAP.

This is the only way to enter.  The On-Line entry form method is now DISabled.

Thank you all!  Any questions - please email us at nelginfo@gmail.com

Dear Friends:

I demonstrated lacemaking at the Bolton Fair one week ago (Saturday only) with the Stow MM.  We had quite a bit of foot traffic, including some people who recognized us from Sturbridge OSV and another couple who would recognize us again in VT at Deerfield.

I have been passing out the NELG "cards" with the website on them and drumming up interest.  We've had a couple of truly interested lace-followers who have really sat down and tried lacemaking for a couple of hours.  I hope they will contact NELG.

Linda Sheff

Dear lacing friends:

I took part in this again this year, both Sat & Sun, this past weekend.  We had a lot of interest and I passed out lots of NELG "cards" with our website information.  We really didn't have a lot of child interest, but had quite a bit of adult interest.  So I gave some lessons to someone who had brought in her "lacis bobbin lace kit".  So I parted with one of my Piet pillows and a spool of lace thread to get her started.  Cherry is a spinner, knitter, felter and cook.  Again, we had a lot of interest.  The only thing that would have made it nicer would have been some other lacers.  I recommended Evelyn Gant & Fletcher Farms as well but honestly don't know if she is still teaching there.  I also met a couple of crafters who were really interested and are from MA and could go to the Sturbridge meeting without any problem.  I came back with some ideas for Sat programs as well.

Linda Sheff