Blog & News

I just clicked on the map at the bottom of the home page to see where visitors to our website are located I was astounded to see that we had 8 hits from Taiwan, as well as 2 from Australia!  If you haven't looked at the map, take a moment to check it out.

Jill

Sharon gave a GREAT program yesterday as a continuation of her program from last year on Romanian Point Lace.  The lace is so satisfying because it combines the use of crochet and needlelace, the patterns are easy to work, you can design your own with little effort and the work grows quickly!  What more could you want?

There are several videos on the web that show how to make the cord, but there is one (thank you Susan!) that shows quite clearly how to make the reversible cord which can be unraveled from either end.  Here is the link http://sunshinescreations.vintagethreads.com/2008/07/romanian-lace-tutorial-video.html.  When the web page opens, you will need to scroll down through her written instructions to find the video.  From watching her, I think I could now make the reversible cord, although it is definitely counter-intuitive to crocheters to do the yarn over in a different way for the second part of the stitch.  Enjoy!

Jill

Everyone - has anyone been to Singapore or Indonesia?  I'm leaving on the 31st of May for a trip there.  Does anyone know of any lace or fiber groups over there?

Ring in here and let me know.  I'll be sure to log onto our site and get a red dot for both places!

 

One week and one day from today is the deadline for signing up for Retreat!

NELG Retreat Registration Form 2011.pdf  is the registration form and Retreat descriptive information 2011.pdf  will give you information about the weekend.

I've attended over the last three years, and my experience was great. Both years I came for Friday night (late) and through Sunday.  I took part in the retreat aspect only and did not take a class.  I took some of my unfinished projects and completed two of them last year!  Not only was the weekend beautiful, walks on the grounds, at the beach, being with very creative people, I completed two old projects that became gifts with past holiday season!

We hold a silent auction that benefits our group.  Members donate lace related items - some real treasures!  You write in bids and just before breakfast on Sunday (the bidding can get fierce) the bidding comes to and end. 

The classes are always rewarding.  We arrange to have great teachers so you can experience a new type of lace or expand your knowledge. 

However you chose to enjoy retreat, I will tell you that you will have a great time.

So get your reservations in as soon as possible - MARCH 15th is the deadline!

With my heavy work schedule at this time of year, I was unable to attend the CT Lace gathering yesterday.  I'm sure they had a great time and with the snow in January and February, the CT group had not had a chance to meet.  There was also Lace at Leis's yesterday.

I hope someone logs in to tell of the festivities!! 

If you are looking to make lace today with other lace makers - there is the Sunday Lace Group  that meets in eastern Massachusetts today.

Are you interested in making lace?  Wish to get together with other lace makers?  Then let us know - you can email us at nelginfo@gmail.com so we can look into getting a group together in your area.

I'll admit preparing the website for our visitors has been challenging and most of all fun.  It's been great to work with our President, Jill Hawkins, so that we bring more of what we have to our members.

You may notice a tool bar popping up at the bottom of the screen.  Yes, this will assist members in posting what they like on FaceBook, it will allow our website to be translated into many different languages - and if it bothers you - you can minimize it so it won't bother your veiwing.

The other small yet great improvement, is that next to our name is our Logo and now in most brower address windows - you'll see our logo and not a generic logo.

Thanks for all you do to represent the art of lace!

Enjoy lacing ---  Patty

We have talked about this before, but it came up again at Saturday's meeting in Sturbridge.  Let's show off the lace we have made and give visitors to our website some "eye candy" to whet their appetite and see exactly what kind of thing we do at NELG. 

If you have a photo of a piece of lace you have made (it doesn't have to be recent), please send it to me or Patty Foley for us to add into our Gallery.  If you would like to include a short description of what, when and why we will include that with the picture.  For an idea of what our gallery might look like, please visit IOLI's website:
http://www.internationaloldlacers.org/gallery.html

Looking forward to getting many photos!  Thanks in advance.

Jill

Last weekend at the NELG meeting in Sturbridge Massachusetts, some how we got off on the discussion of postage stamps with lace on them.  I don't remember who brought it up, my apologies. Several days later I spoke with my philatelic dealer about this subject.

Many of us in the U.S. will remember the set of four that came out  in 1987 (Scott 2351-2354).  If we continue to look world wide, there have been quite few stamps that were either for the celebration of lace in its own right or where lace was used in the artwork of the stamp.

So it's given me an idea for a project for the group.  There is a great list at LaceFairy - Lace Stamps.  I've checked the American Topical Association for information regarding our love for lace and found a small bit of information, yet it hasn't been updated in awhile. 

So you may wonder why I have a dealer.  I, like many lace makers, have other interests and one of them is collecting First Day Covers ( for newbies it is the first day a stamp is used).   In my collection, I do have some postage stamps of Lace and now that someone else brought it up, it may be fun, in the down time between projects and redues, that we could assemble some of the stamps. 

Chime in - let me know your thoughts and we could set up a Forum on the subject and collect information for all to read about.

Now here's some think big ideas - present the collection at a stamp show and win a medal, prepare a petition to the Post Office to have another set of stamps issued to celebrate lace ( there must be a anniversary coming up ? ).

Thanks for all each of you do to promote Lace.

Patty

 

What a great meeting we had on Saturday.  It was the regular meeting of NELG held at the Joshua Hyde Library in Sturbridge, Massachusetts.

Jil reported on the various events that are coming up - less than a month to get your registration in for Retreat!  Reports from Winann, our Treasurer, and from Barbara, our Member At Large. Elisabeth reported on our Library and yours truly piped up about our new FaceBook page.

Once the regular meeting was closed, Jill gave a brief presentation on the new Website.  Many thanks were offered to Jill (and me) for a great job done.  We have many other thoughts and ideas ready for the site - Just keep watching.

Carolyn Wetzel began our program on Croatian Lace - it was quite good to learn about three distinct laces made in that region - one was bobbin lace, the other two were needle laces, and one of them was made from the fiber of an aloe plant.  Truly unique.  Thanks Carolyn - great job!

If you haven't been to a meeting in a while - we miss you!  So why not mark your calendar for March 19th - same place - same time!

Sometime yesterday we reached another on-line milestone.  Last weekend I started our Facebook page and we have gone over our 25 Likes to get an official page.  First - Thank You to so many friends, family, and of course, lace makers for helping us out.

I know, I know, I can hear the naysayers, but it's here to stay or this kid from Harvard, Mark Zuckerberg, wouldn't be raking in the bucks.  It is a method of communicating that is being used today. Do you remember when getting a website was the cat's meow?  Do you remember when a mobile phone was the size of a shoebox and had it's own carry case?  How about the "first laptops" - mine weighed in at 25 pounds!

So today NELG will embrace the new technology - if you could hear me I'm so excited!  We will still communicate via phone, email, our website, in person, this blog and now FB and eventually Twitter and any other device to get the word our about Lace! 

Thanks Jill for going along, thanks to our family and friends, and to Lace Makers worldwide.

Patty