Hi All, Guess I'll be first with a report on Ithaca. Sumac and I had a wonderful time! We're getting better at the drive too, it took us just under six hours each way. No unscheduled side trips this time! And we've been taking note of places to eat and rest areas so we can plan that a little better. The road doesn't have many amenities right by the highway. Also the highway we were on longest is not smooth! I thought it would be and planned to baste some of my cordonet down while riding. Surprisingly I got a little done during our drive through Vermont and then put it away!
Anyway, we got there before the Friday night gathering! They serve some food and we saw Tamara, Devon and lots of other arachnes/ lace makers that we've met before. We left a little early because I had to get back to the room to baste more cordonet down. Saturday morning is for shopping though I had time to finish the cordonet first <G>. Many wonderful things to buy and lots of happy shoppers. They also have lots of things to raffle off so I spent a while deciding where to put my tickets. After I went out for a smoke to "clear" my head I went back in and realized I hadn't looked at the exhibit pieces yet. It was nice to look and not want everything! Lots of beautiful pieces made by the lace makers attending. A Honiton wedding veil really caught my eye. Unfortunately I can't remember who made it. Does someone else? It was lovely! After noon we went to Devon's talk which was wonderful. It was on the Robber Baron's and their lace collections - the lace their wives collected. I'm not sure if Robber Baron's is a world wide term but my hands are too tired to explain it right now. They were collecting circa 1900 and Devon had wonderful slides of many pieces of lace, the collector's and slides explain certain terms further. Then classes from 2 to 5. I took Point de Gaze with Irma Osterman. She's the NL Editor for the IOLI Bulletin. She was a wonderful teacher and also brought some pieces of PdG from her collection. Exquisite!! The Brok 80/2 thread was the finest I've used in NL so far so I spent most of the day and a half of classes working on my practice piece but I did get some of the project spaces filled in. It was wonderful having a teacher there to suggest when to make the stiches a little tighter or looser. The banquet was great fun and we got to know some new people there. Lenka's talk on wire lace was very interesting. She had slides of paintings with gold or silver embellishment and some may have been wire lace! She also showed a number of her pieces which are spectacular!! Here's her URL www.silverpinstudio.com I was also taken with the dragonfly neck pieces she had for sale, they were about 6" (15cm) wide! More class the next day and Monday for some. It was wonderful to see all the things people were making. Lots of fabulous butterflies in different techniques. In Cathy Belleville's Rosa Libra class she had a box full of flowers of all different colors in the technique! All in all a fabulous weekend! My DHs light worked great too! I'd taken a magnifier and two lights to try out. The table light (similar to an OTT light) worked the best. Especially after I put it on the 3" high cigar box I keep my NL stuff in. After doing that I wasn't so hunched over. I do need to print out the exercise suggestions from arachne and put them *in* the box! I do get tightened up when I do NL for so many hours though not so bad as last year! I'm sending this to share the fun and also to inspire some of you to go to the various events available. I didn't go for years - too far, too expensive, too something - and it turns out it is possible to share in all the fun <G>. Jane in Vermont, USA who got to meet some lurkers too, maybe some of you should un-lurk with tales of Ithaca <G>. [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
