Hi all, We are home from our trip to New Zealand and Australia and we had a wonderful time. We met some lacemakers and found lacy items in some unusual places. We were invited to Lace Days in both Melbourne and Sidney but unfortunately neither worked out for us. We were able to meet up with Erica and Ian McLeod and Eleanor in Christchurch New Zealand. I had been in touch with Erica before the trip and Eleanor is president of the local lace guild. We had a most pleasant evening and they presented me with a pair of bobbins of Rimu wood with Puka shells for the spangles and a Christchurch Lace Guild pin. Eleanor graciously offered to show us around the next day but we already had plans. In Sidney we met Rae and Edna at the Powerhouse Museum. Edna was busy with a young lady who had just come in and wanted to learn lace. Edna started her on a "try me " pillow and as the morning progressed it was apparent the young lady had a project in mind. It was neat hearing Edna throw out ideas of how this might work with just basic skills. Rae spent about 2 hours with us showing us their collection. They have a wonderful selection of all types of laces available for viewing including some pieces that are very old. They are all in trays that can be removed for study. Before we left Rae gave me a piece of torchon lace that she had made. I was very moved to have been given gifts from these lovely ladies. I mentioned finding lacy items in unusual places. When we were at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, there was an area showing uniforms of various service persons and some of the items they had brought back from the war. I was quite surprised to see in one of the displays a needlelace collar that a WW II nurse had brought back from Bethlehem. I was supposed to meet David in Ballarat the day we went to Sovereign Hill (a recreation of a gold mining town from the 1860's) but my schedule got too full . As we were going through the shops I spotted 4 midlands bobbins in the Creition Shop (a drapery shop - that had men's and woman's clothing and also sewing items) for sale and they became mine. Two of them had a wooden disc with them that had the Sovereign Hill Poppet on it. My last unexpected place was at the old Telegraph Station in Alice Springs. In one of the buildings (the barracks I think) there was a border about chair rail height that had a picture of needle lace doilies on it. All in all we had a wonderful trip and met wonderful people. I want to thank all of the lace ladies that I met and all of those who emailed me ahead of time with suggestions.
Barbara Saltern Nazareth PA USA - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
