I'm Ruth from Dubuque, Iowa, USA. I joined Arachne last fall following my first IOLI convention in Rockford, IL. I learned about Arachne from Anita Hansen from Cedar Rapids, IA who belongs to the Doris Southard Lace Guild which has members from several towns in Eastern Iowa. I am also a member of that group now though I live about 70 miles away from Cedar Rapids where many meetings are held.
I first learned the basics of making bobbin lace in a class with Susan Groh at a cross stitch festival in Des Moines, IA in the late 1990s. I returned home, sure that I was the only person in my city who knew anything at all about bobbin lacemaking. Two years later, a friend and I began to work our way through beginning bobbin lace books by Bridget Cook and Geraldine Stott. We still get together for a few hours most weeks to make lace. We started with torchon, of course, but we have branched out into other laces as our collection of BL books has grown. We work out our problems together though we are seldom working on the same projects now. So the two of us were the only lacemakers in town to our knowledge. After a while, we read an article about a local lacemaker in the newspaper, and we found her. She had learned to make Withof lace while living in Europe. She told us about the Doris Southard lace group, and our lacemaking circle grew dramatically. Last fall we met an experienced lacemaker from nearby Galena, IL. We Dubuque area lacemakers meet one evening a month in the café of our local Borders Books store. We have two new lace recruits who also come now, bringing our little group up to six people. It's always fun when shoppers stop to ask us what we are doing. The most common question seems to be, "Is that tatting?" I have found our Arachne lace list to be very interesting and helpful. I am amazed at the amount of knowledge our members share. Thanks to all of you. --Ruth On 4/14/09 7:42 AM, "Sue" <[email protected]> wrote: > I joined a little longer ago than that, perhaps almost 3 years now, but from > word of mouth from one other lacemaker, (just about the time we were told > our teacher was going to retire and no one was taking her place). I > couldn't quite see how you could get involved in lacemaking via the > internet, <g> I have learned fast. > > I did search the internet for things lace related then and found mention of > arachne through the international old lacers (if my memory serves me well). > I also joined the bobbinlace site but find useful and helpful information > and advice more more through you all than that one. I really enjoy most of > the different topics of conversation. > Long may you all continue to chat and to make lace. > Sue T, Dorset UK > > I would be really interested to hear from the newest members of Arachne! > Who's been here for just weeks or months? > Why did THEY join? How did they find us? > So many of us stumbled upon it in the Search box, but maybe there are > others that came by word of mouth or flyer? > > Just wondering... > Debbie in Florida > [email protected] > > - > To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: > unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to > [email protected] - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]
