Yes, there is a point ground lace on the Ipswich (Massachusetts) pillow at the Smithsonian. It was being worked on by a 90+ year old lace maker in the 1860s. She had worked Ipswich lace during the late 1700s on the same lace pillow while living in Ipswich, MA. Not surprisingly she was still using the equipment she brought with her from Ipswich when she got married and moved to Hallowell, Maine. It is hard to know where she got her point ground pricking, but since point ground lace was very common in the 1860s she could have received that pricking from anywhere. Or maybe she made it herself from a snippet of lace? We don't know. I think the extra rows of pinholes makes it possible to make the lace anywhere from 1 1/2 cm to 3 1/2 cm wide. Whether the lace maker used wirkiepin or sewing edge would not make a difference on the pricking, just the number of bobbins she used. Hope this helps. -Karen F ârom Devon:â
On Sat, Dec 9, 2017 at 2:19 PM, DevonThein <devonth...@gmail.com> wrote: > Karen writes: > > Ipswich Massachusetts lace is NOT a point ground lace. From a distance it > might look like it, but as it now has been pointed out, the grounds are > Torchon variations and Kat stitch. The only time point ground was used in > the 22 samples we have from 1790 is as a filling in a motif. You may want > to see them in my book The Lace Samples From Ipswich, Massachusetts > 1789-1790. It is available through some lace dealers as well as Amazon > > > > But, isnât the lace on the pillow at the Smithsonian, made by the 90 year > old lacemaker in 1860, who had worked lace in the 1780s and 90s in Ipswich, > MA a point ground lace? This conversation started out as a discussion of > working point ground lace without pins, which this pillow appears to > confirm. What are we looking at? > > > > Was the 90 year old lacemaker well into her dotage and essentially winging > it, perhaps for a demonstration? > > I have been working the Running River and am planning to do it at the Bust > Craftacular in Greenpoint, Brooklyn tomorrow. (Brooklyn Expo Center, 11-7.) > The Brooklyn Lace Guild will have a booth. I was thinking of trying out > the idea of working pinless in the point ground. I share Lynâs confusion > about why there are two rows of pin holes that are not used. I, for one, > think that the 90 year old lacemaker should have made the row that she used > as her edge row a winkie pin row, and the row to the left of that her edge > row. I think that the winkie pin (hope that is the right term for pinning > to the side of the pair when returning to the edge) would help to align > the entire row. > > Devon > > > > > > - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
