4th CLOTH

This is the 4th. cloth I am doing from the first class with Karen. It is going to be the bottom of either a 3 or 4 long piece depending on how much room I have to hang it in a bedroom when I get home. I have decided to make a book with all the samples from the Extending Embellishing class I am doing now plus some small pieces from the first one.

It is put together and some pieces just sitting there not attached. Actually last night I sat and basted all the areas down to the under cloth which is the top of the lace piece. It must have been a runner as both ends were in the bag of linens I bought recently. This end had a good 12 inches of nice linen attached so was perfect for the last cloth.

In the first pic I had laid a doily down but after looking at the pics I did not like it so took it off and found a smaller one that I soaked in Oxy and it is nice and white this morning. I think the smaller white one will be better.

CORONATION CORD

About a month or so ago Mary Corbet had a wonderful article on coronation cord and how it was disappearing from use and could hardly be found anywhere. She did say that Lacis in Calif. had some and that was about the only place she had found it.
I thought I would order some to try it but just never got around to it being busy with my contemporary embroidery classes.
Last week I was lucky enough to pick up a few linens at our usual thurs. morning market. What intrigued me so much is that the doiley had been crocheted around coronation cord and a second piece had used the cord as a design along with embroidery.

Friday morning I read Mary's newsletter she posts daily and again she is talking about the cord. She had ordered some from Lacis called white but when received it it had beige threads around the tops. I was very glad I had not wasted my money.

There were 2 identical doilys and 1 possible dresser scarf. I bought them and the scarf didn't intrigue me except for the cord. That afternoon I sat and unpicked the cord (it had been hand basted down) and from one end I had about 2 yards of white cord. I still have 2 other areas to unpick and will do that and then use some in my new embroidery class.

I tried to get a real closeup of the doiley so you can see how wonderfully this person crocheted around the cording to come up with this beautiful piece.

PICS FROM 3rd. CLOTH

apparently the pics did not come through. I will try again.

3rd CLOTH

I am finished with the 3rd. cloth and have learned a tremendous amount and have really enjoyed myself. A nice change for me from cq and all the colors.

The whole cloth is finished except I have the lace in the upper right corner not sewn down yet. It is a continuation piece of the pretty piece sewn on the cloth. I actually bought this from someone I did not know at the Connecticut retreat last year. It had 2 very pretty ends and then narrowed in to a long piece about 4" across. was a beautiful piece and hated to cut it. You will see in the pics that I showed it going 2 different ways. I have decided to have it go to the corner and then will sew it and the little puff down.

We start our new class next week with Karen Ruane of Contemporary Embroidery. If you are not aware of her blog do yourself a treat and go see her wonderful work. words cannot describe. http://www.karenruane.blogspot.com

ASSORTED PUFFS

The above are puffs that I sat and made yesterday. It was a dull, rainy day and I spent it all working on the puffs. They are a lot of fun. I made two kinds. The one is where you do French knots all around a large circle then draw it in like you would when making yoyos. This way when gathered all the knots are on top.

The other is cutwork done first then a small piece of whatever lace you want is put in the middle then gathered around like above. This time the cutwork and lace appear on top. I also did French Knots around the cutwork and really liked that look.

This class has been wonderful and I can't wait for the next one (Extended Embellishment) to start next week.

LACE COLLARS

We are having company coming for dinner tonight and I have been finally sorting and putting away (into my sewing messy area - will keep the door closed) the lace pieces I bought last Sat. at the flea market.

I mentioned there was a bag marked lace collars but it also had other things in it and I pulled out a few things I knew I wouldn't use and gave them back to the gal so she could sell them to someone else. Still really had no idea until I had soaked, washed and let them dry that there actually were some very pretty collars in there.

I have posted some pics and a closeup pic of the one collar that I just love. It is an heirloom sewing one where all the individual pieces have been joined with entredeux to make the collar. I used to do a lot of that type of sewing when my grandaughter was little. There also was a beautiful circle of Battenburg lace that I am sure I will never cut up. Some things I cannot let myself cut. Also there was a crocheted piece made as a liner for probably a silver bread tray. I show one of the bunch of small coasters and the pile beside it of 11 in all. I have come to the conclsion lately that these were made in such amounbts to be used as coasters rather than doilies. I do not think they would make such an amount of small ones as doilies.

I also recently found 6 more identical ones to the ones I showed awhile back when I was making the centre of the crazy quilt with the Queens on them. Must have been a popular pattern with all the tatters.

EXTRAVAGANZA FLEA MARKET

This was the weekend of the Renninger's Extravaganza flea market. I went on sat. morning and found a few things but what tickled me more then anything was a little vase of flowers made out of shells. They were so unique, hand painted where necessary to define a flower and made by someone with a lot of patience. The flowers were only 5.00 and she said the vase can go with it. I didn't take a good picture of it but it is Czech glass in the pinwheel pattern. The vase alone is worth more then 5.00. I have a large silver compote filled with shells in the sunroom so I put this little vase right with it. I can't stop looking at them.

The booth where I found this I also found another great stash of lace and her prices were very reasonable. Lots of beautiful little pieces and a bagfull of old collars. I spent the last 2 days oxying and bleaching again and have another stash. I will use them in the project I am working on right now. I am working on cloth #3 and will show it to you in a day or two.

I should have added that I was in our Publix supermarket today buying a few things and I picked up a copy of Flea Market Finds and was leafing through it while waiting and what did I see but a huge 5-6 page feature on Renninger's flea market - precisely their Extravaganza weekend. I was going to buy it just to show then looked at the price of 9.99 and thought what has happened to magazines. You can now get a subrscription to many for 10 - 12.00 per year and yet they want 9.99 for one.
i put it back and thought you go there every weekend almost so you don't need the article. Rather spend the $10.00 on more lace - he he. I probably should buy it as a memento as it had a lot of references to Mount Dora in there. Will let you know if I give in.