On February 29, our intern Alex worked on the jacket for the first time. Here are her hands stitching a peapod.

At that session we also had another new embroiderer, Myrna. Melanie Anne decided that the state of Maine was under-represented among the embroidery corps, so she persuaded her friend to come down with her. Myrna is pretty new to this type of embroidery so she practiced for the morning and then worked reverse chain outlines.

The last picture for today is of Melanie Anne stitching a thistle top in Gilt Sylke Twist bisse.

The office was a little beehive today, with five volunteers joining us. The hand sewing on three shirts was finished plus part of a fourth was done; a great deal of stab-stitching on a pair of breeches and a cassock was also accomplished. Meredith spent part of her birthday volunteering; we wish her many happy returns of the day. I got a phone lesson from Rich on managing the new forum, and Robbin volunteered to help moderate, which offer I immediately and gratefully accepted. Welcome to everyone who signed up, and if you haven’t checked it out yet, please go see.

I was planning to address some of the questions in the recent comments, but Robbin has done an admirable and really thorough job. Thanks, Robbin. I was a little swamped, with opening and then a come-to-my-house holiday in the same weekend.

The bottom line on the session schedules is - we’re flexible. I am scheduling the lacers carefully to make sure that on each lacer’s first day one of our two mentors/moderators/detail people is able to come. Robbin and Carolyn have generously offered to help us all stay on the same page and keep the lace looking as much like one lacer made it as is possible. Other than knowing what your first day will be, we’re open to people coming in early, leaving early, skipping a day, coming later, what have you. If you have specific concerns, just let me know. If you’d like to come for only part of a weekend, let me know so I can try to get another lacer to work the pillow the other days. But really, not to worry. These weekends are supposed to be a special treat for you to devote uninterrupted time to work you love to do and enjoy a community of people working together to accomplish a major goal. Be easy.

Hey, we have another toy! I mean tool. But aren’t they the same, really? Rich has set up a forum for us. Look at the top right column for the link, and register and start a conversation. Thanks to Kar who asked for this opportunity, and thanks to Rich who jumped on the idea and made it happen. I wrote to him this afternoon, that if anyone had told me last year that by now I’d be blogging and have a forum and doing all these other techno-things I’m doing I simply wouldn’t have believed it. It’s good to learn new things.

I’m looking forward to Friday and Saturday, when Carolyn and Robbin will be setting things up for beginning the lace. I should have some handsome pictures, too. The hurdles are falling one by one.

The bird on the blog header is indeed the same as the bird on the jacket, as Mary says in the comments. The bird on the jacket will be a little smaller, though, and the stitches may be a little different. Since we traced and Tricia worked that sample we’ve received more detailed photos of the original. Last I talked with Tricia about the bird she was musing that there might be something more interesting and complicated going on than she’d first thought. She has to study the photos some more, and maybe consult with Ms North at the V&A. I can’t wait to see what she finds out. Of course we’ll share with you too.

Speaking of sharing, tonight I have pictures of Robbin (of the laptop donation) and one of her treasures. Robbin brought in the piece of antique Honiton lace that was her wedding veil.

I learned that Honiton lace takes its name from the place in the west of England where it has been traditionally made. Honiton is worked in pieces or motifs and sewn to a net ground. Long ago the net was made by hand, but the piece Robbin has dates from around 1900 and the net is likely machine made. Robbin explained that Honiton was made by the cottage system, where workers made individual lace motifs which were then put together to make big pieces of lace. A worker might make one motif, the small flower with leaves perhaps, over and over and over and over.

Robbin bought this piece of lace intending it for her veil and then shopped for a dress to go with it, like the dedicated textile lover she is. Here’s a detail of the veil.

Robbin also brought her lace pillow with her sample lace still affixed. She thought I would like to see it that way, and take pictures for the blog. She was right. I was fascinated to see the lace on the pricking with some of the pins still in, and the bobbins still attached. Robbin was careful to mention that these bobbins are not the kind recommended for working the sample, but she has lots of them and not lots of the recommended (Dutch) kind. They worked tolerably well, she thought, and was willing to put up with their drawbacks as it was less trouble than hunting up enough pairs of the other.

These are the lace bobbins with spangles - bobbin spangles, not the kind of spangles that will be worked into the lace. Yeesh, this is confusing.

We had a new embroiderer on Monday. It was me! I stitched a plain, single-color leaf in #325. I chose the location carefully; there aren’t that many single leaves left; they’re one of the “training motifs” we’ve been using as first work for those new to the jacket. (The other training motif is the bud/rosehip - there are precious few of those left too.)

Carol S was surprised, when she heard, that this was the first time I’d worked on the real jacket. It wasn’t on purpose, just sort of a combination of things. In the early sessions there was a lot of organizing and other things to take care of, plus there were no free frames. Several times I worked a practice bud on a doodle cloth to warm up and get my work approved, but something else would always come up that I needed to do. Then, after a little while, the idea of starting on the real piece began to loom like a mountain in my imagination. The last thought stalling me was that it would be so fun that I would be tempted to work on it as much as possible, and there really is an awful lot of other stuff that has to get done too.

The other day I decided it was time. I picked carefully - this leaf will be under the collar when the jacket is finished - just in case my work wasn’t up to snuff. But it actually went very well. And I think I was right - it will be hard to ignore the siren call of the frames in the cupboard and make shirts, sort shoes, and organize the clothing for the March 23 opening of the museum!

I wasn’t going to mention it, but Wendy and Robbin and some of the others threatened insisted. My next project is a trefoil. There are plenty of those left.

Thanks to Wendy for these pictures.

Both Robbin and Wendy answered my call for more information on spangles on bobbins. See Robbin’s comment on yesterday’s post. Wendy emailed me with pictures; her note is below.

Jill,
I have attached two photos for the “Spangles” discussion.
They show lace bobbins from my collection ( I have been collecting tools for over 25 years) with 2 spangles that Mark made! I thought it would help to give a sense of scale.

The book Lace and Bobbins by T. L. Huetson first published in the USA in 1973 has several chapters devoted to the lace bobbin – the definition given in the book is as follows:

“ The purpose of these spangles was threefold: they added a little extra weight to the bobbins so that as they hung down on the pillow the thread had a little tension; bobbins not being used at a particular moment were pushed away to either side of the pillow and the spangle prevented them from rolling back and getting in the way of the other bobbins the worker was using; and they helped the bobbins to grip in the spool of the bobbin winder when they were being wound with thread”

In the world of bobbin collecting there are a wide variety of types and styles – some of which are; wooden, bone, carved, inlaid, bead inlaid, church window and inscribed. Inscriptions include names, engagements, sentiments and executions. Bobbins with certain types of spangles are highly sought after. An example would be a bobbin with a “Kitty Fisher”, a grey colored bead with white dots that have blue centers thought to resemble the eyes of the famous actress. The large bead in the center of the circle of beads is sometimes referred to as a “pompadour”. The square cut beads on either side of the center bead are often “square cut”, they help to prevent the bobbin from moving about when not being used.

Hope this helps!

Wendy

Thanks to both for helping a great deal.