My Bobbin Lace Story

Over the last few days I have had a wonderful discussion with Norma on Stitching Sisters about bobbin lace, so I thought I would share what I have done so far.

I was introduced to this craft over 25 years ago by a work collegue at the time. I had to send to England for supplies as there were no suppliers in Australia at that time ( or so I was told). I managed to work 2 samples of various stitches in my lunch hours at work before falling pregnant with my eldest son & shelving eveything for nearly 20 years. As I played around in the textile world more, ( with kids in tow), I realized that it was lace that made my toes curl more than anything, all forms of it. So a few years ago I decided that everthing I did the following year would involve lace in some way. Come January, I recieved in my letterbox a news letter from my local craft store (now sadly no more) advertizing none other than bobbin lace classes!

So I signed up for 2 terms of lessons, then had a few more private lessons, and finally joined the local lace group which meet once a month. Through this group I discovered the Australin Lace Guild & found out about Lace Days at Linnwood.

So below are my total pieces of bobbin lace that I have made over the years ( minus one that I gave to a dear friend). These first ones are my first samples, going from right to left. My first sample was in Perle thread, then progressed to tatting thread which is much finer. In the far left samples I learnt spiders & gimps.

This next ones show various grounds, spiders, diamonds & more ginps.

This next one shows more spiders, various fans, a footside edge and square tallies.

And this final one is my square corner sample which is mounted to some fine cotton voile.

At the moment my pillow has this snail trail on it in black Gutermann silk machine thread. I am totally bored to tears with it but really must get it finished & off my pillow so I can do some more. I think I will have to go back to the beginning and start again as it has been so long since I have done most of the grounds, spiders and tallies that I have forgotten how to do them. Maybe after the wedding.